WindowBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

Building Your Service List So Every Window Cleaning Estimate Adds Itself Up

Your service list is the price sheet behind every estimate you send. Get it right once, and quoting becomes entering quantities. Get it wrong, and every estimate turns into a fresh round of mental math, with a different answer depending on who is quoting and how tired they are.

Why the List Comes First

In French Panes, Skylights and Specialty Glass: Pricing the Windows That Take Longer we said the easiest way not to forget specialty glass is to have it on your list. The same is true of every service you sell. In WindowBossPro, estimates are built from your service list: per window, per screen, story add-ons, hard water and anything else. If it is on the list, it is one tap away. If it is not, someone has to remember it.

What Goes on a Window Cleaning Service List

A residential window cleaning company might start with something like this. The prices are examples only. Use your own.

• Outside window cleaning — per window ($6)
• Inside window cleaning — per window ($4)
• Second-story add-on — per upper window ($2)
• 3+ story add-on — per window above the second floor
• French door or divided light — per pane
• Screens — per screen ($2)
• Tracks — per track
• Hard-water removal — per window, light / heavy
• Skylight — each
• Post-construction clean — per window
• Storefront cleaning — per visit ($45)
• Minimum job charge — flat

Start with what you actually sell. You can add more later. A list with fifty items no one uses is as bad as a list with five.

Name Items for the Customer

Item names show up on the estimate the customer reads. “OS WIN 2S” makes sense to you and nobody else. “Outside window cleaning” and “Second-story add-on” make sense to everyone. Use plain names, and add a short description if an item needs one: “Screens removed, washed, dried and replaced.”

Clear names also help your crew. When the job lands on the tech's phone and the invoice gets created at completion, the same names follow.

Pick the Right Unit for Each Item

Each item needs a unit that matches how you count. Windows per window. French doors per pane. Screens per screen. Storefronts per visit. A mismatch causes confusion: if your list says “screens, per window” but you count screens separately, the estimate will not match what you counted.

If you use flat-rate pricing for houses, you can still have flat items: “Outside windows, small home,” “medium home,” “large home.” Just keep recording the window count on the job, so you know what each size really means. The trade-offs are covered in Per Window, Per Pane or Flat Rate: Choosing a Window Cleaning Pricing Method.

Building an Estimate From the List

With the list in place, an estimate is a short process. Pick the client and address. Add “Outside window cleaning” with 28. Add “Inside window cleaning” with 28. Add “Second-story add-on” with 12. Add “Screens” with 22. The estimate totals itself.

Two estimators quoting the same house now get the same number, because they are using the same prices. The owner can quote from the truck, the office can quote from photos, and the numbers line up. When the customer approves online, the approved estimate becomes scheduled services with those same lines.

Keeping the List Current

Prices change. Fuel goes up, wages go up, you get faster at hard water. When you change a price on the service list, every new estimate uses it. Review the list at least once a year, usually before your busy season.

Retire items you no longer sell rather than leaving them for someone to pick by mistake. And when a new service keeps coming up in custom notes on estimates, it probably belongs on the list.

Who Can Change the List

Because the service list sets every price your company quotes, decide who is allowed to change it. Usually that is the owner or one office manager. Estimators and crew leads use the list, but do not edit it. Office user roles help keep that clear, so a well-meaning helper does not drop your hard-water price in the middle of the season.

Taxes and Billing

When a job is completed, the invoice is created with line items and sales tax. Because your estimate lines came from the service list, the invoice matches what the customer approved. For customers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the UK, invoices bill in their own currency.

One List, Every Quote

A good service list is the quiet engine of fast, consistent quoting. Name items for the customer, use the unit you count by, keep it current and let every estimate add itself up. For the rest of quoting in WindowBossPro, see the window cleaning estimate software page.