Interested In Advertising? | Contact Us Here
Warning!

 

Welcome to Clean It Up; the UK`s largest cleaning forum with over 34,000 members

 

Please login or register to post and reply to topics.      

 

Forgot your password? Click here

Adam P

  • Posts: 1448
software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« on: July 11, 2011, 11:08:21 pm »
just wondering if anyone uses any software to help with quoting commercial properties? i've seen a few online and all seem very scammy and it's hard to see how good they'd be without purchasing.

i know i can put the info into excel, in fact it's what we do for domestic quotes, but for commercial especially on bigger sites i'd feel more comfortable if was had software that made this more automated, e.g. how many toilets: 90, how many sinks: 75, then it'll work out a toilet should roughly take 1 minute to clean, sink 30 seconds and a total time.

if there isn't any decent software for this is there any where to find a time list of how long each job should take. e.g how long it should take to clean each toilet, how long it should take to mop each square foot of hard floor (depending on soiling levels)

Pristine Clean

  • Posts: 1149
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2011, 06:57:25 am »
You can purchase from BICSc book on cleaning and timings. They have tables in the books to estimate how long things take.

However what it wont do is your expenditure i.e. cost of cleaning chemicals, your overheads and how much profit you want from a contract. It will only give an average on production rates. So if you are a slow worker or your employee is a slow worker it will throw your quote out of the water and you will lose money.

Without sounding as though I am picking on you, You should be able to quote small and large jobs just by walking round each site. If you are not sable to do that... you may not be ready to take on large contracts.

When I first started in this industry going it on my own. I made many mistakes on quotes and site surveys. One of those mistakes was wanting the contract too much. That straight away throws a spanner in the works as you cut corners, under price and do not give the customer the service they are actually looking for.


Dave
"You have to except that some days you are the statue and other days you are a pigeon"

Adam P

  • Posts: 1448
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2011, 10:00:12 am »
i appreciate the advice dave. what i'm struggling with is knowing how realistic/correct I am with timings. I know my speed, i know the staff's speed who i work closly with, but i don't know how true this is for when we get bigger. this new site is big enough that i won't be hopefully doing any of it except to cover so it really needs to be spot on.

for instance this site has 73 toilets. i'm afraid of both over estimating and under as the possibility of getting it incorrect is fairly large. I've heard of people using software that you simply say how many desks, sinks etc and then the size of the place, how difficult each area is estimated to be and then it'll work out an idea of timings, then you'd do the rest. was hoping for something like that.

Pristine Clean

  • Posts: 1149
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2011, 07:48:25 pm »
Theres something called the cleaning bid model. Search on the net. It does give you a fairly good estimate on timings. It was created on an excel spread sheet - think it costs about £45 quid.


Heres a lnk

http://www..com/bidmodel.htm

or

there this - it s sheet with timing on. Yes its american but we cant help that. It might help..Hope it does
"You have to except that some days you are the statue and other days you are a pigeon"

Robert Parry

  • Posts: 535
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2011, 01:34:09 am »
I assume that this bid is the big one you asked for help previously on in another thread.

To be honest that proposal should have already been delivered by now, but I understand that you had to wait for the client to send you further details regarding the floor maintenance procedures.

Bid or estimating software only works if you know exactly what your doing, and are prepared to make substantial modifications to the programme. No programme is able to cover all the variables, due in large part to both the contractors and prospective clients lack of expertise. Ask 100 cleaning contractors to cost the same building, and you will find that as well as a large costing difference, there will be massive differences in the actual specification as well. There are of course a vast number of other things to consider as well. In many cases, the prices quoted will of course be roughly the same, however, specification, overheads etc will be once again different.

If the client has indeed sent you the information that you have requested, you must have some how made an impression, and must have at least a small chance of landing this contract.

Your hang up on standard times or average times will do you no good here!

