Below Bid
Selecting A Janitorial Bidding Software That Meets Your Business Needs
Why Consider A Bidding Program?
Perhaps you’ve wondered from time to time, how did I lose that janitorial bid, or home cleaning services contract bid? Have you ever won a janitorial contract, only to find out that you severely under bid the contract, and you find yourself working that large, and time consuming account, with a smaller net profit, than you earn from many of your smaller cleaning accounts in your portfolio?
Well if you haven’t already considered looking for some type of cost effective janitorial bidding software, perhaps its time to consider including cost effective bidding software as part of your tool kit.
Searching On The internet:
Searching the internet for affordable cleaning services software, or janitorial software, which has janitorial contract bidding and sample janitorial proposal features, can be confusing. It is important to realize, that if you search for cleaning services software and janitorial software, as search terms, you will find results for sites whose products are designed primarily to help you determine employee workloads, schedule and track employees, and in some cases, allow you to manage supplies for each account you have. However, often these sites do not provide products dedicated to these two key features (i.e., dedicated to janitorial or cleaning services bidding and contract proposals.)
Be certain to include bid software or bidding software in your search phrase, along with the words janitorial, or cleaning, in the search phrase, that you search for. This will help you narrow your search for the proper software, that does includes these two key bidding features.
Software Features To Look For:
First, look for software that is easy to use. Usually this will be simple spreadsheet software, or more automated query-database programs. Generally, the spreadsheet software will provide you more flexibility, in tailoring janitorial and home cleaning bids to your business, but may require slightly more initial set-up.
Remember, once most of your bidding data has been entered correctly for the first cleaning contract bid that you use the software for, much of the work is done, and copies the program files, can be saved and reused for bidding on new cleaning services contracts, by making a few key adjustments to the figures in your spreadsheets. Although it is often a little less automated, spreadsheet bidding programs are usually much less expensive than other programs. To find cleaning services bidding spreadsheet based programs, try searching for the phrase, janitorial spreadsheet software.
Make sure that the software site you land on provides a clear description, and examples of the screen displays or spreadsheets that are used in the software. This will help you better understand how you might use the program, and what type of a learning curve you may be in for. Remember, most vendors will tell you that their software is easy to use.
This is because they developed it, and as with numerous products that are sold everyday, such claims help to market the product. Excel based spreadsheet programs, have one distinct advantage over other bidding programs, in that anyone who has basic Microsoft Excel skills, can generally learn it quickly. Also, if your not proficient at entering data into Excel, its most likely that someone you know is, and they may be able to help you get started quickly. As always, remember to save, and back-up your files.
Second, its a good idea to ensure that the program you are considering, has the following features or capabilities.
* Capable of making custom janitorial bids, prepared with detail and precision.
* Spreadsheets or program account files can be saved, and modified at a later date.
* Capabilities for inclusion of overhead data into your bid.
* Capabilities for inclusion of janitorial supplies cost data into your bid.
* Capabilities for inclusion of work loads for various cleaning tasks into your bid.
* Capabilities for inclusion production rates for cleaning tasks, over a–
–full range of cleaning areas (i.e., areas expressed in sq. ft.) into your bid.
* Includes a custom bid summary sheet for each customer or account.
* Provides an editable sample janitorial proposal template, with the bidding program.
* Provides charts/ tables, to help you find the correct production rate or workload factors.
Home cleaning or janitorial bidding software, that contains these features, will provide you with the most flexibility, in preparing precise residential and commercial cleaning bids.
Cost:
If you are a large commercial cleaning concern looking for an effective bidding program, and you don’t have employee scheduling and tracking software already, you may be best served by selecting a commercial cleaning services software package, that includes all of these features, i.e., employee scheduling and tracking, as well as bidding capabilities and janitorial contract proposal samples or templates.
Generally, these combined packages run hundreds of dollars to start, but may offer you the flexibility and control you need to manage large numbers of employees and accounts, and prepare new bids, all from one program. A more cost driven alternative, would be to shop for a more moderately priced employee scheduling and tracking program, and then select a cost effective janitorial contract bidding software, separately. Reliable spreadsheet based programs can be bought online for a fraction of more comprehensive janitorial software packages.
If you are a solo or small commercial janitorial service, or residential cleaning service, you may not need employee scheduling, tracking, and supply allocation features. However, in order to stay competitive and to ensure that you minimize the risk of incorrectly under or over bidding for a cleaning services contract, you should consider investing in cost effective bidding program, to help you prepare more precise bids for small, medium, and large cleaning contracts you wish to bid on in the future.
About the Author
Mario J. Alvarez is a freelance writer who specializes in business development research for small businesses.
email relevant questions about this article to: m.j.alvarez.business.development@gmail.com
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