WindowBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

One Van on Homes, One on Storefronts: Routing Recurring Window Cleaning Plans

Residential and storefront window cleaning are close cousins, but they are different days. A residential day might be six or eight homes with ladders, screens, inside work and access notes. A storefront day might be thirty quick stops along main streets with a bucket, a pole and a short ladder. Mixing them on one van every day works when you are small. Once the plan base grows, many companies split them: one van on homes, one on storefronts.

Why Split the Work

Storefronts carrying the slow months is a big part of Keeping the Window Cleaning Route Full Year-Round With Recurring Plans. Running them on their own van is how that route stays efficient.

The two kinds of work need different things:

• Timing. Storefronts often need early mornings before shops open. Homes usually start later, after customers are up.
• Equipment. Storefronts rarely need tall ladders. 2-story and 3+ story homes do.
• Pace. Storefront stops are short and many. Residential jobs are longer and fewer.
• Plans. Storefronts run every two weeks or monthly. Homes run quarterly or twice a year.

Splitting them lets each van and tech settle into a rhythm instead of switching modes all day.

From the Waiting List to Each Van

In WindowBossPro, every recurring cleaning comes due on the Waiting List when its minimum days between visits have passed. The pins are colored not due yet, due now and overdue past a 7-day grace. From there:

1. Look at the due Storefront clients on the map. Assign them to the storefront van, grouped by corridor or shopping center.
2. Look at the due Residential clients. Assign them to the residential van, grouped by neighborhood.
3. Add any one-time jobs, like spring cleans and move-outs, to the residential van's days.
4. Check overdue pins first on both sides, and put them on the next day that passes nearby.

Tags like Storefront and Residential make this quick. For more on setting those up, see Using Quarterly and Storefront Tags to Run Recurring Window Cleaning.

Ordering the Stops

Once the jobs are assigned, the Scheduled List and dispatch board show each van's day. Filter by van to see one at a time. Auto-route can order the stops Closest First or Furthest First from the shop, or you can set the route order by hand.

For the storefront van, hand-ordering is often worth it at the start of the day: restaurants and cafes before they open, then the rest of the route. For the residential van, auto-route usually does the job, with a tweak here and there for a customer who asked for the afternoon.

Whatever order you set is the order each tech sees on the phone.

What Each Tech Sees

The tech app shows each tech their own jobs in route order, with a navigation button, the window details and access notes on every card. A storefront tech might see “12 windows · 1-story · Outside Only” with a note like “Before 10am only.” A residential tech might see “28 windows · 2-story · Inside & Outside · Screens” with a gate code and a note about the dog.

Both techs use the same buttons: Start, Skip and Complete, with before-and-after photos. On-the-way and arrived texts go to customers automatically. When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created, the card on file can be charged and the plan starts counting again. The office sees crew GPS on the map, so it knows where each van is during the day.

Keeping the Two Routes Balanced

Splitting work does not mean the vans never help each other. A few common adjustments:

• If the storefront van finishes early, pull a few due homes nearby that do not need the tall ladder.
• If the residential van is light in winter, send it out on the storefront route to share the load.
• In the spring rush, let the storefront van take one-time jobs in the afternoon after its shops are done.

The Waiting List makes all of this easy, because every due cleaning sits in one place regardless of which van usually takes it.

Billing Stays the Same

Splitting the vans does not change how customers pay. Homes and single storefronts can be charged on completion with a card on file. Property managers and businesses with several locations can be set to Monthly and get one statement covering every location, each line labeled by address, no matter which van cleaned which building.

Two Vans, Two Rhythms

One van on homes and one on storefronts lets each route run the way it naturally wants to. The Waiting List feeds both, auto-route orders both, and the tech app runs both. For the full picture of recurring plans and routing in WindowBossPro, return to the recurring window cleaning software page.