You state that the building in question has a total of 73 toilets, you state earlier on in the thread that you allow 1 minute to clean a toilet, I am assuming that you are basing this time on you domestic work, or very low level office use, this time surely cannot include the actual stall. The time to complete each unit will be far closer to 3 minitues each, however depending on fit, finish, density, location and footfall could again be adjusted down closer to 2 minutes per unit.

Other items/areas etc will work out the same as above.

Obviously the above sentence means that any standard time for different items/tasks/area's could be adjusted in the same way, and does not mean that each iten/task/area will take 2 minutes!

Different types of buildings of course, have different standard times for the same tasks/items/areas etc. You have failed to provide any details on this point!

The other thing to remember of course, is that in commercial buildings staff and visitors give very little thought to any mess that they may make, as they do not have to clean up after themselves, unlike when they are at home!

Forgive the capitals, but below is a very high risk stratergy that you may wish to consider, again I have to assume that the building is at present being cleaned by another contractor or perhaps by in-house staff, if not all bets are off!  ;D

DURING YOUR SITE SURVEY, I ASSUME THAT YOU DISCUSSED THE HOURS THAT YOU WILL SUPPLY SERVICE FOR. AGAIN I ASSUME THAT IF IT IS PRESENTLY CLEANED BY ANOTHER CONTRACTOR OR IN-HOUSE, YOU FOUND OUT HOW MANY STAFF YOU MAY INHERIT UNDER TUPE.

THIS INFORMATION WILL ALLOW YOU TO ASCERTAIN HOW MANY SERVICE HOURS  THE BUILDING RECIEVES AT THE MOMENT.

AGAIN I ASSUME THAT YOU ASKED THE REASONS FOR THEM WANTING TO CHANGE CONTRACTORS OR MOVE AWAY FROM IN-HOUSE CLEANING, AND TOOK DETAILED NOTES OF WHAT WAS SAID AT THE TIME!

DEPENDING ON THE ANSWERS TO THE ABOVE, YOU COULD VERY WELL BE IN A POSTION TO SUBMIT A PRICE, THAT WILL NOT BE ALL THAT FAR OUT.

IF THE CLIENT IS VERY UNHAPPY WITH THE STANDARDS BEING ACHEIVED, SUSPECT THE FOLLOWING: POOR MANAGEMENT, POOR SUPERVISION, INADAQUATE SPECIFICATION, INADAQUATE HOURS ETC. AND ADJUST YOUR HOURS ACCORDINGLY!


BEWARE IF THEY ARE LOOKING TO CUT COSTS!

CONCENTRATE ON FINDING THE ACTUAL LABOUR COST, INCLUDING AN INCREASE IN YOUR PUBLIC/EMPLOYEE LIABILITY INSURANCE, HOLIDAYS, SICKNESS, PAYROLL, TRAINING ETC.

NEXT ADD IN UNIFORMS, PPE (personal protective equipment), CHEMICALS ETC.

NEXT COMES EQUIPMENT AND MAINTENANCE COSTS.

THEN COMES OVERHEADS AND OTHER FIXED COSTS.

THEN YOUR VARIABLE COSTS.

THEN THE PROFIT, PLEASE REMEMBER, BE REALISTIC HERE, THIS ONE CONTRACT IS NOT GOING TO MAKE YOU RICH, YOU MUST IN MY OPINION EXPECT A PROFIT OF BETWEEN 4%/10%. THIS WILL ADD UP YEAR ON YEAR WITH VERY LITTLE WORK ON YOUR PART PROVIDING YOU RUN A TIGHT SHIP.

If you are able to provide the following infomation, I may well be able to help further.

Accurate size of building
Staff numbers
Visitor numbers (approx)
Building type (modern office/period office/warehouse etc)
Opening hours/days
Approx age of building
Type of business (call centre/insurance office etc)
Layout of building ( open plan/individual offices/security ie offices locked or left unlocked)
Time of cleaning service and number of days
Accurate size of areas (carpets, vinyl, altro, tile, laminate etc)
Accurate size of kitchens
Accurate size of toilets
Accurate size of canteens
Details of your cleaning specification in full
Details of equipment that you plan to use including any floor powered machinery

If you can supply the above information, you could then compare my results, with the method outlined above, and make I feel a pretty good guess on this particulat site, however the information must be accurate, if you have to guess, stick with the high risk method outlined above, as the figures supplied by myself would be of no use at all.

