PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Moving Pressure Washing Scheduling Off Paper, Whiteboards and Spreadsheets

Paper calendars, whiteboards and spreadsheets got a lot of pressure washing companies off the ground. They are cheap, familiar and flexible. They also stop working at a predictable point: when there are too many recurring customers to remember, too many rain days to rewrite, or more than one rig that needs to see the plan. If you have hit that point, this is a plan for moving off them without a messy week in the middle.

The Last Mistake on the List

Running two schedules at once was the final item in Pressure Washing Scheduling Mistakes That Cost You a Day. A switch to software is when that mistake is most likely, because for a while the old and new systems overlap. The goal is to make that overlap as short as possible.

What Paper Does Well, and Where It Breaks

Paper and whiteboards are fast to write on and easy to see. A spreadsheet can hold a customer list and some dates. Where they break down in pressure washing:

• Rain days. Moving twelve jobs on a whiteboard means erasing and rewriting, then texting every crew member.
• Recurring work. Nothing reminds you a monthly drive-thru is due. You have to remember.
• Routing. Paper does not know where anything is. The order is whatever you wrote down.
• Crews. The crew sees the plan only if someone sends it to them, and it is out of date the moment anything changes.
• Customers. Every reminder and on-the-way message is a manual call or text.

Step 1: Bring In Your Customers

Start with your customer list. If it is in a spreadsheet, export it as a CSV file and use CSV import. Imported addresses are placed on the map automatically, which is what makes routing and the Waiting List map work from day one.

If the list is on paper or in your phone, start with your recurring customers and anyone booked in the next few weeks. You do not need every customer you have ever had on day one.

Step 2: Add the Details That Lived in Your Head

Paper systems leave most of the important information in the owner's memory. Before you rely on the new board, add to each active address:

• Job details: surfaces, square feet, stories, siding, method. The property map can measure square feet and linear feet from the satellite view if you never wrote them down.
• Access notes: spigot location, gate code, dogs, plants to cover, cars to move.
• Recurring interval: minimum days between visits for each recurring service.

This is the step that takes the longest. Do it over a few evenings, starting with the customers you will see soonest.

Step 3: Set Up Rigs and Crew

Add your rigs and your employees, each with a personal PIN, and assign them to rigs. Have each crew member log in to the crew app on their phone with the company login and their PIN. It runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and can be installed to the home screen, with no app store download.

Step 4: Schedule One Week on the Board

Pick a week to switch, ideally not the busiest week of spring. Put every job for that week on the dispatch board, assign rigs, auto-route each day and place timed stops by hand. From that week on, the board is the schedule.

The hard part is the rule: the board wins. Erase the whiteboard or turn it to the wall. Stop updating the spreadsheet. If a crew member wants paper, print a route sheet from the board each morning.

Step 5: Turn On Customer Alerts

Once jobs are on the board, customer alerts can do their work. Customers choose night-before, when-they're-next and arrived alerts, and on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically from the crew's phone. Mention the new texts to regular customers so the first one is not a surprise.

What to Expect the First Few Weeks

Expect a little friction. A gate code you forgot to add. A recurring customer whose interval was wrong. A crew member who keeps checking the old whiteboard. Fix each issue on the address as it comes up, and it stays fixed. After a few weeks, the system knows what your head used to know, and the daily routine gets short.

When you are deciding which system to switch to in the first place, the checklist in Choosing Pressure Washing Scheduling Software: What to Check Before You Switch covers what to look for.

Paper to Board, One Week at a Time

Import customers, add the details, set up rigs and crew, switch one week, turn on alerts. For the tools you will use after the switch, visit the pressure washing scheduling software page.