GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Commercial Doors

Rolling Doors and Sectional Doors: Keeping Commercial Door Records That Techs Can Use

A residential garage usually has one or two doors, and anyone who has been to the house once remembers them. Commercial buildings are different. A single address can have rolling doors on the loading side, sectional doors on the drive-in side, an opener on every one of them and a gate opener at the fence line. If the record says “commercial doors” and nothing else, the tech starts every visit from zero.

Start With the Building, Not the Job

The bigger picture of commercial accounts is laid out in Commercial Garage Door Software: The Complete Guide for Door Companies Serving Businesses and Property Managers. This guide narrows in on the two door types that make up most commercial work.

In GarageDoorBossPro, door records live on the address, not on a single job. Every property keeps a list of its doors and hardware, and that list stays put between visits. A job at that building pulls from the list, and anything the tech updates on the job flows back to it. That is the habit that makes commercial records useful: write it down once, on the building, and keep correcting it as you learn more.

Commercial Rolling Doors

Rolling doors show up at storage facilities, warehouses, shops, service counters and anywhere space above the opening is tight. When you record one, the fields that help the next tech the most are:

• Type: commercial rolling door, so it is never confused with a sectional on the same building.
• Brand, model # and serial #: whatever is on the label, exactly as written.
• Size: the opening size your shop uses, written the same way every time.
• Material: steel, insulated steel, aluminum or whatever applies.
• Year installed: if the client knows it or it is on the paperwork.
• Bay: Bay 1, Bay 2, shop or commercial dock.

If the door has an operator, record it as its own item: a garage door opener with brand, model, HP and drive type (often a wall-mount jackshaft on commercial doors). Keeping the door and the opener separate means a tech who is there for an opener problem can see the opener details without digging.

Commercial Sectional Doors

Sectional doors are common on drive-in bays, fire station apparatus bays, auto shops and dock positions. They carry the same fields as rolling doors, plus a few details that are worth noting because they come up when parts or a replacement are discussed:

• Material and whether it is insulated steel, aluminum & glass or something else.
• Whether it has windows or a full-view section, noted in the access or door notes.
• Which springs and cables it uses, recorded as their own items when the tech knows them.

Torsion springs, extension springs, cables & drums, safety sensors and keypads can each be saved as separate items under the same address. That sounds like a lot, but the tech only fills in what they see, and the record fills out over a few visits.

What the Tech Sees on the Card

All of this shows on the job card in the tech app. A line might read “Commercial Sectional Door · 12x14 · Insulated Steel · installed 2016,” with the serial on the next line and the bay below it: “Bay 3 · north side, closest to the wash bay.” The tech walks in knowing which opening to go to and what is hanging in it.

Compare that with a work order that says “door won't close, back of building.” At a building with six doors on the back wall, that note costs time and sometimes a phone call to someone who doesn't answer.

Keeping the Record Honest

Records only help if they stay accurate. A few habits keep them that way:

• Use the same size format. Pick one way of writing door sizes and stick with it across every building.
• Label bays the way the client does. If the warehouse calls it Dock 4, write Dock 4, not “fourth from the left.”
• Update on replacement. When a door or opener is replaced, change the brand, model, serial and year on the job. It flows back to the address.
• Photograph labels. Before-and-after photos taken in the app stay on the job, and a photo of a model label settles arguments later.

For a closer look at keeping every door at every building straight, see Door Records Per Building: Brand, Model, Serial, Size and Bay for Every Commercial Door.

Why It Pays Off

Good door records make commercial work faster and easier to sell. The tech arrives with a better idea of what to bring. The office can answer a manager's question about a door without sending someone out. And when it is time to quote a replacement, the estimate can carry the door details already on file, so the new door goes onto the record when the job is done.

Records also make inspections mean something. A door safety inspection checklist on a door that is clearly identified, with its condition and recommendations attached, is something a facility manager can act on. The same checklist on “a door at the back” is not.

To see how door records fit with maintenance plans, inspection reports and monthly billing, go back to the commercial garage door software overview.