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UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: pwcleaning on February 06, 2007, 08:46:39 pm

Title: help needed with books
Post by: pwcleaning on February 06, 2007, 08:46:39 pm
Im having trouble keeping record of where im going and when. I want to work on a 5 week basis.
Ive broken the different areas into different rounds but i dont think this system will work.
How do you keep records, and job lists for the next day?
Do you set out certain days or keep it to certain jobs in a week. Some of my customers are not in and dont care when i turn up but some are tying me down to certain days.
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: Chris Cottrell on February 06, 2007, 08:49:22 pm
http://www.georgesystems.co.uk/index.html

it'll do it all for you nicely

Chris
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: pylofm on February 06, 2007, 08:53:00 pm
I have 4x individual areas's (rounds) and each is run via 4 & 8 weekly visits (the odd 12 weekly = very big houses).

Each customer is given a card on the day of cleaning and this tells them all the normal info but in addition tells them the day/date of their next clean.

There are w/c's here on this forum that do not like this method as it does take away from the w/c a certain amount of flexibility for holidays/sickness/weather. I however do like to have a plan and in the event that I cannot work/do certain jobs they can always be rescheduled..

I use george and it does everything for me...I also have pocket george so I have very little updating to do at the end of the day....

Cheers, hopes this helps.

Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: mgba_78 on February 06, 2007, 09:12:59 pm
Get a day to a page diary, once work is completed count forward say 4 weeks write them in.
If for any reason when you do not work sick/weather day off etc etc all i do is transfer the day(s) list onto a pad then rub out old work in diary  then write new work in on the new day, job done easy

Andy
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: mark dew on February 06, 2007, 09:26:02 pm
i use microsoft outlook and enter the jobs and frequencies in the calendar.
It's a bit long-winded to copy and paste each customer when printing out job sheets for the week though.
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: Andy@w.c.s on February 06, 2007, 09:30:16 pm
Hi
All my customers have their own card
we put the date started
date last cleaned
if we owe them money
if they owe us money
on each card is a number it relates to the customer on my customer list
i am slowly building a profile on each customer  as to know which customer does what  ( for a living )
every time a customer sends a cheque  with thier bill i can , if needs  be cross referance it against thier number
to date only had one mess up
simple system and been runing it for years
no need for booking in and by looking in the card box you can se if you are behind or on date .

Andy ;)
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: john tomkins on February 06, 2007, 09:39:42 pm
Just get george, so quick and simple :)
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: spotless2000 on February 06, 2007, 10:27:49 pm
George !!! ;)
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: [GQC] Tim on February 06, 2007, 10:37:13 pm
George again with Pocket George, best thing ever. Full stop.
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: pjulk on February 06, 2007, 11:59:33 pm
Quote
some are tying me down to certain days

I think you will find that a bit of a problem when you have a full round.
I will not let any customers get me to clean on certain days as i have been there and it did not work out.

I tell them them how often i will be round not the other way round.

Get george you can't go wrong.

Paul
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: Paul Coleman on February 07, 2007, 04:55:22 am
Im having trouble keeping record of where im going and when. I want to work on a 5 week basis.
Ive broken the different areas into different rounds but i dont think this system will work.
How do you keep records, and job lists for the next day?
Do you set out certain days or keep it to certain jobs in a week. Some of my customers are not in and dont care when i turn up but some are tying me down to certain days.

I use MSWorkswhich usually comes free with most new computers.
I use the database for this.  It's a bit of a pain setting it up but well worthwhile IMO.
The fields in the database that are the key to this fior me I have called:-

lastvisit, interval, nextvisit, countdown     respectively.

lastvisit and nextvisit are formatted to show the dates.   interval is the gap between visits (in days).  countdown contains the formula        =NOW()-nextvisit  .  countdown is formatted to return a whole number (i.e. no decimal places).   It takes todays date and subtracts the due date of the next visit.  This usually returns a minus number.  The two digits are the number of days until the next visit.  If the answer returned is 0, the job is due today.  If it returns a positive number, the job is overdue by that number of days.

You can get the database to make a list of jobs that are coming up.
For instance, if you wanted to know which jobs were due in the next two days you could set up the filters to show all jobs where     countdown>-2  .  This would show a list of all jobs that are due two days from now up to any overdue jobs.
I know it sounds complicated but the tools (if you have MSWorks) are right there on your PC if you wish to take the trouble to learn a bit about them.
If you wanted to show all jobs due tomorrow, the filter could be set up to show countdown=-1  . 

Personally, as I use a 6 weekly cycle, I've no problem pulling jobs forward a couple of days if I'm in front.  Maybe even three days so long as I don't do it too much.       
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: craig jwc on February 07, 2007, 07:13:32 am
I only have 1 customer i call on a certain day just because the back gate it unlocked as the gardener calls that day, but the rest know that the days my be different each visit.

George will let you shedule jobs on certain days.

Craig
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: Easyclean Windows on February 07, 2007, 07:38:17 am
Same again use George you have a 3 month trial and you will find in that 3 months you will want to keep it i thinks its about £50 which isn't bad for a decent piece of software.My accountant says its one of the best pieces of software hes seen and it makes his job easier and my bill smaller
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: S_RICHARDSON on February 07, 2007, 08:01:49 am
I got an example of a spreadsheet off someone on here and adapted to my work, it does the job great I just print out a sheet with the day's work and clean 'em!  :D


Shaun R. :)

Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: pwcleaning on February 07, 2007, 05:21:42 pm
Thanks, ive downloaded George. Ive entered all of my work today but when i print the sheet out its only telling me the daily income not the price per job. I will have a play with it later as i must be doing somthing wrong.
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: [GQC] Tim on February 08, 2007, 12:08:23 am
Make sure you tick the box when printing your worklist.

Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: pwcleaning on February 08, 2007, 03:27:34 pm
done somthing a bit silly, i entered all the details on the pc. Brought a laptop last night now need it on there. Any ideas how i can transfer the data from the pc to the laptop?
Title: Re: help needed with books
Post by: George Systems on February 08, 2007, 03:49:21 pm
Hi

Instructions are at the bottom of this page:
http://www.georgesystems.co.uk/FAQ/faq.html

Paul