I SHOULD POINT OUT THAT ANY FIGURES I SEND YOU WILL ALLOW YOU TO WORK OUT LABOUR HOURS ONLY, I WILL NOT COST THE CONTRACT FOR YOU!

YOU SHOULD ALSO NOTE THAT NO PROVISOIN HAS BEEN MADE FOR CONSUMABLES IE. BIN BAGS, TOILET ROLLS, SOAPS, SANI-BINS, BLACK SACKS ETC, WHICH SHOULD BE ADDED AND CHARGED FOR SEPERATELY!

Regards,

Rob
 

 
A world of difference....

Adam P

  • Posts: 1448
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2011, 02:18:29 am »
thanks for great reply. too late to reply in full now though will just quickly answer one thing and that is this site is brand new. building isn't yet completely built so they have no current specification at all. have been told the hours i can clean and was then told on the day they'd send a specification of everything else they'd want, which i assumed was frequency, numbers etc as it was at this point i was asking these questions but was told they'd send the files with all the info. i know it's been too many days now so it's unfortunately unlikely that we'll big successful on this large one, though with that said the person is slow to respond and i'm still currently waiting on a response on something else they asked for so even if i knew the information i'd usually know i still couldn't complete the quote for reasons that aren't my fault.

as mentioned will respond better when i get a minute.

Pristine Clean

  • Posts: 1149
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning New
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2011, 06:53:57 am »
Theres something called the cleaning bid model. Search on the net. It does give you a fairly good estimate on timings. It was created on an excel spread sheet - think it costs about £45 quid.


Heres a lnk

http://www..com/bidmodel.htm

or

there this - it s sheet with timing on. Yes its american but we cant help that. It might help..Hope it does

Why have my links been removed? Is there a clause that we cannot do this anymore?

"You have to except that some days you are the statue and other days you are a pigeon"

Adam P

  • Posts: 1448
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2011, 06:16:25 pm »
pristine: i'm guessing that site either spammed here so they auto remove the site, or it's competition, or the owner simply doesn't like them.

email sent robert

garyj

Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2011, 07:07:35 pm »
http://www.com/bidmodel.htm

You just put 2 dots after www!

If you modify it I'll delete this.

Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2011, 08:16:29 pm »
what a nice bloke you are Gary.....  ;D

garyj

Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2011, 10:50:44 pm »
Hello Hector  ;D, can you give me a shout, lost your number  :-[ , be good to catch up.

Posted by: easter bunny    Posted on: Today at 06:16:25 pm
Insert Quote
pristine: i'm guessing that site either spammed here so they auto remove the site, or it's competition, or the owner simply doesn't like them.

email sent robert


Are you impressed with my simple reply  ;D.
Not like Easter to over elaborate and get it wrong  ;D ::)

Pristine Clean

  • Posts: 1149
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2011, 06:30:46 am »
Here's the link again...

http://www..com


I have not just type 2 dots after www it automatically disappears when I press save. See attached screen shot

but it here it is www dot the cleaning site dot com as it gets removed automatically. You try and see what happens GaryJ.

You may want to delete your post, as I have attached a picture of what I typed out and I pressed Save - it gets removed. Looks like Easter bunny may have won that one.

Even if you type the cleaning site as one word with www dot****dot com it gets removed. Why is this? Try it.
regards

Dave

"You have to except that some days you are the statue and other days you are a pigeon"

Robert Parry

  • Posts: 535
Re: software for automated quoting commercial cleaning
« Reply #12 on: July 14, 2011, 09:35:17 am »
Hi Adam,

Mail sent!

Best of luck!

Regards,

Rob
A world of difference....