NATE Consumer Contractor Connection (C3)

Become a C3 Contractor

• Free listing at ww.hvacradvice.com that

receives 5,000 visits monthly from

homeowners seeking services of NATE-

certified technicians

• Helps you to track the status of

technicians to help them maintain NATE

certification

Become a C3 Contractor

• To register as a C3 contractor, complete the application

located at

http://natex.org/site/395/Contractors/Consumer-

Connection-C3

• The application is located under the “Contractors” tab

then the “Consumer Connection (C3)” link.

• You can add each of your certified technicians by

including their NATE ID number on the application, or by

linking them later after you apply.

Become a C3 Contractor

• To qualify, a contractor must have at least 25 percent of its

eligible service and installation technicians NATE-certified.

• You may then register to be listed on the NATE C3 website

with your company information and the technicians' NATE

ID numbers. There are 3 levels of participation:– NATE Basic Contractor: At least 25 percent of eligible technicians must be

NATE-certified.

– NATE Standard Contractor: At least 50 percent of eligible technicians must

be NATE-certified.

– NATE Quality Circle Contractor: At least 75 percent of eligible technicians

must be NATE-certified.

NATE Contractor Search www.hvacradvice.com

Using the C3 Admin

• Once approved, you will have access to your C3 page.

• Click on the C3 Administrator tab on your myNATE page to

access your C3 account.

• Here you can update your company’s information including:

– Company Profile

– Company Overview—this information will change what is

displayed on NATE’s consumer site, www.hvacradvice.com.

– Employees—to check status of individual technicians or add or

delete technicians

Company Profile

• The company profile is basic contact information for your company.

• You can edit this information at anytime but clicking the edit profile

button in the lower right hand corner.

• All information on this page can be changed except the Company

Name, C3 Number, and Approved Date.

• The radius will affect who sees your listing when a consumer

searches their zip code. Their zip code must fall within this radius to

be shown in their search results.

• If your company has a name change, please contact NATE, and we

can make those changes for you.

Company Profile

Company Overview

• The Company Overview tab allows you to add additional information

that will be displayed on NATE’s consumer website.

• Enter the total number of technicians for your company.

– This should be the total of all Service/Installation technicians. Administrative

or sales staff do not need to be counted here.

– The site will calculate the percent certified based the number of certified

technicians listed on the “Employees” tab divided by the Total Employees

field.

• Your company needs at least 25% of their employees certified to be

displayed on the site.

Company Overview

Adding an Employee

• To add an employee, click the “Link Employee” button on

the Employees tab.

• Enter the employee’s NATE ID and last name. Then click

“Find Technician.”

• Verify that it is the correct employee, then click “Link

Technician to C3” to add them to your account.

• If search finds the wrong technician, you can click “Back to

Technician Search” to try again, or “Cancel” to bring you

back to the C3 page.

• Note—Adding of technicians is not automatic. The C3 Admin must

login to add technicians to the account.

Employees

Adding an Employee

Adding an Employee

Removing an Employee

• If there is an employee on your list that no longer works for

you, you can remove them by clicking the Trashcan icon

under the Actions column on the far-right side.

• This will open a window to confirm that you wish to remove

them from you listing.

• Clicking OK will remove them from your listing.

• Technicians can also remove themselves from a list through

their personal logins.

Removing an Employee

Checking an Individual Employee’s Status

• To check on a single employee’s certification status and

continuing education hours, click on the magnifying glass

under the far-right actions column.

• This will bring up window that will show all their

certifications, expiration dates, and current amount of CEHs.

Checking An Individual Employee’s Status

Checking an Individual Employee’s Status

Checking All Employees’ Statuses

• You can also check all of your employees’ statuses at once.

• To do so, go to your Reports tab.

• From the drop down menu select the report “C3 Technician

Certification.”

• This will then run the report. All of your certified technicians

will be listed with their expiration dates and current CEHs.

• You can export this report into an Excel or PDF file by

clicking on the disk icon and selecting your desired file

format.

Checking all Employee Statuses

Recertification Basics

Recertification Basics

• A NATE certified technician has two ways to recertify, using CEHs or

re-taking their specialty exam.

• Cost of renewal using CEHs is $25 for the first specialty, and then $5

for each additional specialty.

• The cost for renewal is dependent on your exam provider. There is

not a unique exam for recertification.

