Heads, pipe runs and the metres past standard.
Count the units, measure the pipe run, and every part prices off your own rate, so a back-to-back and a run through the roof space come out at different numbers.
Quoting today: measure it on site, and it works out the quantitiesWhat Stringline does about each one.
- The quote said back-to-back. The customer wanted it on the other wall, and the pipe went through the ceiling. Measure the run on site and the metres past standard price themselves off your rate, so the other wall is a different number before you agree to it.
- The unit price moved between the quote and the order, and the margin went with it. Units sit in your price book at your cost with your margin on top. Change the cost once and every quote after it is right.
- Every install should turn into a service a year later, and that list lives in your head. The site and the install are on file, so the service is a quote off the same job rather than a phone number on a sticker.
What you measure, and what falls out.
Tap the dimensions in on site. Stringline works the quantities out from what you measured, so your pricing stays accurate.
Your rates. Minutes for one of a thing, times what your labour costs.
A rate is how long a piece of work takes you for one square metre, one metre or one of them, and what your labour costs. Multiply it by what you measured, add the materials and your margin, and that is the item on the quote. These examples are made up; yours won't be.
- High wall, back-to-back install
- 240 min each
- Pipe run past standard
- 15 min / lm
- Ducted outlet
- 60 min each
- Annual service
- 60 min each
Then your crew's hours check it. Every hour is against the work that priced it, so when a rate is costing you more than you charge for it, Stringline tells you and offers to put it up. You approve it, and every quote after that uses the new rate.
The ones heat pump installers ask us.
How do I charge for a WiFi module?
Add it under Materials with what it costs you and what you sell it for, then add it to the quote. If fitting it takes time you want paid for, make a rate priced each as well, and measure it as a counted item. Most installs getting one? Put both on a quote template and they are there before you start.
The run is not back-to-back. How does the extra pipe get on there?
Measure the run on site and enter it with the indoor unit. Your install rate includes the metres you allow for, and everything past that prices itself off your pipe-run rate, so the other wall is a different number before you agree to it.
Two heads on one outdoor unit?
One entry per head today: put in each indoor unit with its own run, and each install prices on its own while the pipe adds up across them. Multi-split priced as a single assembly is on the list below, not built.
How do I quote the annual service?
The unit lives on the property, with how often it is serviced and when it is next due. On that date a task lands on your list, and Quote the service opens a quote for it off your service rate. Record the service and the next date moves on by itself. Your customer hears from you when you send the quote, not before.
What heat pump installers get today.
The parts worth knowing about before you sign up, all of them in Stringline today.
- Every unit you install kept on the property, with its make, model, serial, warranty, next service date and the history under it
- An enquiry form that lets them ask for an annual service by name, and turns the ask into a priced draft quote
- Indoor units measured with their pipe run, and the metres past your standard allowance worked out for each one
- Rates by the unit, the metre or the outlet, priced from minutes and what your labour costs
- A proposal the customer accepts online, and follow-ups that stop once the quote is answered
- Quote to job without retyping, crew on a board, clock-on from the van
- Deposit, progress and final invoices off the quote, with overdue reminders
- Rates that tell you when the clock disagrees with the book
- Before and after photos on the job, from the phone
- Materials ordered from the quote and emailed to your supplier, closed off by their invoice
- Card payments on your invoices, and invoices into Xero with the payments coming back
- Quote templates, and a price book read out of your old quotes
- A wishlist board, where you put up what you need and vote on what others have asked for
- Produce the CoC and ESC for the wiring on the job itself: WorkSafe's form, filled from the job, signed on the screen and kept with it
- A next service date on the job, which puts the quote for it on your list when it comes round
Something missing? Every account has a wishlist board, where you can put up what you need and vote on what others have asked for.