I was wanting to hear different ways people keep a schedule of their store fronts. When you go out canvassing and you get someone to sign on do you just keep them on that exact day every week/month?
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As Luke suggested I use Housecall Pro… I am a generally unorganized mess and it is an awesome tool. As far as scheduling goes. I used to keep clients on the same day/time. this is what literally just happened to me:
I sprained my ankle and have been on a boot for the past three weeks. And out of work for four. Business has been up and running for only 6 months or so, so my schedule is a four week block working 3-4 days a week. My fourth week is a little lacking. I was freaking out that I’d lose my customers but they were cool.
Just remade my schedule geographically and my route is now condensed to Tuesday- Friday on week 1 and Tuesday and Wednesday on week two. This condensed version now generates 300-500 per day and I spend a lot less in gas and windshield time. Don’t get me wrong… now I have to fill the other two and a half weeks with work except for my Biweeklys. Lol. My point is swapping people out by just a few days for effiency purposes, may benefit you greatly. I was very resistant to it until forced to make the change, but knowing what I know now, would have already done It. Ha
I used to use google calendar to schedule all of our jobs and I would use Joist for invoicing and estimates and quickbooks online for our bookkeeping.
But after a while this can get very unorganized if your not very attentive. Now we just use Housecall Pro and Quickbooks online.
All of our invoicing, payments, estimates , scheduling, follow ups and more is all done through HCP.
I started with card file box that we keeper in the truck and marked as the job was done. We had 7 days-14 days -28 day accounting. You just moved the cards as the were completed to the appropriate slot. Then I got George the Window Cleaner and carried a laptop in the truck. We still use the same software now but it is cloud based and they changed the name to Aworka. We use the IPhone and IPad Pro now.
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can you please post what your quote sheet looks like on HCP im currently using Google calendar, square and keeping paper copies that combine my quote sheet and customer file (made on word). i don’t think i can budget for HCP yet but i spoke with them and the options they provide for automating certain systems was very attractive. but i want to make sure its what is going to do the most for my business and not wast my time or money.
the real question is have you tried other things like HCP?
would you choose HCP over everything else
and do you Recommend it to my business?
(business started april18, local owner/operator, 75 commercial, 24 residential, striving for constant growth, development of systems, hiring employees, pumping out clean windows etc.)
I started off using Google Calendars, but switched to Housecall Pro. I’m seriously upset with the service. It’s like walking a mile, but taking one-inch steps to do it. Like when you want to get a new appointment you go to the schedule, click where you want, then select to add a new customer, then edit the customer information, then go to a screen that I assume is for invoicing, but you haven’t even done the job yet. Then you click back to the schedule and have to click where you want them on the schedule then save it. And holy cow, if you mistype something or whatever then God help you because you would be better off to just delete the entire entry then start again. And deleting a recurring event on a schedule is impossible. I’ve tried to delete one for an Asian massage parlor so many times I’m going nuts. It moved it to a different day, but didn’t erase it. It’s just a headache and I don’t get it.
I’ve moved my guys around on a given day. For example, I had some places this past week on Monday, some on Tuesday and some on Wednesday. I piled them on onto Monday so I could just work on getting new customers for the rest of the week. From what I’ve noticed it is no problem at all if you move them a day or so. You don’t want to move them a week or whatever, but a day or so isn’t a big deal at all.
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HCP on mobile isn’t the best. I’ll use it just for completing jobs and sending estimates on the spot. Desktop is really easy to use imo. Sorry to hear you’re having issues.