Paper based

[oceans]

Who is still paper based?

I’m interested in any techniques or systems involved in efficient paper based organization and work flow. Notation seems to be an inefficiency, as sticky notes can easily be lost, and a document can look very confusing after 10 hand written edits on top of a printed work order.

Thanks for your consideration.

 

[Stumpsprouts]

I am paper based. I had done the jobber thing with a previous company but really wanted to avoid the screen time, not to mention bringing the work home with me to write up estimates.

I designed a carbon copy work estimate sheet and had it printed. I write the estimate on site and give the client a copy, then go home and enjoy my life.

If the estimate has more than say 7 or 8 items, it really gets cluttered… details get lost, if I’m being honest.

I have an accordion filing folder and periodically drop estimates into appropriate categories.

I also designed and had printed a receipt of payment carbon copy form.

If I had large projects which required revisions this would be a terrible system. This works great for me.

 

[Chaplain242]

I find it works well when jobs wind up in short order but breaks down on larger jobs with multiple tasks carried out in phases over an extended period of time, then it all gets cluttered and mixed up, with books intermixed with loose sheets of paper. I’ve seen a few operators have a single filing cabinet in their back seat of the truck/ute - but if carrying equipment as well it doesn’t really work as it eats available space.

If find a stellar system please let me be first in line to hear about it…

 

[OasisTree]

I was paper based on quotes until 2 years ago, but have been running Jobber since '14. I went from paper to a iPad Pro 11" with the Goodnotes app and the Apple pencil.

Goodnotes is a simple program that you can add files to folders, and have a variety of templates to work off of.

I highly recommend...it writes just like a pen and paper, and is easy to edit and add to. Also with the added benefit of being able to write in the rain!

I keep a blank paper quote in the truck for those that don't have email, and just copy it over.

The rest of them get screenshot and sent to my secretary with pics from the job, and she types them up in Jobber and they get emailed out.

But all of my handwritten quotes get attached to my jobber quotes as an original reference, as well as the pics.

 

[Chaplain242]

I was paper based on quotes until 2 years ago, but have been running Jobber since '14. I went from paper to a iPad Pro 11" with the Goodnotes app and the Apple pencil.

Goodnotes is a simple program that you can add files to folders, and have a variety of templates to work off of.

I highly recommend...it writes just like a pen and paper, and is easy to edit and add to. Also with the added benefit of being able to write in the rain!

I keep a blank paper quote in the truck for those that don't have email, and just copy it over.

The rest of them get screenshot and sent to my secretary with pics from the job, and she types them up in Jobber and they get emailed out.

But all of my handwritten quotes get attached to my jobber quotes as an original reference, as well as the pics.

Do you get many updates withdraw pro? I got caught three times this year with updates to iPhone and deleted everything back to my last backup. Sucked in a big way if not doing immediate email backup of everything…

 

[DSMc]

