[Stoots]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

[p1w1]

cleaner planner

[Jonny 87]

I use spreadsheets with all work organised into a days work hitting the target figure for the day I want to earn. (£5.60) 

Then I'm just disciplined. All work is grouped together in areas in the most efficient way possible. If I go out and start a run, I never finish half way as that would do my nut in.

Add on jobs I always book them in for the following month, (no time on the day) and then schedule around it. Usually means i do say one add on job on a Saturday afternoon. Or if I'm taking an easier day or day off completely during the week, I'll do a couple of the add on jobs that I need to get through.

Window cleaning is the bread and butter work for me. I don't let add on work like Conny roofs and facias get in the way off it. I just schedule them to suit myself.

[dazmond]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

i use cleaner planner too and no i dont have a problem organising my work.

i clean my work from A-Z in roughly the same order all year round.

i very rarely get behind with work due to weather and when i go on holiday i move all my work forward a week or two

[dazmond]

my round is mainly within a 5 mile radius too(350+ accounts)

[Stoots]

Cheers

Nothing to do with cleaner planner

I use george but it does the same thing.

Its mainly taking on new work, maybe some need to be on a certain day or rain delays, holidays, maybe a van based a down or if say rain stops me completing a days work then I take on an extra job and end up doing the missed work the following week.  Then that work is out of sync. Iver the course of a month it all adds up and results on compact days being split etc.

Cheers jonny87 maybe discipline is the way forward. I am guilty of finishING early sometimes and thinking I'll do that tomorrow then it rains. Then another job delays me

[Arnold Palmer]

i clean my work from A-Z in roughly the same order all year round.

Must be a nightmare! Does Mrs Adams stay next door to Mrs Bailey??

 

[Simon Trapani]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

I'm totally the same mate no matter what software I use.

For me commercials are fine as they pretty much always get done. Residentials of whole streets are mostly ok.

It's the dotted around houses I find hard to keep in order, especially if it falls on a day we've done commercial and are passing those houses. We need the dotted around ones though as they make up a fair amount of the round.

I've found making the every other time houses (12 weekly) wait until we're next in the road for 6 weeklys helps. The 6 weeklys are my priority. They are my bread and butter. The 12 weeklys are fine with that and if not they can get somebody else.

Worse thing I ever did, and I know not everyone will agree, was text customers for access the night before. If they forgot I don't go back but rarely charge full price for fronts though they are warned they may be, just in the hope it'll help them remember. We no longer offer text service for average size residentials.  It's too restricting.

I think it's always going to be a balance of being flexible but keeping your round in order to suit you.

I've tried Cleaner Planner & I'm currently trying out Aworka having been a George user for 10 years. Constantly shifting residential jobs forward at the moment on the Aworka planner due to the constant rain the last few days in the South West.  We got something like £1700 due tomorrow which we're obviously not gonna get anywhere near through. They'll get shifted again and again. It's a constant battle and I don't know what the answer is unless you work in the rain and we don't. We do sometimes put off fascia & guttering jobs until it's raining, but even with waterproofs, it's thoroughly miserable & more difficult with wages to pay.

If you're using George I found the bulk update for round order often messed up the permanent round order. I know with Aworka you can print a worksheet but edit the job order before you print that particular sheet. And I think it's temporary for that sheet, and won't affect your whole round order if you don't want it to. I hope so anyway!  I'm still getting to grips with it myself though.

[Tosh]

You're obviously poorly disciplined.

[Stoots]

You're obviously poorly disciplined.

Honestly that's a good answer. I am poorly disciplined. Never manage to stick to diets or go to the gym. 

[Stoots]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

I'm totally the same mate no matter what software I use.

For me commercials are fine as they pretty much always get done. Residentials of whole streets are mostly ok.

It's the dotted around houses I find hard to keep in order, especially if it falls on a day we've done commercial and are passing those houses. We need the dotted around ones though as they make up a fair amount of the round.

I've found making the every other time houses (12 weekly) wait until we're next in the road for 6 weeklys helps. The 6 weeklys are my priority. They are my bread and butter. The 12 weeklys are fine with that and if not they can get somebody else.

Worse thing I ever did, and I know not everyone will agree, was text customers for access the night before. If they forgot I don't go back but rarely charge full price for fronts though they are warned they may be, just in the hope it'll help them remember. We no longer offer text service for average size residentials.  It's too restricting.

I think it's always going to be a balance of being flexible but keeping your round in order to suit you.

I've tried Cleaner Planner & I'm currently trying out Aworka having been a George user for 10 years. Constantly shifting residential jobs forward at the moment on the Aworka planner due to the constant rain the last few days in the South West.  We got something like £1700 due tomorrow which we're obviously not gonna get anywhere near through. They'll get shifted again and again. It's a constant battle and I don't know what the answer is unless you work in the rain and we don't. We do sometimes put off fascia & guttering jobs until it's raining, but even with waterproofs, it's thoroughly miserable & more difficult with wages to pay.

If you're using George I found the bulk update for round order often messed up the permanent round order. I know with Aworka you can print a worksheet but edit the job order before you print that particular sheet. And I think it's temporary for that sheet, and won't affect your whole round order if you don't want it to. I hope so anyway!  I'm still getting to grips with it myself though.

