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All About Plumbing Bids

By Scott Rodgers

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 07Sep2009
Word count: 565
Viewed: 231 time(s)

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It's not enough to just do the job - as a professional plumber, you also have to know how to value it. That's why the best and most experienced plumbers have a lot of knowledge about all of the bits and pieces in a service work bill or invoice.

So maybe you're not the world's best paperwork guy - and I really wasn't what you were hired for when you started at your first plumbing job, where you are part of a crew, and some other faceless entity handled all of the billing etc. but then, you kept on working, and eventually started going out on jobs on your own. Now the situation might be different - you find yourself dealing with record-keeping situations. Clients want to know what was done and when. New clients want to know what will be done, when it will be done, and how much it will cost.

All of this stuff can make your head spin, and if that's happening to you, you're not alone. The thing is, if you do want to go out on your own, you'll have a responsibility to get this stuff done.

One big resource is what I call "basic technology". Sure, it doesn't look basic when you look at it for the first time, but with a little fiddling around, an .xls spreadsheet can become your most trusted friend. You cut and paste your clients names in the little boxes, along with phone numbers, service dates, and any other information, and you have your own personal database. When you want to update, just open the file and added two more of those empty little boxes and is your client base gets bigger, so does that one easy page.

But that's not all, you can also put service details in a spreadsheet. Using "line items" for all of the stuff you do at a particular job site is an easy way to do invoicing. Just add the dollar amounts on the right, use the help file to create a SUM, and the spreadsheet will calculate the total for you!

This is the same kind of stuff that office people use to do their invoicing and handle their clients. But as a plumber, there's really no reason for you to do anything different. This is a tried and tested system that is about the easiest way to control this kind of data. Along with the technology, you basically have to be organized. Keep the right phone numbers on your speed dial, or written down on paper where you can get to them. Keep your materials receipts, and keep your service dates handy, along with all of your expenditures, especially if you're a personal contractor and will need all that stuff at tax time.

A lot of times, going from 0 to 60 in record-keeping is about as easy as I just described. You'll be a whiz in no time if you just put your nose to the grindstone and follow a few simple instructions. Self-discipline in record-keeping also goes a long way. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of just driving groggily from one job site to the next, failing to write anything down, and doing halfhearted work along the way. By a good notebook, or even a good laptop computer, and be diligent about getting your work down on paper. You will thank yourself later.

Scott Rodgers is a plumber who has recently begun writing articles for both a plumbing and non-plumbing audience. To view more of plumbing articles, visit http://eLocalPlumbers.com

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