Hi Eric, this is Sylvia. We are paper-based. Since we are small, just David and I, having a pricey computer program for our work records just doesn't make sense. I also have been a secretary/bookkeeper for longer than I have been an arborist so am comfortable with those details. Here is what we do.
I have telephone message pads, purchased at any local office supply store, that has carbonless duplicates. I do my best to have those handy (always one in my onsite job bag). I also try to use only one at a time rather than having multiple pads going simultaneously. The original message is removed from the pad and goes in the estimate book until the estimate is done and written up and then can be thrown away. You still have the duplicate in your pad (which I have found very helpful many, many times over the years).
We have job sheets that are carbonless duplicate. Kept very simple, ours are half sheet size. I write them up during the estimate, give the client the top (original) and keep the duplicate. Large bids with multiple detail simply go to however many new sheets are necessary with Page 1 of 3 (or whatever) written at the top of the bid sheet. The bid is then filed in a folder with most current on top. We get the majority of our bids, so this simple process works. Our bid sheet states our bids are good for 30 days, but I will keep them much longer for reference.
If a client opts to break down the work in phases for whatever reason, then I have learned to write up each phase separately, once they have committed to the job, to keep from losing track of work by inadvertently filing a job in the completed folder when there is still work to be done in the future.
If clients are home, they generally pay at time of service (which our job sheet states is when payment is due "upon completion of work". I write "Paid" on their copy and they have their cancelled check as a backup record. If they pay in cash, I am doubly sure to write "Paid" on their copy of the job sheet to assure them we received their payment. I also want that for my records. (Yes, we report everything.) If they are not home or request sending a check later, I enter that job in the jobs performed spreadsheet (see Excel comments below) and then keep that job sheet in a file marked "Unpaid Jobs" until payment is received. Then it is filed in the "Completed jobs" folder. I start a new folder yearly for work completed.
I bank income once a week and reconcile the bank statement promptly every month.
I do use Excel for simple, concise records, but keep everything hard-copied for 7 years. Computers crash....I have trust issues.
I keep all expenses itemized in Excel on a monthly basis with a yearly reconciliation, which makes filing taxes very easy. Receipts are stapled together monthly (or filed in specific folders if relevant) and kept together annually.
All jobs are entered in an Excel spreadsheet are kept in a monthly chronological order. Again this makes tracking income and hours spent on jobs easy. Each year opens a new book, with each month a new page within that book.
For equipment purchased that is depreciated rather than expensed out in a year, I have made copies of the IRS depreciation worksheets and simply start a new one each year. On your tax records, you bundle all previous year depreciation in one spot but the current year activity goes in another. Again, this system keeps it very simple, IMHO. When all items are completely expensed out, that page is marked accordingly and filed at the back of that folder.
I keep ALL records in hard copy for seven years.
I do keep an Excel page for projected jobs for the following year as we have so many repeat clients that simply say "put us on your schedule for next year". I use to be able to trust my memory....
It is all to easy to drop everything when you come home tired from work. And I do have file folders on my desk for job sheets to be entered, receipts, etc. But I have found it is much better and easier to enter a job and any receipts for expenses daily than let them stack up where you have to spend hours at the computer rather than minutes.
All of this works well for us.
Take care and hope all is well.

Sylvia

 

[colb]

Paper systems are really great for hurricane work, where power and wifi are not givens. Might be interesting to start a thread about that and see if the responses are similar to the ones you have so far...

 

[Serf Life]

Hi Eric, this is Sylvia. We are paper-based. Since we are small, just David and I, having a pricey computer program for our work records just doesn't make sense. I also have been a secretary/bookkeeper for longer than I have been an arborist so am comfortable with those details. Here is what we do.
I have telephone message pads, purchased at any local office supply store, that has carbonless duplicates. I do my best to have those handy (always one in my onsite job bag). I also try to use only one at a time rather than having multiple pads going simultaneously. The original message is removed from the pad and goes in the estimate book until the estimate is done and written up and then can be thrown away. You still have the duplicate in your pad (which I have found very helpful many, many times over the years).
We have job sheets that are carbonless duplicate. Kept very simple, ours are half sheet size. I write them up during the estimate, give the client the top (original) and keep the duplicate. Large bids with multiple detail simply go to however many new sheets are necessary with Page 1 of 3 (or whatever) written at the top of the bid sheet. The bid is then filed in a folder with most current on top. We get the majority of our bids, so this simple process works. Our bid sheet states our bids are good for 30 days, but I will keep them much longer for reference.
If a client opts to break down the work in phases for whatever reason, then I have learned to write up each phase separately, once they have committed to the job, to keep from losing track of work by inadvertently filing a job in the completed folder when there is still work to be done in the future.
If clients are home, they generally pay at time of service (which our job sheet states is when payment is due "upon completion of work". I write "Paid" on their copy and they have their cancelled check as a backup record. If they pay in cash, I am doubly sure to write "Paid" on their copy of the job sheet to assure them we received their payment. I also want that for my records. (Yes, we report everything.) If they are not home or request sending a check later, I enter that job in the jobs performed spreadsheet (see Excel comments below) and then keep that job sheet in a file marked "Unpaid Jobs" until payment is received. Then it is filed in the "Completed jobs" folder. I start a new folder yearly for work completed.
I bank income once a week and reconcile the bank statement promptly every month.
I do use Excel for simple, concise records, but keep everything hard-copied for 7 years. Computers crash....I have trust issues.
I keep all expenses itemized in Excel on a monthly basis with a yearly reconciliation, which makes filing taxes very easy. Receipts are stapled together monthly (or filed in specific folders if relevant) and kept together annually.
All jobs are entered in an Excel spreadsheet are kept in a monthly chronological order. Again this makes tracking income and hours spent on jobs easy. Each year opens a new book, with each month a new page within that book.
For equipment purchased that is depreciated rather than expensed out in a year, I have made copies of the IRS depreciation worksheets and simply start a new one each year. On your tax records, you bundle all previous year depreciation in one spot but the current year activity goes in another. Again, this system keeps it very simple, IMHO. When all items are completely expensed out, that page is marked accordingly and filed at the back of that folder.
I keep ALL records in hard copy for seven years.
I do keep an Excel page for projected jobs for the following year as we have so many repeat clients that simply say "put us on your schedule for next year". I use to be able to trust my memory....
It is all to easy to drop everything when you come home tired from work. And I do have file folders on my desk for job sheets to be entered, receipts, etc. But I have found it is much better and easier to enter a job and any receipts for expenses daily than let them stack up where you have to spend hours at the computer rather than minutes.
All of this works well for us.
Take care and hope all is well.

