GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Commercial Doors

Door Records Per Building: Brand, Model, Serial, Size and Bay for Every Commercial Door

A good door record answers the tech's first questions before they ask them. Which door? What kind? How big? What's running it? When was it put in? On a house with one garage door, the tech can figure most of that out by looking. On a building with a dozen doors, the record is what keeps the visit short.

Records Live on the Building

Where records go in an account — on the address, not the client — is covered in One Client With Many Addresses: How Commercial Door Accounts Are Set Up. This guide is about what goes in each record.

In GarageDoorBossPro, every address keeps a list of its doors and hardware. Each item is one piece of equipment: a door, an opener, a set of springs, a gate opener, a keypad. A building can have as many items as it needs.

The Fields That Matter

Each item can carry:

• Type. Commercial rolling door, commercial sectional door, garage door, garage door opener, torsion springs, extension springs, cables & drums, keypad, remotes, safety sensors or gate opener.
• Brand. What the label says.
• Model # and serial #. Copied exactly from the label.
• Year installed. If it is known.
• Size. A door size like 12x14, or an opener's HP.
• Drive or material. Belt, chain, screw or wall-mount jackshaft for openers; steel, insulated steel, wood, aluminum & glass or composite for doors.
• Bay. Single, double, Bay 1, Bay 2, Bay 3, detached, shop or commercial dock.
• Access notes. Anything specific to that one door.

Not every field has to be filled in on day one. A record with type, size and bay is already useful. Brand, model and serial get added when the tech has a look at the label.

Bay Labels Do the Heavy Lifting

On commercial buildings, the bay field is often the most important one. A building with six identical sectional doors is only clear if each one has its own label. Use the client's own numbering wherever it exists: if the dock doors are painted 1 through 6, use those. If the shop calls them by what's parked inside, put that in the door notes next to the bay number.

When there is no numbering, agree on one with the client and put it in the address access notes: “Doors numbered left to right standing in the lot facing the building.” Every tech who goes there afterward counts the same way.

From House: Records Onto Jobs

When the office creates a job at a building, the “From House” picker shows the doors and hardware saved on that address. Pick the door the job is about, and its details fill in on the job. Nobody retypes a serial number over the phone.

The tech sees those details on the job card: “Commercial Rolling Door · 10x10 · Steel · installed 2018,” the serial on the next line, and “Commercial Dock 3 · the one with the bent bottom bar” below it. Past notes from earlier visits show too.

Jobs Back Onto Records

The flow runs both ways. When the tech changes a door's details on a job — a corrected serial, a year from the paperwork in the office, a new opener installed — the change flows back to the address. The next job at that building starts with the updated record.

This is what keeps commercial records from going stale. Nobody has to remember to go back and update the building after the job. Replacing a door or opener on a job replaces it on the record.

Records Make Everything Else Work

Door records feed the rest of the commercial account:

• Inspections. A door safety inspection checklist means more when it is tied to a clearly identified door. See Inspection Reports for Facility Managers: Showing What Was Checked on Every Door.
• Estimates. Door details can be filled in on an estimate and carry onto the job when it is approved.
• Measurements. Each property can also hold measurements like square feet, doors and openers, and services can be priced off them.
• Photos. A photo of the model label on the job backs up the record.

When the Label Is Missing

Older commercial doors don't always have a readable label. Paint, weather and years of use wear them off. When that happens, record what the tech can see — type, size, material, bay — and note that the label is missing. A door record with no serial is still far better than no record at all, and the bay and size are what get the next tech to the right door.

Building the Habit

The first visit to any commercial building is when records get built. Ask the tech to walk the building and add every door and opener they can see, even ones that aren't on today's job. It adds a few minutes to the first visit and saves time on every visit after.

For how door records tie into maintenance plans, inspections and monthly billing, go back to the commercial garage door software page.