GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Running a Garage Door Business

Simple Reports a Garage Door Business Owner Should Check Every Week

Plenty of business advice tells owners to watch their numbers. Then it hands them a dashboard with forty charts. Most garage door owners do not need forty charts. They need a handful of plain answers each week: what got done, what got paid, what is still open and what is coming up. A short look at those every Monday is worth more than a perfect report nobody opens.

Why Simple Beats Fancy

Stepping back from the van, as described in Getting the Owner Out of the Van: Protecting Owner Time in a Garage Door Business, only works if you have a quick way to see how the company is doing without riding along all week.

The reports below are deliberately simple. Each one answers a question an owner would otherwise have to ask someone. In GarageDoorBossPro most of them are a list or report you can open in a minute: jobs, invoices, estimates, the Waiting List and Form Responses.

1. What Got Done Last Week

Start with completed jobs for the week, by van or by tech. You are not looking for a single number so much as a feel for the week: how many repair calls, how many installs, how many tune-ups. Was one van overloaded and the other light? Did a tech skip several jobs, and if so, why? Skipped jobs carry the tech's note, so the reason is right there.

Over a few weeks, this tells you whether your work mix is what you want it to be.

2. What Got Billed and What Got Paid

Next, look at invoices from the week and which are paid. With card on file charged when the tech taps Complete, many will already be paid. The rest are the ones to watch. Then check the past-due list. Is anyone slipping? Is a builder or property manager statement late? Past-due follow-up sends reminders, but the owner should still know who owes what.

This is often the most important report in a small company. Plenty of busy companies have money problems because work got done and never got collected.

3. Open Estimates

Look at estimates that have been sent and not approved. Which are big ones, like new doors or opener installs? Which are getting old? Estimate follow-up emails go out on their own, but a personal call from the owner on a large quote can make the difference. Watch for patterns too: if a certain kind of quote rarely gets approved, the price or the way it is presented may need a look.

4. Tune-Ups and Maintenance Coming Due

Open the Waiting List. It shows every visit that has come due, with pins colored not due yet, due now, and overdue past a 7-day grace. Lots of overdue pins mean the office is falling behind on booking plan customers. A big group coming due next month means you can plan a quiet week around them. This is the report that protects your repeat revenue.

5. New Requests and Leads

Check Form Responses for website requests and sign-ups that have not been booked or converted yet. A sign-up converts to a client with one click. Anything more than a day old deserves a call today. Leads cool off fast, which is the subject of Answering Leads Fast: How a Garage Door Company Stops Losing Calls to Voicemail.

6. Next Week by Van

Finally, look ahead. Open the dispatch board for next week and filter by van. Is the install van booked solid? Is the repair van's schedule loose enough to absorb emergency calls? Is anything booked for a tech who is off? Five minutes here prevents a lot of Monday-morning scrambling.

Look for Trends, Not Single Weeks

One slow week means little. Three slow weeks in a row means something. Keep a short note of the main answers each Monday, such as how many jobs were completed, how much is past due and how many tune-ups are overdue, and look back at them once a month. Patterns over time tell you when to hire, when to push tune-up plans, when to chase a slow-paying account and when a price needs another look.

Put It on a Schedule

Pick one time each week, Monday morning is common, and go through these six in order. It takes far less time than you might expect once it is a habit, and it means you never have to ask “how are we doing?” and wait for someone to guess.

Tags and custom fields make reports more useful over time: tag plan customers, referral sources, builder accounts and commercial accounts so you can pull them up on their own. The weekly routine for the office, which goes hand in hand with these reports, is next. For the full business toolset, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door business software page.