BMS, HVAC and TAB against a fixed CAT A date
Commissioning software for office buildings where the BMS, HVAC and life safety systems all have to prove out before practical completion.
A commercial office building lives or dies on its M&E: chillers, AHUs, VAV boxes, BMS points and fire alarm cause-and-effect all have to be pre-functionally checked, functionally tested and balanced before the building is handed to a tenant fit-out team. Deskely holds every system, asset and test in one register with the Cx process and PC gate built in.
- Systems
- HVAC, BMS, electrical, fire
- Process
- PFC, FPT, IST, TAB
- Gate
- Practical completion
- Credits
- LEED / BREEAM Cx
Choose your project type
The problem
Every M&E subcontractor commissions its own system and calls it done.
The mechanical contractor balances the air. The controls contractor points-checks the BMS. The fire alarm installer signs its own cause-and-effect matrix. None of it is tested together until the CxA turns up asking for an integrated systems test that nobody planned time for.
When status lives in separate O&M binders and disconnected spreadsheets, the developer cannot answer a simple question: is this floor actually ready for CAT A handover.
Deskely puts every asset and every test in one register with one status model, so PC readiness is derived from signed records instead of assembled the week before handover.
Setting up the register
AHUs, chillers, VAV boxes and BMS points are tagged assets with their own test set.
Mechanical schedules, electrical single lines, BMS point lists and fire alarm cause-and-effect matrices are parsed into a reviewed register, so every damper, valve and point carries its drawing reference from day one.
Pre-functional checklists, functional performance tests and TAB reports are templated once per asset type and instantiated across every floor.
That structure is what allows one floor to reach PC while the shell and core team is still working two floors above.
Functional performance testing
The Cx authority signs off on evidence, not on a walk-through and a handshake.
Functional performance tests, integrated systems tests and seasonal commissioning runs are recorded against the asset and the sequence of operations they are proving, with values and setpoints captured where the work happens.
Fire alarm cause-and-effect testing, smoke control activation and lift recall interfaces are held as their own record set, because they usually gate the fire strategy sign-off as well as PC.
Open findings from FPT stay attached to the asset with an owner, which stops a system being marked complete on the strength of a tick box.
Handover and soft landings
The building is handed to a facilities team that will run it for the next twenty-five years.
O&M manuals, as-built schedules, warranty registers and commissioning certificates all need to sit against the same asset that the FM team will search for on day one of occupation.
Because the dossier builds continuously against the register, a soft landings handover pack is an export rather than a scramble in the final week of the programme.
Every signature keeps a name, role and timestamp, which is what LEED and BREEAM Cx credit submissions and defects liability disputes both rely on later.
Seasonal commissioning
A BMS point-checked in October still has to prove its cooling sequence in July.
The Cx process specified under the BSRIA and CIBSE Commissioning Codes does not end at practical completion: heating, cooling and free-cooling sequences on the AHUs and chillers have to be re-proven under the seasonal load they were designed for, often eight or twelve months after the tenant has already moved in.
Landlords and Cx authorities lose track of seasonal commissioning obligations precisely because the team that ran the original FPTs has demobilised by the time the second season arrives, and the outstanding tests live in a closing report nobody reopens.
Deskely keeps seasonal commissioning as an open, dated obligation against the same AHU, chiller and BMS sequence tags used at PC, so a winter test that was deferred in a summer handover shows up as outstanding rather than forgotten.
Evidence
The office fit-out dossier
A commercial fit-out closes on a set of test sheets and balancing reports tied to floor and tenant, not a narrative. The dossier below is what a landlord or occupier actually checks before signing practical completion.
Air balancing report (AABC/NEBB proforma)
Each terminal unit and diffuser delivers design airflow within tolerance, floor by floor
After ductwork pressure test, before TAB sign-off
Water balancing report
Chilled and heating water circuits achieve design flow rates at each coil and riser
After flushing and before controls commissioning
Fire alarm cause-and-effect matrix sign-off
Every detector, call point and interlock triggers the correct output against the approved matrix
Prior to fire officer witness test
Smoke control integrated systems test record
AOVs, smoke curtains and pressurisation fans operate together on the correct fire scenario
Late-stage integrated test, ahead of practical completion
BMS point-to-point verification schedule
Every BMS point reads and commands correctly against the I/O schedule
Before functional performance testing
LEED/BREEAM commissioning report
Design intent, functional testing and O&M training satisfy the credit's documentary requirements
Compiled for certification submission after handover
How it runs
From shell and core to a tenant moving in.
Office fit-out and base build programmes reward structure set up before the M&E install starts, because PC is the point where every missing test becomes a delay.
- 01
Model the systems
HVAC, BMS, electrical, fire and life safety modelled as subsystems, each with its own completion path.
- 02
Parse the asset set
Mechanical schedules, BMS point lists and cause-and-effect matrices drafted into a reviewed asset register.
- 03
Template the test set
Pre-functional checklists, FPT, TAB and IST defined once per asset type, instantiated across every floor.
- 04
Gate PC on signed evidence
Practical completion issued per floor from signed records, with snagging categorised and carried into the defects liability period.
FAQ
Questions about Commercial offices scopes.
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