Sylvia

Wow that was a great post! Please drop by often for more business insight Sylvia. -Sven

 

[oceans]

Thanks to everyone for your replies! Great information. I should have included more in my original post regarding our current setup, but I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone at all would reply to this thread… so here it is now, based on “flow”:

- Contact: We get a call, email, or message and follow up through the same channel or whatever works best for the client.
- Schedule Estimate (Hybrid): Melanie keeps a paper calendar she can write on during intake, determines when I meet them, and writes that info into her paper calendar. She also populates the iOS Calendar app with all the names and times plotted out.
- Estimates (Hybridl): I use an app called Joist. I write them up and email them along with a brief message. These can be sorted in the app as “pending”, “approved”, or “declined”. Once approved, it gets printed out and put into a folder “to be scheduled”. We schedule based on the priorities of hazard level, third party requirements, timeliness foe the given species/time of year, etc…
- Schedule Work (Paper): Melanie fills in her paper calendar with the work orders I’ve organized for the week and then she knows who to reach out to and let them know when we can likely perform the work.
- Work: The easiest part.
- Invoice (Digital, mostly): I ensure the work order/estimate matches what was done, edit if required, conver to invoice, and email. Sometimes I am handed a check or cash, some prefer to pay online, some pay online. Many clients are away at the time, and they can send a check in the mail, or again, pay online.

Our real struggles include:

First off…Melanie and I have 2 toddlers and a 1 year old, high energy puppy. This may be the greatest hurdle right now, an it keeps Melanie extremely occupied through the entire day. It also makes phone conversations seemingly impossible unles the stars are all aligned.

Contact: I cannot handle this based on memory, or if people see me in town and say “hey, come by when you can”. It;s best if we have a voicemail, email, or message. I actually think messages and emails are best because you can easily refer to the “trail”. Again, phone calls are tough for Melanie.

Schedule Estimate: Melanie actually does a pretty darn good job of this, but I’m often leaving the digital documents incimplete due to time constraints and the number of appointments to keep during my estimate day. Then I have to write them up later, which I can often do based on memory, but its not always best. I used to write everything in detail as I wanked around with the client, but an overwhelming majority of work is repeat, and I often feel allow myself to relax and enjoy the time. Present self doesn’t seem to care about future self that has to write the estimate at some other highly inconvenient time. This will require more discipline on my behalf.

Scheduel Work: So hard to do based on personnel availability, equipment mobilization, and perhaps mostly the looming backlog. We too often try to figure out who will need to wait or get pushed back. I really don’t like that feeling during those decision making sessions.

Work: Usually a cakewalk.

Invoice: Simply discipline on my behalf. I sometimes allow a bit too much time to pass before getting them all out by the end of the week. Sometimes, by the end of the week, I cant remember what work we did, so having the paper calendar schedule helps refresh my memory.

I do all the bookkeeping quarterly. I have binders that file all the receipts, statements, and related documents.

