GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Tune-Ups & Maintenance Plans

Saving Every Door, Opener and Spring at the First Garage Door Tune-Up

The first tune-up at a new plan customer's house is the best chance you will get to write down everything in the garage. The tech is already there, already looking at every part of the door, and already has the phone out for the checklist. A few extra minutes on the first visit pay off on every visit after it.

Start the History Right

Why house history matters over the years is covered in Door and Opener History on the House: Why Every Tune-Up Makes the Next One Better. This guide is about building that history from scratch at the first visit.

If the customer came to you through a repair or install, some equipment may already be saved. If they signed up on your website or came over from another company, the house may be blank. Either way, the first tune-up is when the record should become complete.

What to Save

Every property in GarageDoorBossPro keeps a list of its doors and hardware. At the first tune-up, aim to save:

• Each garage door. Brand, model, size (like 16x7 or 9x7), material (steel, insulated steel, wood, aluminum & glass or composite), year installed if known, and bay.
• Each opener. Brand, model, serial, HP, drive (belt, chain, screw or wall-mount jackshaft), and year installed if known.
• Springs. Torsion or extension.
• Cables & drums. As part of the door's hardware.
• Safety sensors, keypad and remotes. How many remotes the household uses is a useful note.

Detached garages, shops and second bays get their own bay label, so “Bay 2” and “Detached shop” never get mixed up.

A Simple Routine

A tech who does it the same way every time saves the equipment in a few minutes:

• Start with the doors. One entry per door, with its bay. Note size and material before anything else.
• Then the openers. Read the labels while you are already up there for the opener force & limits check.
• Then the hardware. Springs, cables & drums and sensors, as you go through the checklist.
• Then the extras. Keypad, remotes and anything unusual.
• Finish with access notes. Where the side door key is, whether there is a dog, which bay is used for storage.

A photo of each label is a nice backup. Before and after photos taken in the app are saved with the job, so if a model number is hard to read later, the picture is there.

When You Do Not Know

Not every label is readable and not every homeowner knows when the door went in. That is fine. Save what you can and mark what you cannot:

• No visible label: save the type, size and material, and leave the model blank.
• Unknown year: ask the homeowner if they know roughly when it was installed, or note your best estimate with “approx.”
• Unclear spring setup: write what you can confirm and let the next visit fill in the rest.

Never guess at a model or serial number and write it down as fact. A wrong model number is worse than a blank, because the next person will trust it. Write “unreadable” and move on.

A record that is mostly complete is far more useful than a blank one. Each later visit can fill in the gaps, and changes on the job flow back to the house.

Why It Pays Off

Saving equipment at the first visit makes everything that follows easier:

• Next year's tune-up. The tech sees the doors, opener and hardware on the job card before arriving.
• Repair calls. When the customer calls with a problem, the office already knows what is in the garage. New jobs fill in from the house with the “From House” picker.
• Estimates. Door size and opener details are already on hand, and equipment details carry from the estimate onto the job.
• Readings. Door age and opener age on the inspection come straight from the year installed.
• Pricing. If your tune-up is priced by door, the doors saved on the house and the property measurements set the right price.

Pricing by door is covered in Pricing a Garage Door Tune-Up Plan Customers Will Renew.

Imported Customers

If you brought existing plan customers in by CSV import, their addresses are on the map but their equipment may be thin or missing. Make it a rule: the first tune-up after import is a documentation visit. The tech runs the normal checklist and saves the equipment on the house as they go.

Within one full year of tune-ups, every plan house will have a complete record. For how equipment records fit with the rest of the tune-up program, see the garage door maintenance software page.