Clean It Up

UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Blue Frog Systems on June 04, 2022, 10:02:29 am

Title: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Blue Frog Systems on June 04, 2022, 10:02:29 am
Been living in the dark ages for 10 years just using what I've always used.

Want to know what things are new, worth getting, saving you time, saving energy etc.

I'm going to be upgrading to an electric reel next week but have seen connection protection  for the rectus, rinse bars, brushes coming out of your ears, odd shaped 8 poles.

What's new & what have I missed ?  I do have one of them pull valves on my poles
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Slacky on June 04, 2022, 10:05:18 am
Reverse osmosis water is a bit of a game changer .
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Bucket on June 05, 2022, 06:12:14 am
GoCardless for payments -  no more debt reconciliation!
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 05, 2022, 06:31:47 am
GoCardless for payments -  no more debt reconciliation!

For someone who has for example 400 x £10 monthly customers, it will cost £1200 a year to use go cardless.
That means cleaning 120 customers a year just to pay for a company to collect payment and transfer it to you, when you could just ask them to bank transfer it themselves or set up a standing order for free.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: alank on June 05, 2022, 07:52:29 am
Agreed free transfer and my bank doesn't charge for this.
I just reconcile the payments to cleaner planner at the end of each month before printing the work sheets.
The debt list on cleaner planner shows any that have missed any payments simples  ;D
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: NWH on June 05, 2022, 09:30:33 am
GoCardless for payments -  no more debt reconciliation!

For someone who has for example 400 x £10 monthly customers, it will cost £1200 a year to use go cardless.
That means cleaning 120 customers a year just to pay for a company to collect payment and transfer it to you, when you could just ask them to bank transfer it themselves or set up a standing order for free.

Really why would anyone use that then lol.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Stoots on June 05, 2022, 02:56:07 pm
Its not worth using when you have 400 customers,  if you had 4000 and need the cashflow for wages it might be a different story.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 05, 2022, 03:11:07 pm
Its not worth using when you have 400 customers,  if you had 4000 and need the cashflow for wages it might be a different story.

It’s be cheaper to pay a part timer £15 an hour for 10 hours a week (2 x 5 hour days or something like that)  every week to sort payments out - £7800 a year.

Go cardless for 4000 customers a month - £10,080 a year.

Unless my figures are out …
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: NWH on June 05, 2022, 04:44:08 pm
Blimey yeah cheaper to get someone to chase payments part time than pay that what a rip off that is,if you have such a problem with getting paid it’s not that you need it’s better customers.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Stoots on June 06, 2022, 05:12:33 pm
Its not worth using when you have 400 customers,  if you had 4000 and need the cashflow for wages it might be a different story.

It’s be cheaper to pay a part timer £15 an hour for 10 hours a week (2 x 5 hour days or something like that)  every week to sort payments out - £7800 a year.

Go cardless for 4000 customers a month - £10,080 a year.

Unless my figures are out …

Yes it may be cheaper (ive not done the numbers either) but i would have thought when you had 10 staff its more a cashflow thing, it would stress me out with loads of wages to pay and having to send reminders every week with thousands outstanding. Plus its always better to automate processes vs employ someone to do it which is open to human error. 
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 06, 2022, 05:18:42 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month. 
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: dazmond on June 06, 2022, 07:30:23 pm
Been living in the dark ages for 10 years just using what I've always used.

Want to know what things are new, worth getting, saving you time, saving energy etc.

I'm going to be upgrading to an electric reel next week but have seen connection protection  for the rectus, rinse bars, brushes coming out of your ears, odd shaped 8 poles.

What's new & what have I missed ?  I do have one of them pull valves on my poles

Basics for me is a diesel hot water system,hi mod poles(nano or xtreme),univalve and electric reel....

I don't bother with rinse bars or swivels,etc

Surely most window cleaners have round software these days and electronic payments in place.a card reader also comes in handy as we move to a cashless society(I use SumUp).
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Stoots on June 06, 2022, 07:41:34 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: NWH on June 06, 2022, 07:55:46 pm
Its not worth using when you have 400 customers,  if you had 4000 and need the cashflow for wages it might be a different story.

It’s be cheaper to pay a part timer £15 an hour for 10 hours a week (2 x 5 hour days or something like that)  every week to sort payments out - £7800 a year.

Go cardless for 4000 customers a month - £10,080 a year.

Unless my figures are out …

Yes it may be cheaper (ive not done the numbers either) but i would have thought when you had 10 staff its more a cashflow thing, it would stress me out with loads of wages to pay and having to send reminders every week with thousands outstanding. Plus its always better to automate processes vs employ someone to do it which is open to human error.

If you had 10 plus staff and paid that kind of % to something like GoCardless that’s a huge amount per annum.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 06, 2022, 07:56:06 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: NWH on June 06, 2022, 07:59:43 pm
You need 1000s of jobs for something like that to be considered crazy for someone with 1-2 employees imo,you should be able to keep on top of it with reminders or they aren’t good customers since I’ve done text reminders and scanned and copied invoices email reminders I’ve never had a problem.
If you have to keep chasing jobs all the time those jobs aren’t worth having.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 07, 2022, 07:46:57 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Maybe this is the difference in quality of customers between Facebook advertising and an organically grown round…. Who knows, but having 100 £10 customers a month not paying would pee me right off.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: james peters on June 07, 2022, 07:57:10 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

agree with this.
I need to send a few reminders a month ,  any repeat offenders are dropped.
apart from it being annoying , I think its really rude to repeatedly think its ok not to pay on time.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: dazmond on June 07, 2022, 08:09:45 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: dazmond on June 07, 2022, 08:38:37 am
Last time I had £60 owing I was trad  earning around £300 a week!😄
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 07, 2022, 09:14:50 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....

