[zimzam]

How Windies manage their rounds out of a note book is beyond me.
Spruce

your joking right?the easiest thing in the world.i use george and a book.whats hard about that?

[Spruce]

How Windies manage their rounds out of a note book is beyond me.
Spruce

your joking right?the easiest thing in the world.i use george and a book.whats hard about that?

No I'm not joking.

I have a friend who uses a ledger type book. Each page is a street or collection of streets he does. Each line has a number of the house and the price. Each column is headed with the date done and a single diagonal line indicates job done and when paid, he puts another diagonal line the other way to form a cross - job completed and paid for. But he has no customer name, no customer contact details and although he knows the date the job was done, he has no idea of the date that he received payment. (On the other side of the coin - he still says he won't waste £50 buying a computer program to run his rounds on)

Everyday we go out, tick our work done as we go and then balance our takings to the daily report on George. When we go out collecting on Fridays we tally up at the end of the evening and then do a house to house virtual check that the payments were indeed ticked off correctly.

You use George so your note book is similar to Pocket George in a way. When I stated that I don't know how someone manages this whole round without computer backup, I also stated that I haven't learnt how they do that as I have never had to learn or understand how they do that. "It's beyond me".

It's not that I'm stupid, its just my brain is not very good with that sort of thing, so it's better to have a computer to run my work schedule.

Spruce

[dave0123]

If i had a book i would just get in a right mess!

Although you don't need a computer program George really is quite simple to get to grips with and saves alot of time.

I used to use WCP and when they announced they were doing no more updates i went back to George.. know i wish i never changed!! George is just so simple to use WCP started to get complicated and long winded tbh to add customers link things to things

[andyM]

Im the same as you Spruce. I use George for the round order and dates and also debt information.
But I use a spreadsheet system that I keep updated for mileage and expenses.
Which probably means im not using George to its full capacity but I just find it easier for me that way.

[dave0123]

Yeah i use it for the round management and debt collection etc.


I would use it for expenses but my accountant does monthly book keeping so thers no point me doing it.

[Spruce]

Im the same as you Spruce. I use George for the round order and dates and also debt information.
But I use a spreadsheet system that I keep updated for mileage and expenses.
Which probably means im not using George to its full capacity but I just find it easier for me that way.

Initially the expenses section in George was limited, but the program generally has enjoyed some really good upgrades. A few of us had a little pain with one of them, but it has been a breeze for the last 3 years at least.
But I haven't used the expenses section for 4 years or so, but may try it again when the new tax year begins and see how it works if I get no feedback from this.

Cheers

Spruce

[Jackal]

i think some windys make there job more difficult than it needs to be in my opinion,i use a book with just a street name then house numbers and dont feel any need to change it,i dont want or need every customers name and phone numbers,date i cleaned them,date i got paid etc,my book is in order so i just go through it page by page until theres no houses left and just start at the beginning if they aint in when iv cleaned them i put a 'C' for collect or if they are in 'P' for paid if iv got bi monthlys i just put a 'M' for miss this time,nothing difficult about that i just like to keep it simple,iv got 300 custys and i could do the round without a book as i remember everyones price and who has/hasnt paid

i also do have a diary to write my taking for the day/week

[PAIN IN THE GLASS]

I have george installed, But like you Jackal I prefer to use good old pen and paper as well.

[Spruce]

i think some windys make there job more difficult than it needs to be in my opinion,i use a book with just a street name then house numbers and dont feel any need to change it,i dont want or need every customers name and phone numbers,date i cleaned them,date i got paid etc,my book is in order so i just go through it page by page until theres no houses left and just start at the beginning if they aint in when iv cleaned them i put a 'C' for collect or if they are in 'P' for paid if iv got bi monthlys i just put a 'M' for miss this time,nothing difficult about that i just like to keep it simple,iv got 300 custys and i could do the round without a book as i remember everyones price and who has/hasnt paid

i also do have a diary to write my taking for the day/week

Hi Jackal

Ok, fair enough.

[Spruce]

I have george installed, But like you Jackal I prefer to use good old pen and paper as well.

Hi Pain

I guess its what works for you, but you are duplicating everything.

From Jackal's post I gather dates when done & paid are not important to him.
For me I would like to know what the average time was between cleans, how many times a year they were cleaned and how can we improve our efficiency if we are leaving too big a gap between cleans.
I was brought up in an industry where statistics were an important part of measuring performance and productivity. Whilst they aren't the controlling part of it any longer, at least there are some basic things I would like to know.

