WindowBossPro Blog — Window Cleaning Software

Reports in Window Cleaning Software: What Got Cleaned and What Got Paid

Most window cleaning owners know roughly how the business is doing. Roughly is the problem. Busy spring, slow winter, a few customers who might owe money, a storefront route that feels profitable. Reports turn “roughly” into numbers you can act on, and they come almost for free once the day-to-day work runs through software.

Reports Come From the Daily Work

In Office Users, Employees and PINs in Window Cleaning Software we saw that every Start, Complete, photo and clock-in is recorded under a person's name. Every invoice and payment is recorded too. Reports are simply those records added up. You do not fill out anything extra to get them; you just do the work in the software.

That is the key difference from a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet report is only as good as the last time someone updated the spreadsheet. A software report reflects what the techs and office actually did.

Questions Reports Can Answer

Here are the kinds of questions a window cleaning owner tends to ask, and why reports help:

• What did we clean this month? Completed jobs by day, by van or by type of work.
• What did we collect? Payments received, from cards on file and online payments.
• Who owes us? Open and past-due invoices, so follow-up goes to the right customers.
• How big is the recurring list? How many customers are on quarterly, twice-a-year, monthly and every-two-week plans.
• Residential or storefront? With tags like Residential, Storefront and Commercial on clients, you can compare how each side of the business is doing.

Using Reports to Make Decisions

Reports are only useful if they change something. A few examples of decisions they support:

Adding a van. If the Waiting List keeps filling with overdue pins and completed jobs per van are at their limit, it may be time for a second van, or a move to a plan that supports more vans.

Raising prices. If storefront work makes up a growing share of completed jobs but a small share of money collected, it may be underpriced.

Cleaning up billing. If past-due balances keep growing, it is a sign to push more customers onto cards on file and auto-charge.

Planning the season. Knowing how many quarterly and twice-a-year customers will come due in spring tells you how busy April will be before April arrives.

Checking skips. If one van skips far more jobs than another, the notes usually explain why: bad access notes, customers not getting reminders, or a route that is simply too long. Each of those has a fix, and the skip notes point to it.

Rewarding referrals. When customers refer friends through the customer app, you can see where new business is coming from and thank the customers who send it.

Keeping Reports Accurate

Reports reflect what goes into the system. A few habits keep them trustworthy:

• Complete jobs in the app. If a tech cleans the glass but never taps Complete, the job does not count and the invoice is not created.
• Skip with a note. Skipped jobs with reasons show where work is being lost.
• Use tags consistently. “Storefront” and “Retail” for the same thing split your numbers in two.
• Avoid duplicate clients. Two records for one customer split their history and their balance.
• Record payments in the system. A check taken at the door and never recorded leaves an invoice looking unpaid.

For more on keeping the customer list clean, see Clients, Addresses and Tags: Organizing Customers in Window Cleaning Software.

Who Should See Reports

Reports often include sensitive numbers: revenue, balances, what each customer pays. Office user roles let you decide who sees them. Many owners keep financial reports to themselves and a bookkeeper, while the dispatcher sees the operational side — jobs completed, jobs skipped, what is due.

A Weekly Habit

You do not need to study reports every day. A short weekly look is enough for most window cleaning companies: what got cleaned, what got paid, who owes money and what is coming due. Ten minutes on a Monday morning tells you more about the business than a month of guessing.

Over a full year, the same habit shows the shape of your season — when the recurring list peaks, when one-time spring cleans pile up and when the slow weeks hit. That is the information you need to decide when to hire, when to run a promotion and when to take a break.

Know Your Numbers

When the day-to-day work runs through the software, reports on what was cleaned and what was paid come along for free. Read more on the window cleaning software page.