That's a big problem for me is text the night before. I only do it for those that have access issues or some that I've just got into the routine of texting from the off when there no need.

But it is frustrating especially when I might have an easier day them look at my sheet and can't do that, or that or that locked gates.

[Dry Clean]

Self discipline can be a problem when working for yourself but the temptation to take on more work than you can
handle can also play a part, it becomes a constant battle to keep up.

[nathankaye]

Lol, im old school! !

All my work is pretty much compact, so for that im very fortunate. My whole round comprises of 6 parts and i set it each wk
Wk 1 --- round 1
Wk 2 --- round 2 n 3
Wk 3 --- round 4
Wk 4 --- round 5 n 6
Since going wfp the elements rarely interupt the routine, just depends on morale. Like todays its raining for me, it frustrates me a little rain getting into the van, water proofs etc etc. Yet im pleased im still earning and working but i wont get as much work done as i would in a dry week. But it just means i dont get the day off by end of the week.

My rounds are wrote out in a book, which i write out begining of a tax year in line when i do my accounts etc. I know i will probably take new work on and so i only write on one side of the page (if this makes sense). So any new work is done when im near that particular area.
Then once a year i put it all onto a spreadsheet ready to do my accounts. A little time consuming but it has done me good for all these years. If it aint broken dont fix it!

[KS Cleaning]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

From what I gather you are still trying to build your round? Try to even out the workload evenly over a 4 week period, don't be working 5 days one week then 2 and a half days the next,  because rest assured the add ons/ new work/ rainy days will happen on your 5 day week. If you spread the work evenly it leaves you time to take on extra work and allows for rainy days.

[dazmond]

if you  work 25-30 hours a week you ll hardly ever get behind schedule cos of weather.this is what i do.i work in all but the worst weather too.

holidays/time off is easy.just move your whole workload forward a week or two.

inevitably i have to reschedule some work sometimes(8 weeklys,6 weeklys,etc)but i can slot these jobs in here and there.

add ons are booked in for next window clean and i make time(which again is easier if your working week is usually 25-30 hours a week).

all clusters of 8 weekly work thats mixed in with 4 weekly always get cleaned "every other time" when im down that road/estate.

various stand alone accounts can be added on to a short day here and there.

text night before customers are very low(less than 10% of my current workload)

[Stoots]

Does anyone else find it a never ending battle to keep their round in the right order?

I try to group all the houses closest to each other on one day. I work across a 5 mile or so radius so it's roughly 1 village a day. 

But no matter what I do it always gets messed up. If go non holiday or rain delays or most commonly take on add on work then push the round back.

Look at my work due and there 1 house here, 2 over there etc. Find myself racing round in all directions.

Put it back in order and it will get messed up again!

How do you lot organise your work? And ensure it doesn't get messed up?

From what I gather you are still trying to build your round? Try to even out the workload evenly over a 4 week period, don't be working 5 days one week then 2 and a half days the next,  because rest assured the add ons/ new work/ rainy days will happen on your 5 day week. If you spread the work evenly it leaves you time to take on extra work and allows for rainy days.

Yes still building.

I think that's part of the problem. Because Im not full I will take on as much ax on work as possible. But I think what happens is I take on everything them the round ends up suffering. Them the add on work will slow down (like this week because it's raining) and I will look at my round and be like oh look at the mess its in

Hopefully once I have enough work the add ons will be kept to a bare minimum which will allow me to focus solely on the round.

[Stoots]

if you  work 25-30 hours a week you ll hardly ever get behind schedule cos of weather.this is what i do.i work in all but the worst weather too.

holidays/time off is easy.just move your whole workload forward a week or two.

inevitably i have to reschedule some work sometimes(8 weeklys,6 weeklys,etc)but i can slot these jobs in here and there.

add ons are booked in for next window clean and i make time(which again is easier if your working week is usually 25-30 hours a week).

all clusters of 8 weekly work thats mixed in with 4 weekly always get cleaned "every other time" when im down that road/estate.

various stand alone accounts can be added on to a short day here and there.

text night before customers are very low(less than 10% of my current workload)

Cheers daz. I think a good sort out is in order.

Lots of my add on work is not from regulars it's from Website enquirys so might be out of the way jobs.

Once I have more work I think I will.limit the add ons to existing customers so they can be booked in for next time like you say.

I have around 240 customers, I think I want about 300-350

[nathankaye]

On the basis that the add on jobs are nust that and from what youve just said about web enquiries. Would it not be best to schedule these say, on fridays. Allowing you to concentrate on your window rounds mon - thur.

[Shrek]

On the basis that the add on jobs are nust that and from what youve just said about web enquiries. Would it not be best to schedule these say, on fridays. Allowing you to concentrate on your window rounds mon - thur.

+1 , or just keep Saturday mornings for add ons . That way , there's more chance of being noticed and possibly gaining a few extra customers

[Stoots]

On the basis that the add on jobs are nust that and from what youve just said about web enquiries. Would it not be best to schedule these say, on fridays. Allowing you to concentrate on your window rounds mon - thur.

In theory yes, but sometimes these people want these things doing yesterday so sometimes its grab the cash whilst its on offer.

Shrek - weekends are not possible for me,  saturdays i have my kids over, sundays no chance im not that desperate!