Estimating

I am thinking of having all new clients estimates done on site this year. No more phone estimating by looking at house on google street view. Also debating going paperless (ipad presentation) for estimating but not sure yet… anyone?

I previously had the mentality - i’ll estimate the panes and it will even out even if I under count a few panes and I will save time and gas not estimating on site.

I think it will lead to higher percentage of landed jobs and it will be priced properly and fairly every time.
When we show up we want to get to work not bicker about adjusting the price - too many horrific situations like that.

It will soothe me to know everyone is being charged fairly and equally based on panes (small, medium and large)

I think this is a never ending topic, seems like everyone has their own unique way of estimating.[poll]

  • Per Pane
  • Per Window
  • Per Hour
  • Sq Footage
  • By House type
  • Just eye it and ballpark a price
    [/poll]
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I’ve been paperless since 2012

Email invoices
Email responsibid for residential estimate
Email another program for commercial quotes
Facebook, website and Adwords advertising
Take a photo of my van I have no business cards
You can pay by card or online banking, no cash or cheque
I take photos of my receipts for accountant

Life is sweet. Long live trees!

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what the hell is paper???

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Responsibid is your friend!

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i use quoteflare but will likely switch to the tcf system when it comes.

tcf is creating a quoting system?

tcf brought out a quoting system awhile ago which allows you to send a customer an itemized quote, the customer can check the items they want and select preffered times.
online self serve quoting and booking is coming too.

Do you have a link?

sorry, a link for what?

The quoting system. I havent seen it. I havent seen it in the list of updates. I guess I was figuring it was a side project of tcf and possibly had a link?

no the online system is not ready but if you have tcf you can do a regular estimate and send it with the check boxes and calendar options.
if the customer accepts you get email and then complete everything in tcf
if you want pm me your email and i’ll send you one.

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I appreciate it but I already have tcf and been using it for years. I know how the estimate emails work. Its just the first time that I’ve heard of an estimating system. Have you looked into responsibid at all?

yes i tried responsibid first but it could handle my pricing properly.
also i don’t like the limitations of the little drawings.
quoteflare does not have the follow up but is FAR more customizable for pricing , has actual pictures that you sub for your own and is way cheaper.
here people expect the quoted price to be the price and responsibid is/was not capable of that.

Every single residential estimate is done with responsibid? So you do it on your phone on site and email it instantly to them and show it to them for them to accept or decline?

Love the idea of no cash or cheque!!! But then you pay the 2.7% processing fee. Wow I really like this idea though - so when job is completed there’s no hassle with payment? You just say invoice will be emailed to you?

No, most customers receive an invoice by email which they pay by online banking. Free

Less trustworthy people or I want the money now I have a machine a bit like a square. It costs $35 per month, I rarely use it but consider it insurance.

People I don’t trust much, they pay by eftpos, it’s like a debit card but run by the banks instead of credit card companies. No xtra transaction fee

People I do not trust or never want to speak to again. They can pay with credit card. Costs me 3% but who cares. I got their money and don’t have to talk to them again. This is why I keep paying for a machine I rarely use. If I know someone will be a pain to get money from… I will swipe their card and leave happy. 3% is nothing when the bill is $2k and you just learned from the plumber the customer has a reputation for not paying… see, insurance :slight_smile:

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For in person quotes: For speed I use iPhone notes to count the number of different sized panes. Then put the total in responsibid. I don’t show the customer responsibid, I tell them the price and service levels.

Responsibid follows up your customers with emails automatically. It’s worth putting every customer in it.

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You can give it your own images.

You can even put in videos at each step of the process to help the customer. I am in summer so Ive not really got time for this yet. I also don’t really want more enquiries right now.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

One last question: I just realized I dont actually have a set size to determine if it is a small or medium pane. I just look at it and say yup thats small thats large thats med and so on. Usually it is pretty clear. Do you have a set size? For example a small pane is no bigger than 1 ft x 1 ft or x square inches?

These 3 sizes cover most panes for me.

French - French panes

Regular - no idea on Dimensions but anything that’s close enough to a normal looking window pane

Door - door sized pane, usually a glass door. But also used for large picture windows.

On special occasions i will use other sizes, covert them into responsibid compatible sizes and pop a note in the notes section for next time. Example. House has 50 panes that are bigger than French but much smaller than regular. Charging regular would distort the quote.

Example 2. Humungous panes halfway up a huge wall above an aquarium with carnivorous sea turtles. Obviously this is outside the scope of French,regular,door so add it to the quote as a custom item or by converting it to the equivalent number of regular panes. Maybe one death defying turtle window = same dollar value as 20 regular panes.

Most of the time 3 sizes is fine. And remember, if responsibid helps a customer to get a quote 90% accurate… you have some wiggle room to not adjust the quote. If funny window sizes mean a customer quotes them selves $90 and when you arrive you think “hmmm this should be $100”… just remember you saved time and
Money by not having to go out to quote in person first. You turned up to a booked job :sunglasses:

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