• Like your initial certifications, service specialties award their

installation counterparts for free, and Air to Air Heat Pump awards its

AC counterparts for free.

• For example, to renew HPSV, HPIN, ACSV, and ACIN you would

either only pay $25 with CEHs, or just take the HPSV exam

CEHS

• CEHS:

– Requires 16 hours of continuing education courses

– Must be technical in nature (not sales/human resources)

– Must be related to the specialty in some way

– NATE gives hour for hour credit, a 4 hour courses would award 4

CEHs

– Courses do not need to be NATE recognized

• NATE recognized courses are pre-approved and will automatically be

added to your record when your trainer submits the roster to NATE. No

delays in NATE reviewing the course.

• Non-recognized courses would need to be submitted to NATE for review

and approval

Testing

• Testing

– Need to re-take the specialty exam you were previously certified

in to renew it.

– You do not need to re-take the Core if you are testing before you

expire or during your grace period.

– Contact a local testing organization to schedule a testing session.

Same process as the initial certification.

Expiration

• Once a technician’s certification expires, you have 120 day

grace period in which a technician can still recertify using

either of the two methods previously mentioned.

• If a technician does not recertify in their 120 day grace

period, then a technician would need to re-take both the

Core and a specialty exam.

Submitting Technician Course Hours

How to Submit Course Hours

• Any NATE recognized courses a technician takes should be

automatically tracked after their instructor uploads a course

roster.

• However, a technician can submit proof of training for any

non-NATE recognized course they take on their myNATE

profile. Technicians can also submit proof of training for

NATE recognized courses if they haven’t been tracked.

• Examples of non-NATE recognized courses would be things

like training to maintain a state license, electrical license

classes, or OSHA safety training.

How to Submit Course Hours

• Fax to 703-527-2316

• Email to recertify@natex.org

• Mail to NATE, 2111 Wilson Blvd, Ste 510, Arlington, VA

22201

– Be sure to include NATE ID number

– Provide a Certificate of Attendance from the training provider,

including your name, class hours, contact information and course

description.

• Upload to myNATE account at www.myNATE.org.

How to Upload Course Hours

• To submit a training course the first step is for the technician

to sign on to their myNATE account at www.myNATE.org.

• The technician would then want to go to their “Continuing

Education Credits” window.

• The technician can then select “Course History” or “Pending

Credits”

• The technician would then select the “Submit Training”

button.

How To Submit Course Hours

How to Upload Course Hours

• After a technician clicks the submit training button, they will need to select if this

is an approved course or a manual entry.

• In this first example we will do a manual entry.

• There are 5 fields to complete:

– Training Description: Name of the course/training/seminar

– Provider Description: Name of the organization providing the training

– Training Category: Type of training, course, seminar, conference, webinar

ect.

– Credit Units: Length of the training in hours

– Completion Date: Date the training was finished.

• At the bottom of the form, click “Add files” to select documentation of

the attendance, such as a certificate of completion.

How to Upload Course Hours

How to Upload Course Hours

How to Upload Course Hours – Approved Course

• After a technician clicks on the Submit Course button, click on the

“Approved Course” tab at the top of the new window.

• There are three fields to complete:

– Training Provider: Select the NATE recognized training provider

from the drop down menu. It is in alphabetical order and you can

type a letter on your keyboard to jump to that letter in the list.

– Training: Select the approved course from the selected training

provider.

– Completion Date: Date the training was finished.

• At the bottom of the form, click “Add files” to select documentation of

the attendance, such as a certificate of completion.

How to Upload Course Hours – Approved Course

How to Upload Course Hours – Approved Course

How to Upload Course Hours

• After a course has been manually submitted, it will be in listed under

pending credits.

• Once a course has been approved, it will be moved to the Course

History tab.

• If a course is rejected, it will remain in under the Pending Credits tab.

The course can be edited and resubmitted. Clicking on the course

name will allow the technician to view the reason the course was

rejected.

• Clicking the edit entry button will allow the technician to remedy the

problem and clicking save will resubmit the course for NATE review.

• Common reasons courses are rejected: no attached documentation,

typos in the date, or a course is not technical.

Courses Pending

Course Approved

Course Rejected

Edit/Resubmit Rejected Course

Need Help?

• This concludes the training guide.

• If you have any questions, please contact NATE customer

service at 877-420-6283 or askNATE@natex.org.