Logging Hours and Materials on Every Handyman Job
The Two Numbers You Always Guess
Ask a handyman how long a typical drywall patch takes and you'll get a range. Ask what they spent on materials last month and you'll get a shrug. Both numbers are guesses because nobody wrote them down at the time.
What to Record
On the handyman checklist in HandymanBossPro, each job has:
- Hours on site, entered by the tech before completing.
- Materials used, a short description such as "drywall patch kit, joint compound, texture spray".
- Materials cost, the dollars spent for this job.
- Tasks completed, a simple count for honey-do visits.
Hours for Hourly Jobs
If you bill a service call by the hour, the logged hours are the number the office bills from. No more calling the tech at 6pm to ask how long the Johnson job took. The hours are on the job, entered at the house.
Materials for Pricing
Materials cost is what keeps flat-rate pricing honest. If your TV mounting price assumes you supply a $40 mount, and the last ten jobs show you supplied $70 mounts, it's time to change the price or the mount.
Making It a Habit
The trick is to make it part of Complete. Before the tech taps Complete, they fill in hours and materials. It takes less than a minute, and after a month you have real numbers instead of guesses for every service you sell.
Keep Reading
Next in this series: Before and After Photos: Why Every Handyman Job Should Have Them. Before that came Task Lists on the Job: Getting the Honey-Do List Out of the Text Thread. For the full picture, go back to the handyman software overview.
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