[Oakley Windows]

A pack of 6" x 4" cards and a diary. Like Mac Mac said the jobs done by the time the pc boots up.

[Tosh]

I use an excel spreadsheat which is scarily like the method that Malc uses.

I'd like to say 'Great minds think alike', but he's from Bristol! 

I think the most important part of administrating your round is to do your updating DAILY and send any invoices off PROMPTLY.

But maybe that's just me; sometimes I leave my updating till the end of the week and can't remember whose paid - or even where I've cleaned!? 

And I'm also guilty of cleaning stuff and not sending my invoices off till weeks later; then I grumble about the delay in payment.

[Pureandclean]

The difficulty might be that he has jobs on different intervals.
 This is the main problem of having customers on 4 week, 6 week, 8 week intervals, some weeks it all falls due and other weeks there is nothing to do.
 Stick to a monthly rota and you won't have this kind of problem.

[Ian Lancaster]

B****y hell

How on earth did us 'old school' window cleaners ever manage before computers were invented :

I have a round comprised of monthly or two monthly jobs.

I list them all in the order they should be done on A4 sheets laid crosswise (landscape in the modern vernacular).  Across the sheet I have 12 columns.  If a two monthly job is not due, I put an 'X' in the column.  Every day I write a list of the next jobs I want to do, in their right order.  I go out and do them, and tick them off on my list.  Those who pay get a tick, those I intend to collect get a 'C' those where I leave an SAE get an 'E'.

When I get home I update my 'office copy' from the records on my list - at the top of the column I put the date cleaned, going down the column I put the ticks, 'C's and 'E's.

At the end of the week I go through the list and pick out all the 'C's - that's my collect list.  Any SAE's that come back I cross out the 'E' on my master list.  When I've finished collecting I cross off all the 'C's I've collected, or if they weren't in and still owe, I put and asterisk, so in future I know I've tried to collect but couldn't.

All the information I could possibly want is there in front of me on the same master sheet, with the history of each job

How can you possibly miss a job if it's in front of you in black and white? 

Running a window cleaning round is basic, simple routine.  If you can write, you can keep infallible records.

The thing I don't like about computer programmed round records is that they can't handle the fact that weather, odd days off etc upset the routine.  If you have a mix of monthly and two monthly jobs, then the program will re-schedule exactly 4 or 8 weeks into the future, so any two monthlies will be out of sequence from their geographically related monthlies.

If they're written of a sheer of paper they're still where they're supposed to be. 
I've yet to find written records jumping off the page and reappearing three pages further along

[jouk45]

get this software its free Cleaning Business
 
http://www.rb59.com/software/

[DASERVICES]

I use Excel that's because I have been fluent at it for the past 10 yrs, oops I sound old
It is hard to use but once you know the calc formulas like vlookup etc.. then you can build a spreadsheet to meet your needs.

Just building one with mail merge for someone

[richywilts]

i use window cleaner pro too i find it really good very simple to use nice layout as i dont have a large amount of customers yet it works well to make worksheet from jobs that need doing to being able to bring forward jobs click to print n out pops ya worksheet for the day which has columns to enter who has payed and wat method has customers details too if you need to contact them that day, really simple, iv  not used george so cant compare but did have the roundtracker from window cleaning resources n found it really naff!!!

[Paul Coleman]

Been going for few months now and recently started doing well and picking up plenty custies.
But am i finding it a nightmare organising the work. Whats do you guys use to organise without using george.
Please help as it's driving me round the twist

I use the spreadsheet and database in MS Works.

[Paul Coleman]

macmac ok see your point . but why doesnt everyone use some sort of program like george? i cudnt manage without it . my opinion only

I don't use a dedicated program for several reasons (not just referring to George here)..
1)  I would feel too dependent on the software author for updates.  If a feature isn't included then you must wait for the author to include it.
2)  Support depends on the wellbeing of the author (may they all live long and prosper but the day they don't is the day you lose the support).
3)  If there's a glitch, you don't have the usenet newsgroups to fall back on as the software is more specialised without the widespread knowledge base.
4)  Even though the payment is usually low, it still has to be made.

The flipside of all this is that in order to adapt the Works spreadsheet and database programs to my own needs, I had to put in a fair bit of work and some research.  However, there was loads of support for this on usenet.

If I want the programs to do more than they are currently doing, I have to do it myself - the good bit being that I can do it when I choose to do it.

There is more maintenance as you go with the way that I do it but I consider it to be worth it.  I can still update all my daily records in five to ten minutes at most.  I tend to do my printouts for accounts at year end so need to spend some time on it then.  Also, for simplicity's sake, I keep the income records seperate from the expenditure records on seperate spreadsheets.

It sounds a lot more complex than it actually is.  The only difficult bit was setting it up in the first place.  It's not for everyone.  Maybe the difference between paying a WFP company and doing it DIY.

Not everyone wants to learn to set up spreadsheets and databases.  If that's the case, a pre-written program is ideal.

[Paul Coleman]

The difficulty might be that he has jobs on different intervals.
 This is the main problem of having customers on 4 week, 6 week, 8 week intervals, some weeks it all falls due and other weeks there is nothing to do.
 Stick to a monthly rota and you won't have this kind of problem.

I find it a bit like you except that I have 6 weeks as my default.  A few larger jobs are 12 weeks.  Makes it easier to manage with less maintenance and travel.  I have one mid sized bi-monthly but that's not a mile from my water supply so I have to be in the area anyway.  I could run it at different intervals but I did this years ago and found it less productive.

[Cleaner Windows]

Been going for few months now and recently started doing well and picking up plenty custies.
But am i finding it a nightmare organising the work. Whats do you guys use to organise without using george.
Please help as it's driving me round the twist

I started with paper round lists then upgraded to excel, then bought round tracker for £10 but had no end of problems with it so in the end spent £50 on George, £20 on a pda from ebay and since then looking after my rounds has been soooo much easier

[marcoboyle]

I think it depends on two things.
1. how computer literate you are. i have my pc on for loads of stuff anyways so its not a prob. i like computers anyways, some older ones may not!

2.it depends on how much work you have. if you are working on your own and dont have that much to get through i suppose you could write it out on cards or whatever. but why do that when you can print it out with lines, colums, sub totals, totals, dates, whatever you want you can configure it with a simple computer program be it george, round organiser or a simple excel spreadsheet.

i have tried george and round organiser and found them to be unnecessary. i have a excel sheet which i type out the work once, and print it off every week making adjustments as necessary. you can have anthing and everything you want right there on a simple sheet to the shape, size you want.

those of you who use george and that, dont you find it cumbersome? why go through what, 6 frames clicking next every time, with things like name address postcode and all that rubbish just to add one customer? or am i missing something? i find the round print off from george a waste of space on the sheet. i did try using a pda, but small electronic gadget with water everywhere? not a good combo.

the only thing i think you need an excel sheet with the street name at the top once, house number and price as you go down. you can add other columns like dates, paid, still to collect or enveloped and totals etc if you want. it'll add up for you and generate date etc really easy if you just click a help topic. i usually put about £500 worth of work on each sheet and print it off.

eg mine looks a little like this
STREET        PRICE     PAID   COLLECT/ENV     INFO 
 
LETSBE AVENUE

1                  £10         X                 C                Front only
3                  £8                              C                dog!
5                  £8           X                 E                bungalow
7                  £5           X                 E                shut gate   

TOTALS        ____
4                  £31 

or yknow, something like that. works for me, probably not others. just keep it simple with one sheet per day,that way it doesnt get over used and go to mush after using it for like 2-3 days!