That’s terrible, obviously your customers don’t respect your payment rules as much as mine do.
I wouldn’t say it’s something to brag about either 😂
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Slacky on June 07, 2022, 02:28:52 pm
Its not worth using when you have 400 customers,  if you had 4000 and need the cashflow for wages it might be a different story.

It’s be cheaper to pay a part timer £15 an hour for 10 hours a week (2 x 5 hour days or something like that)  every week to sort payments out - £7800 a year.

Go cardless for 4000 customers a month - £10,080 a year.

Unless my figures are out …

Yes it may be cheaper (ive not done the numbers either) but i would have thought when you had 10 staff its more a cashflow thing, it would stress me out with loads of wages to pay and having to send reminders every week with thousands outstanding. Plus its always better to automate processes vs employ someone to do it which is open to human error.

If you had 10 plus staff and paid that kind of % to something like GoCardless that’s a huge amount per annum.

Its all relative.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: NWH on June 07, 2022, 03:51:06 pm
I wouldn’t say it is at 25-30% if you’re annual income no not really.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: dazmond on June 07, 2022, 07:59:13 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....

That’s terrible, obviously your customers don’t respect your payment rules as much as mine do.
I wouldn’t say it’s something to brag about either 😂

The more money I earn the more I'm owed....it really isn't terrible as I don't live hand to mouth like I used to....I see it as money in the bank
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 07, 2022, 08:13:06 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....

That’s terrible, obviously your customers don’t respect your payment rules as much as mine do.
I wouldn’t say it’s something to brag about either 😂

The more money I earn the more I'm owed....it really isn't terrible as I don't live hand to mouth like I used to....I see it as money in the bank

How does that work? So jobs 1-200 pay you on time , then jobs 201-350 pay you when they like?
Surely you say to every customer that payment is to be made within 5 days/2 weeks/ by the end of the month?
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: jonboywalton75 on June 07, 2022, 08:14:28 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....


I'm same as u Daz, basically I'm approx 10 days waiting on an average job.
I used to wait a month to get paid at ICI, so I'm ahead on that 😁
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 07, 2022, 09:01:16 pm
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....


I'm same as u Daz, basically I'm approx 10 days waiting on an average job.
I used to wait a month to get paid at ICI, so I'm ahead on that 😁

How is that the same as dazmond? He just said he has 4 weekly customers paying after 3 months 😂
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: JandS on June 07, 2022, 09:28:36 pm
I have 12 customers outstanding from last week which was a school holiday so some will have been away.......tomorrow night I'll send text reminders out which will take around a couple of minutes.
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: dazmond on June 08, 2022, 09:06:41 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....

That’s terrible, obviously your customers don’t respect your payment rules as much as mine do.
I wouldn’t say it’s something to brag about either 😂

The more money I earn the more I'm owed....it really isn't terrible as I don't live hand to mouth like I used to....I see it as money in the bank

How does that work? So jobs 1-200 pay you on time , then jobs 201-350 pay you when they like?
Surely you say to every customer that payment is to be made within 5 days/2 weeks/ by the end of the month?

14 days I stipulate on my tickets but don't forget the work I've just cleaned in the last week or so and some of this will owe 2 cleans...

Honestly it really doesn't matter as I have a constant drip of money dropping into my account 365 days a year
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: jonboywalton75 on June 08, 2022, 10:02:22 am
If someone has to send thousands of reminders then they’ve got a crap customer base . I send around 2 per hundred per month. Probably why I can’t justify the cost. Takes minutes while I’m sat on the bog 🚽 on the last day of the month.

theres only me and my rolling debt is usually around a grand so can only assume with 10 vans it would be 10 grand, would much rather have them all on go cardless for my own sanity.

Wow , I might have 1 or 2 customers that are on holiday and it rolls over to the next month but it’s never more than £60 for me!

Really?my rolling debt list is usually around the £500-£1000 mark at any one time...I've just had a week off so it got down to £300....

Sometimes it's as high as £1500 but it all comes in eventually.some 4 weekly customers don't pay for 2 or 3 months and some commercial its usually 28 days....


I'm same as u Daz, basically I'm approx 10 days waiting on an average job.
I used to wait a month to get paid at ICI, so I'm ahead on that 😁

How is that the same as dazmond? He just said he has 4 weekly customers paying after 3 months 😂

My debts are usually running at £6 - £800, similar to Daz
Having said that, just looked at cleaner planner and it's about £1200 at the moment, but that's cos I've worked very hard this week
Equates to just over a week waiting for payment, I'll take that 👍
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: Shrek on June 08, 2022, 10:30:05 am
   All my jobs from job no. 1 to job no. 400 pay within 5 days of cleaning, even the big commercial job I do. Many months I’m owed £0 at the end of the month 🙂
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: jonboywalton75 on June 08, 2022, 11:12:03 am
   All my jobs from job no. 1 to job no. 400 pay within 5 days of cleaning, even the big commercial job I do. Many months I’m owed £0 at the end of the month 🙂

Sounds great, not many on here can say that
I'm also like Daz that when i have time off my debt list reduces to almost nothing
Title: Re: Been living in the dark ages... What are must have items
Post by: deeege on June 08, 2022, 03:53:26 pm
Debt list is usually around £4-5k but that is heavily skewed by a couple big monthly commercial jobs that are 60 days payment.

Regular work it’s currently £1446.00