Spruce

[prestige cleaners]

me - good, cheap

[zimzam]

From Jackal's post I gather dates when done & paid are not important to him.

you have the date in the book.top of the page for each month/week.

[ian1972]

I think it's great my only problem is I can't get a PDA that works with vista

[George Systems]

been using the trial one and seems good.tried the online one and  i prefer the original.that will prob be wound down tho once the online one takes off.

Hi

The online version version will be an alternative to the desktop version - I have no intention of closing that down in the forseeable future.

I see them as serving different groups of users...

Paul

[brad2406]

Would love to try george, especially pocket george.

Thought it was just download george, buy a pda and hey presto. Simples.

Not the case.

Running windows7, bought a palm tungsten t5 off ebay.

When trying to send files to pda just comes up ( data received in unknown format ).

Driving me crazy now, any ideas please.

cheers.

[Roy Harding]

Would love to try george, especially pocket george.

Thought it was just download george, buy a pda and hey presto. Simples.

Not the case.

Running windows7, bought a palm tungsten t5 off ebay.

When trying to send files to pda just comes up ( data received in unknown format ).

Driving me crazy now, any ideas please.


cheers.

I had the same, I had to down load new drivers from here.

http://driverwhiz.com/drivers-en?brand=Palm&logo=Palm&subid=1001-uk-en-10000001898&gclid=CM6x3Laex6cCFRRC4QodTisEDA

Roy

[brad2406]

Hi Roy, do you use a tungsten t5?

[bobplum]

andy i dont use worksheets!its all in my head whos owes 2 weeks etc for that days work!easy when your a one man band(its only 15-25 jobs a day to remember!)

i always add new customers/add on jobs in a notepad while at work.

IMO its wasting time fiddling with a phone while im cleaning!

i print debt lists for collecting as reference but to be honest i dont need this very often as i already know who owes me 95% of the time.

admin takes 10 mins in the evening when im filling up for the next days work!

i always look at the next days schedule and make a mental note and print invoices etc while im updating.

i work my round from a -z roughly all in the same order apart from commercial and stand alone 8 weeklies which get re-jigged now and then according to the weather.

i suppose we all do things differently but this works well for me.very simple!



regards


dazmond

Ditto.

There are 2 of us and George is fantastic for us. We also use Pocket George on a PDA each and I know exactly where each of us is due next (2 weeks work schedule in advance) and who owes us what on either of our rounds. So if one of Cameron's customers stops me in the street and asks if they can pay me, just a couple of clicks and I know how much they owe and when the jobs were done - instant. How Windies manage their rounds out of a note book is beyond me. (But I have to add that I came into this business when computer aided control was available, so I didn't have to learn any other method. Much the same as when I bought my first computer - it had Windows 95 and so never understood the early forms of computing using DOS.)

The only 'issue' with Pocket George is that you can't add new customers using your PDA. No problem though, as with Daz, enter their details on a note pad, kept in the van and create a new customer on George in the evening - simples.

The process of completing your work each day on Pocket George is so easy with the check boxes. You can even add notes attached to the customer's address, useful for adding detail ie quotes for cleaning conservatory roof, gutter and fascia cleans etc that I would never be able to remember. Also can add supplementary detail to help with a later clean. Eg., if you under quoted a job but stuck to your original quote, put in the detail of what you expect the price should have been for next time.

And George will tell you exactly what your sales (Window cleaning etc) were from tax year to tax year in a couple of secs.

You can't operate a business with proper control.

Spruce


We don't use the expenses detail in George as we have always used a spreadsheet for this. This was because we were able to control the detail of our expenses for tax purposes. This is especially so when it comes Capital allowances pooling and a percentage split for private and business use which is not always the same.
It would be interesting to know how many George users use this facility now and how they work it.

For example. I have a Citroen Relay van with a tank fitted and split the business and private use of this van 90% business 10% private.
I also have a Suzuki Van which I started off with (no tank inside), but this has a split of 40% private 60% business as it mainly used for collections on a Friday evening. My mobile phone is split 50% business 50% private use.

what pda do you use i would like to switch over to this system
bob

[brad2406]

Bob dont but a tungsten t5, apparently they not compatable with george.

[Frankybadboy]

i use a palm zire 72 cheap and does the job