WindowBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

Setting a Minimum Job Charge in Your Window Cleaning Pricing

Per-window pricing works beautifully on a 30-window house. On a condo with six windows, it falls apart. Six windows at your outside rate might not cover the drive, the setup, the cleanup and the invoice. A minimum job charge is the floor under every quote, so small jobs still pay for the trip.

The Trip Costs the Same No Matter the Size

In Bidding Window Cleaning for a Property Manager With Many Locations we looked at the biggest quotes you will write. This article is about the smallest. Every job carries fixed costs that do not shrink with the window count:

• Drive time to and from the address.
• Parking, unloading and setting up ladders or a pole.
• Talking to the customer at the door.
• Packing up and moving on.
• Office time: scheduling, texting, invoicing, collecting payment.

On a big job those costs disappear into the total. On a small job they can be most of it.

Working Out Your Minimum

There is no standard minimum for the industry. Yours depends on your costs and your market. A practical way to find it:

1. Estimate the time a typical small job takes, from leaving the last address to arriving at the next one, including setup and cleanup.
2. Put a value on that time based on what an hour of your crew needs to earn.
3. Add a little for office time and payment processing.

The result is the least a job can bring in without costing you money. Many owners round up to a clean number. If your minimum works out to $87, $90 or $95 is easier to say.

Different Minimums for Different Work

One minimum may not fit every kind of job. Some companies use:

• A residential minimum for one-time home jobs.
• A lower recurring minimum for customers on a plan, because those jobs are easier to route.
• A storefront minimum per visit, often lower because the shop sits on an existing route.
• A higher minimum for jobs outside your normal service area.

Keep it simple. Two or three minimums are plenty.

Putting It on Your Service List

In WindowBossPro, the simplest way to apply a minimum is a service list item: “Minimum job charge” with a flat price. When you build an estimate and the per-window lines come out below your minimum, use the minimum item instead, or add a line that brings the total up to it. Either way, the customer sees a clear line on the estimate rather than a mysterious total.

Because the item lives on the service list, everyone in the company uses the same minimum. The owner and the newest estimator will not quote the same six-window condo at two different prices. See Building Your Service List So Every Window Cleaning Estimate Adds Itself Up for more on setting items up.

Explaining It to Customers

Most customers understand a minimum if you explain it plainly. Put it on your website and say it on the phone before they are surprised by the estimate:

“Our minimum for a visit is $90. That covers getting the van and equipment to you. For a small home, that usually includes the outside of all the windows and the screens.”

Notice the second sentence. Instead of charging the minimum for less work, many window cleaners fill the minimum with extras: screens, tracks, a couple of inside windows. The customer gets more for their money, and you still get paid for the trip.

Minimums and Recurring Plans

A small home on a recurring plan is a different job than a small home calling once. It comes due on the Waiting List with the rest of the neighborhood and gets routed between bigger jobs. The drive is short because the van is already nearby. That is a good reason to offer a lower minimum, or no minimum, to recurring customers in neighborhoods you already serve.

It is also a selling point. “The minimum is $90 for a one-time visit, or $70 a visit if you join our quarterly plan.” Pricing frequencies is covered in Pricing Recurring Window Cleaning: Quarterly, Twice a Year and Monthly Visits.

A Floor Under Every Quote

A minimum job charge is not about squeezing small customers. It is about making sure every trip pays for itself. Work out your number, put it on your service list, explain it plainly and fill it with value. For more on quoting in WindowBossPro, see the window cleaning estimate software page.