I’ve looked into a number of fully digital options, but Melanie doesn’t like that environment as she tries to schedule. I can relate to that, since, overall, the digital world doesn’t seem friendly when trying to zoom in and out of scale. I also agree with you, Sylvia, that paper backups can’t crash like a computer can. I might not share your trust issues, but certainly the sentiment toward computers. If any of you see any way we could tweak our system for the better, please share!

 

[Stumpsprouts]

Then I have to write them up later, which I can often do based on memory, but its not always best. I used to write everything in detail as I wanked around with the client, but an overwhelming majority of work is repeat, and I often feel allow myself to relax and enjoy the time. Present self doesn’t seem to care about future self that has to write the estimate at some other highly inconvenient time. This will require more discipline on my behalf.

What I’ve found works for me is walking around with client for as long as the conversation requires, taking no notes- then when all has been said, I tell them I’ll take some time (sometimes a couple minutes, sometimes 20) to walk around and take all my notes and write up the estimate. I don’t know how I would remember anything even if I wrote it down as soon as I got home. This has this awkward affect of them waiting around for me (usually pulling weeds in the garden, or going back inside) but saves a lot of time for both in the long run. A lot of customers are surprised and stoked that they won’t have to wait weeks to get an estimate, which is what I hear others doing.

I really appreciate the reminder that the work itself is the easiest part. So true!

 

[Reach]

Doing the work is the easy part, as @Stumpsprouts says. I’ve found that many (most?) self employed people are great technicians and lousy businessmen. That being said, there’s no good reason you can’t either get better at business, or hire someone who is to run that side of things. As my coach says, when you work for yourself, there are no jobs you have to do, you can pick and choose the work you want, and pay someone else to do the rest.

My thoughts on your system is that going electronic would likely make things much easier for you. Jobber would probably be a great system, as it integrates with Google Calendar and iCalendar both. Also, you can create your quotes right on the app, using prefilled fields that contain your standard wording for the things you do most.

Jobber would save you a lot of time, once you get it set up, and will save a lot of transcribing notes onto and off of computers like you seem to be doing now. I would be happy to try to walk you through what we do and how, as I think you would like doing everything through Jobber once you’ve done it a bit. If you have some interest, and time, we can do a Zoom call, or a phone call with a screen share and I’ll show you how our setup works.

 

[OasisTree]

Thanks to everyone for your replies! Great information. I should have included more in my original post regarding our current setup, but I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone at all would reply to this thread… so here it is now, based on “flow”:

- Contact: We get a call, email, or message and follow up through the same channel or whatever works best for the client.
- Schedule Estimate (Hybrid): Melanie keeps a paper calendar she can write on during intake, determines when I meet them, and writes that info into her paper calendar. She also populates the iOS Calendar app with all the names and times plotted out.
- Estimates (Hybridl): I use an app called Joist. I write them up and email them along with a brief message. These can be sorted in the app as “pending”, “approved”, or “declined”. Once approved, it gets printed out and put into a folder “to be scheduled”. We schedule based on the priorities of hazard level, third party requirements, timeliness foe the given species/time of year, etc…
- Schedule Work (Paper): Melanie fills in her paper calendar with the work orders I’ve organized for the week and then she knows who to reach out to and let them know when we can likely perform the work.
- Work: The easiest part.
- Invoice (Digital, mostly): I ensure the work order/estimate matches what was done, edit if required, conver to invoice, and email. Sometimes I am handed a check or cash, some prefer to pay online, some pay online. Many clients are away at the time, and they can send a check in the mail, or again, pay online.

Our real struggles include:

First off…Melanie and I have 2 toddlers and a 1 year old, high energy puppy. This may be the greatest hurdle right now, an it keeps Melanie extremely occupied through the entire day. It also makes phone conversations seemingly impossible unles the stars are all aligned.

Contact: I cannot handle this based on memory, or if people see me in town and say “hey, come by when you can”. It;s best if we have a voicemail, email, or message. I actually think messages and emails are best because you can easily refer to the “trail”. Again, phone calls are tough for Melanie.

