Most installers have tried one of two things for their DNO applications. Either they've done them in-house, juggling PDF forms, LOAs, SLDs, and DNO portals across every job, or they've outsourced to a service that quietly disappears for weeks at a time, leaving them to chase updates by email.
We built something different. A live software portal where every application is tracked in real time, combined with a team of real DNO experts actually doing the applications. Both halves matter. Here's why.
The Portal: Every Application, Visible, All the Time
Log in to your dashboard and you can see the exact stage of every application you've submitted with us. Not "in progress" or "with the team", but which specific stage of the DNO process each job is at:
- Preparing: we're gathering documents and drafting the SLD
- Awaiting LOA: waiting on the signed Letter of Authority from your customer
- Submitted: the application is with the DNO, reference number received
- With DNO Engineer: under design review
- Export Limit Review: DNO has proposed a lower export limit that needs your call
- Approved: connection agreement issued, ready for commissioning
- Pending Install / Commissioning / Commissioned: post-approval workflow
Every status change is timestamped. Every document, from the LOA and SLD to the invoice, offer letter, commissioning form and approval, is attached to the application. Nothing lives in someone's inbox.
Two-way messaging on every application
Each application has its own comment thread. If the DNO comes back with a question, we post it in the portal and you get notified. If you need to flag a change to the customer's system, you post it there. No lost email chains, no "which application were we talking about?", no phone tag.
Documents where you need them
Approval letter comes in on Friday afternoon? It's in the portal the moment we receive it. Commissioning form ready for the engineer on site? Downloadable from any phone. Signed offer letter needed back from the customer? Uploaded once, filed against the job forever.
Every application, every document, every status change, in one place for you and your whole team. Not buried in someone's Outlook.
The Team: Qualified Engineers, Not Admin Templates
Software alone doesn't get applications approved. A dashboard that says "Submitted" is only useful if what was submitted is actually correct, and getting a G99 correct on the first pass is a technical engineering job, not a form-filling one.
Every application we handle is reviewed by real DNO application experts before it goes to the DNO. That means:
- SLDs drawn to DNO standard: protection settings, isolators, metering positions, G100 arrangements where export limits apply. Not generic templates copied between jobs.
- Per-phase calculations verified: the routing between G98 and G99 is checked properly, not assumed from the inverter nameplate
- Combined generation and storage declared correctly: batteries, EV chargers, and multiple inverters all totalled and presented the way the DNO expects
- Cutout, supply, and MPAN details cross-checked: mismatches here are the single most common reason for rejection
- DNO-specific quirks handled: Northern Powergrid, UKPN, National Grid, SSEN, ENWL and SPEN each have their own preferences. We know them.
We chase the DNO. You don't.
When an application sits too long with a design engineer, we chase. We track how many working days each application has been at each stage and follow up before you have to think about it. The portal shows you when we last chased and what the DNO said, so you're never in the dark.
Export limit negotiations
If the DNO comes back proposing a lower export limit than requested, we don't just forward the email. We tell you what your realistic options are (accept, appeal, redesign to G100, or negotiate) and we handle whichever route you choose.
Why Software Alone Isn't Enough
Plenty of platforms will let you submit DNO forms yourself. Some of them are quite polished. The problem is that submitting the form is the easy part. The hard parts are:
- Knowing when a job needs G100 arrangements and how to present them
- Getting the SLD right the first time so the design engineer doesn't reject it
- Reading between the lines of a DNO email that says "please clarify the earthing arrangement"
- Knowing which questions are worth pushing back on and which to just answer
- Judging whether an export limit offer is worth accepting or fighting
None of that is software. It's experience: over 3,230 applications across every DNO in the country, and ten years of learning what each design engineer is looking for.
Why Experts Alone Aren't Enough Either
The flip side is just as real. There are one-person consultancies who know DNO applications inside out but work entirely by email. They're excellent at the technical side, but you have no visibility into what stage your jobs are at, no consistent place to find documents, and no way for the rest of your team to see what's happening without asking.
That works for one or two jobs. It falls apart when you're doing twenty a month.
What the Combination Actually Delivers
Marry the two and you get something neither can deliver alone:
- Fill in a short form once, per job. The portal collects everything we need, with no back-and-forth emails asking for the MPAN
- Engineers take it from there. SLD, LOA, application, submission, chasing, approval, offer letter
- You watch it happen live. Every stage, every document, every DNO update, visible to you and your team the moment it happens
- Fixed prices. G98s from £50+VAT, G99s from £125+VAT. No surprise costs when things get complicated
- Bulk-friendly. If you're doing dozens or hundreds a month, we integrate with your CRM and offer retainer pricing
Real Numbers from Real Installers
Installers who move from in-house DNO management to our portal typically tell us the same things:
- The office admin time spent on DNO applications drops by 80–90%
- First-pass approvals go up, often from around 60% in-house to over 95% with us
- Customer questions like "when will my system be turned on?" get answered from the portal in seconds instead of triggering a two-day investigation
- Retainer clients running 50+ jobs a month spend less than an hour a week on DNO logistics
The Bottom Line
A portal without engineers is a database. Engineers without a portal is a black box. We've built both, deliberately, because the combination is what installers actually need: visibility on your end, quality on ours.
The next application you submit, you'll see it hit "Submitted" within hours. You'll watch it move through the DNO's workflow in real time. You'll get notified the moment approval lands. And you'll have real DNO application experts doing the actual work behind every stage: not an AI, not a form-filler, not a template.
That's the difference. And that's what makes it work.