Thanks — the estimate-vs-actual tracking part is really interesting.
When you track several jobs, how do you actually use that history when quoting the next similar job? Do you keep it in a spreadsheet/software, or mostly rely on experience?
And what’s the most annoying part of that process?
Good questions. To be upfront, I don't quote cleaning jobs myself. I work on the systems side with service businesses, so this is what I see the ones who do it well doing. And the 40% in my earlier comment was an example of the kind of pattern that can show up, not a real figure. Yours will be your own.
Using the history: the best setups keep one simple record per job property size, condition score, quoted hours, actual hours. Before quoting a new property, they pull up the last few jobs with a similar size and score, check the average gap between quoted and actual, and adjust the new estimate by that. That can live in a spreadsheet or in your job software. What matters is that you look at it before you quote, not just record it afterward.
The most annoying part, from what I hear, is consistency. Recording actual time is easy to skip on a busy day, and one missed job makes the data less trustworthy. It also takes a few dozen jobs before the pattern is reliable, so it feels like effort with no payoff at first.
Do you have how you handle it on your end?. nuttapat1974