Schedule Estimate: Melanie actually does a pretty darn good job of this, but I’m often leaving the digital documents incimplete due to time constraints and the number of appointments to keep during my estimate day. Then I have to write them up later, which I can often do based on memory, but its not always best. I used to write everything in detail as I wanked around with the client, but an overwhelming majority of work is repeat, and I often feel allow myself to relax and enjoy the time. Present self doesn’t seem to care about future self that has to write the estimate at some other highly inconvenient time. This will require more discipline on my behalf.

Scheduel Work: So hard to do based on personnel availability, equipment mobilization, and perhaps mostly the looming backlog. We too often try to figure out who will need to wait or get pushed back. I really don’t like that feeling during those decision making sessions.

Work: Usually a cakewalk.

Invoice: Simply discipline on my behalf. I sometimes allow a bit too much time to pass before getting them all out by the end of the week. Sometimes, by the end of the week, I cant remember what work we did, so having the paper calendar schedule helps refresh my memory.

I do all the bookkeeping quarterly. I have binders that file all the receipts, statements, and related documents.

I’ve looked into a number of fully digital options, but Melanie doesn’t like that environment as she tries to schedule. I can relate to that, since, overall, the digital world doesn’t seem friendly when trying to zoom in and out of scale. I also agree with you, Sylvia, that paper backups can’t crash like a computer can. I might not share your trust issues, but certainly the sentiment toward computers. If any of you see any way we could tweak our system for the better, please share!

I was where you are several years ago...You need to seriously think about a remote secretary. All of this type of work can be done remotely, it just take some time to get your processes figured out. I started out by hiring a remote secretary service, but after seeing what all could be done, went on to hire my own local girl and have my own processes. She only lives 5 min from the shop, but only come in for our safety mtgs. She also does parts runs, etc.
At this point the only thing my secretary is responsible for is client management, and it is a 40 hr. per week position.

 

[OasisTree]

Do you get many updates withdraw pro? I got caught three times this year with updates to iPhone and deleted everything back to my last backup. Sucked in a big way if not doing immediate email backup of everything…

I made it a point to get an Ipad without a SIM...and Goodnotes can be worked with offline. So when I get back to my wifi at the shop all of the pics and screenshots automatically upload to Google Photos, and then the updates happen overnight. I have not had an update that deleted anything, but I do feel prepared for that.

 

[southsoundtree]

I was where you are several years ago...You need to seriously think about a remote secretary. All of this type of work can be done remotely, it just take some time to get your processes figured out. I started out by hiring a remote secretary service, but after seeing what all could be done, went on to hire my own local girl and have my own processes. She only lives 5 min from the shop, but only come in for our safety mtgs. She also does parts runs, etc.
At this point the only thing my secretary is responsible for is client management, and it is a 40 hr. per week position.

What kinda wages does someone like this expect in your market?

 

[oceans]

Doing the work is the easy part, as @Stumpsprouts says. I’ve found that many (most?) self employed people are great technicians and lousy businessmen. That being said, there’s no good reason you can’t either get better at business, or hire someone who is to run that side of things. As my coach says, when you work for yourself, there are no jobs you have to do, you can pick and choose the work you want, and pay someone else to do the rest.

My thoughts on your system is that going electronic would likely make things much easier for you. Jobber would probably be a great system, as it integrates with Google Calendar and iCalendar both. Also, you can create your quotes right on the app, using prefilled fields that contain your standard wording for the things you do most.

Jobber would save you a lot of time, once you get it set up, and will save a lot of transcribing notes onto and off of computers like you seem to be doing now. I would be happy to try to walk you through what we do and how, as I think you would like doing everything through Jobber once you’ve done it a bit. If you have some interest, and time, we can do a Zoom call, or a phone call with a screen share and I’ll show you how our setup works.

I will hit you up. Any chance you’ll be at Expo?

 

[Reach]

I will hit you up. Any chance you’ll be at Expo?

Sounds good. Unfortunately I will not. I wish I could go, but my schedule just won’t permit me to go this year.

 

[oceans]

I was where you are several years ago...You need to seriously think about a remote secretary. All of this type of work can be done remotely, it just take some time to get your processes figured out. I started out by hiring a remote secretary service, but after seeing what all could be done, went on to hire my own local girl and have my own processes. She only lives 5 min from the shop, but only come in for our safety mtgs. She also does parts runs, etc.
At this point the only thing my secretary is responsible for is client management, and it is a 40 hr. per week position.

We had that going this past spring/summer. A young woman in our neighborhood that was laid off came in to handle phone calls, emails, messages, etc. She also had a green thumb and wanted to help in the field when required. It kinda worked, but it still required a good chunk of my time.

All that said, my wife, Melanie, actually wants the job, and she’s the best at it. I get loads of compliments from clientele about how wonderful she was on the phone. She just needs more time/space to do the work. She does not want to be fully digital right now because she has to manage the work in short spurts when the kids are safe. Having dinitial devices is not her preference In moments like that. She prefers paper for her own reasoning. It’s funny because I began this thread to learn some techniques that would help her, but she recently said digital would be fine once the kids don’t require so much supervision.

Perhaps its all a waiting game in that sense, but gosh, I need something to tide us over and take the edge off right now.

 

[evo]

Thanks to everyone for your replies! Great information. I should have included more in my original post regarding our current setup, but I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone at all would reply to this thread… so here it is now, based on “flow”:

- Contact: We get a call, email, or message and follow up through the same channel or whatever works best for the client.
- Schedule Estimate (Hybrid): Melanie keeps a paper calendar she can write on during intake, determines when I meet them, and writes that info into her paper calendar. She also populates the iOS Calendar app with all the names and times plotted out.
- Estimates (Hybridl): I use an app called Joist. I write them up and email them along with a brief message. These can be sorted in the app as “pending”, “approved”, or “declined”. Once approved, it gets printed out and put into a folder “to be scheduled”. We schedule based on the priorities of hazard level, third party requirements, timeliness foe the given species/time of year, etc…
- Schedule Work (Paper): Melanie fills in her paper calendar with the work orders I’ve organized for the week and then she knows who to reach out to and let them know when we can likely perform the work.
- Work: The easiest part.
- Invoice (Digital, mostly): I ensure the work order/estimate matches what was done, edit if required, conver to invoice, and email. Sometimes I am handed a check or cash, some prefer to pay online, some pay online. Many clients are away at the time, and they can send a check in the mail, or again, pay online.

Our real struggles include:

First off…Melanie and I have 2 toddlers and a 1 year old, high energy puppy. This may be the greatest hurdle right now, an it keeps Melanie extremely occupied through the entire day. It also makes phone conversations seemingly impossible unles the stars are all aligned.

Contact: I cannot handle this based on memory, or if people see me in town and say “hey, come by when you can”. It;s best if we have a voicemail, email, or message. I actually think messages and emails are best because you can easily refer to the “trail”. Again, phone calls are tough for Melanie.

Schedule Estimate: Melanie actually does a pretty darn good job of this, but I’m often leaving the digital documents incimplete due to time constraints and the number of appointments to keep during my estimate day. Then I have to write them up later, which I can often do based on memory, but its not always best. I used to write everything in detail as I wanked around with the client, but an overwhelming majority of work is repeat, and I often feel allow myself to relax and enjoy the time. Present self doesn’t seem to care about future self that has to write the estimate at some other highly inconvenient time. This will require more discipline on my behalf.

Scheduel Work: So hard to do based on personnel availability, equipment mobilization, and perhaps mostly the looming backlog. We too often try to figure out who will need to wait or get pushed back. I really don’t like that feeling during those decision making sessions.

Work: Usually a cakewalk.

Invoice: Simply discipline on my behalf. I sometimes allow a bit too much time to pass before getting them all out by the end of the week. Sometimes, by the end of the week, I cant remember what work we did, so having the paper calendar schedule helps refresh my memory.

I do all the bookkeeping quarterly. I have binders that file all the receipts, statements, and related documents.

I’ve looked into a number of fully digital options, but Melanie doesn’t like that environment as she tries to schedule. I can relate to that, since, overall, the digital world doesn’t seem friendly when trying to zoom in and out of scale. I also agree with you, Sylvia, that paper backups can’t crash like a computer can. I might not share your trust issues, but certainly the sentiment toward computers. If any of you see any way we could tweak our system for the better, please share!

I’m entirely digital and it does sound like you are half way there.
I’m not sure if I’d feel the same way about jobber if I wasn’t grandfathered in for their pricing. The cool thing is you can do as much or as little on it as you wish. Saying that I just hired my first remote office staff.
The benefits of jobber has been scheduling! And sounds like you are already doing a hybrid digital paper system which doesn’t have to change.
The biggest pro is having their client request form on my website, when the neighbor or who ever wants work I just tell them to please fill out a request form on my website! This has a few check boxes so I have them prepared for the difference between a quote and estimate, travel time for two zip codes away etc.
From there they get dog piled on the jobber calendar where they then get a call back a few days before the quote day (recently I’ve been a few weeks backed up on quotes! So they get a call much sooner. The jobber calendar has a route feature which is pretty good for the most part, once the day is full they get a call with a ball park eta for the quote.
Next best feature is they now have a client portal where they can view where they are at on the calendar for the job, all their quote/job/invoice history..
One thing I’m having to work on is that I have three work numbers! Cell, voicemail, and a google voice number (for the remote office). I’m also transitioning from my personal (or what has become my personal) email address. Chelsea has full reign in jobber, the google voice, and company email. The cool thing is I just forward the voicemail to the email, and voicemails on the cell I manually send to the email address.. Chelsea picks it up from there, the company email is a gmail address so we use the tasks plug in. Basically sticky notes, and there are a few specific todo lists where emails can be just clicked and drug to create them.
It’s sounding like y’all are somewhat stuck in your ways with hybrid paper systems. Using jobber can still fully allow you to do all of that paper as you see fit, but it does give the customer a digital copy of a few more details.

Very soon I’m going to be charging for estimates, and write a few terms and conditions PDF’s beyond my normal terms and conditions on the contract.
The cool thing is all of this can now be automated, potential client calls, chases you down in the grocery store, emails or what ever. You can just direct them to your website (also generates more traffic for higher ratings etc), they get all the gritty details of charges (quote, travel expenses, consult and or assessments), and then you get all the needed name, address, email data right where you needed it. Schedule that shit how you see fit! Then all your billing and invoices are under that roof too as you see fit! It can just be a digital carbon copy sheet on the internal side if needed…
Now this client portal/request form doesn’t even have to be on a website, or you can just add a hyper link on your email signature, text it to clients or whatever..

 

[OasisTree]

What kinda wages does someone like this expect in your market?

Mid to upper teens, but that would be on the high end.

 

[oceans]

Thanks to all for contributing. Since I began this thread, I’ve moved my family to our current dream house, which is a res/com property that’s move in ready, and has enough room to grow with an addition or two to the house, and a nice big shop to park all my equipment in. I also finally have a fully dedicated room to be my office. I’ve been dreaming up this board for a while, and it’s now operational.

Because I can’t seem to stay away from tangible paper, and don’t want to rely fully on the digital environment, I have this. I’ll describe the board from left to right…

- First, I have 12 months of ring binders, color coded by season, and labeled with the name of the month. Each binder has 4 folders within for all the weeks of the month. When an estimate is approved, it gets printed out and plugged into the folder. Each folder is based on a reasonable amount of production based on crew members on hand. When all four weeks of a binder are full, it gets a “full” sticky note, and we begin scheduling into the next month‘s binder. Recurring seasonal work is pre-populated into the proper binder. Now we have in immediate visual handle on our back log.

- Next is the dry erase board. It has a list of Estimates to be completed, Invoices to be sent, pre-scheduled time off for the crew, internal communications, and two weeks at a glance.

- Next is the cork board. It holds things like company rate sheets, permits, and children’s art, so far.

- Below the binders are previous years of tax documents and receipts. All immediately available in little clear totes. The current year tote sits on my desk and gets added to daily. At the end of a quarter, copies of all necessary documents are brought to the accountant.

To me, because of what it’s been like in years past, this feels really, really, REALLY good. Hard to even express, but I might be approaching the quan. Yes, the quan. Forgive the slight mess and the bins. We’re still unpacking and organizing the house. Open to any and all feedback. Thanks!