GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Commercial Doors

Estimates for Commercial Door Replacements: From Site Visit to Approved Job

Commercial doors don't last forever. They take hits from trucks, get worn out by heavy use, or reach the point where another repair doesn't make sense. Replacement work is some of the best-paying work a door company does, and it usually starts with an estimate the client has to approve before anything gets ordered.

Where Replacement Work Comes From

Billing for the finished job is covered in Monthly Statements by Address: One Bill for Every Door Job at Every Property. Before there is anything to bill, there is the estimate.

Replacement estimates on commercial accounts usually come from one of three places:

• Maintenance visits. The door safety inspection checklist marks a door Repair recommended, and the recommendation says it is time to replace.
• Damage. A truck or forklift hits a door hard enough that repair isn't worth it.
• Upgrades. The client wants insulated doors, a different style or new openers across a building.

Building the Estimate

In GarageDoorBossPro, estimates are built from your own service list — whatever services you have set up. For a commercial replacement, that might include new door install, commercial door repair, opener install, removal of the old door and any panel or section replacement on doors that are staying. Each one is a line on the estimate at your price.

Estimate templates help with repeat work. If you often quote the same kind of dock door replacement, save it as a template and start each new estimate from it.

Door Details on the Estimate

Equipment details can be filled in on the estimate: the new door's type, size, material and brand, or the new opener's HP and drive type. When the estimate is approved and becomes a job, those details carry onto the job. When the job is done, they flow back onto the address, so the building's door record shows the new door without anyone retyping it.

The existing door record helps too. When the office builds the estimate, the old door's size, bay and details are already on the address, so the estimate starts from facts instead of a phone conversation. For the record side, see Door Records Per Building: Brand, Model, Serial, Size and Bay for Every Commercial Door.

Measurements on the Property

Each property can hold measurements like square feet, doors and openers, and services can be priced off them. For a building where the client wants every door replaced, the door count on the property is the starting point for the estimate's quantities. Keep those measurements current when you walk the building.

Online Approval

Once the estimate is built, the client approves it online. For a commercial client, the person approving is often a facility manager or property manager who isn't on site. They open the estimate, look over the lines and approve. The approved estimate becomes the scheduled job, ready for the office to put on a van and a day.

Estimate follow-up emails go out if the client hasn't answered, which matters on commercial work where the approver has other things on their plate. More on that in Getting a Property Manager to Say Yes: Online Estimate Approval and Follow-Ups.

Backing Up the Estimate

Commercial clients often have to justify a replacement to someone above them. Give them what they need:

• The inspection results and recommendation from the last visit, printed as a Garage Door Safety Inspection report.
• Before photos from the tech app showing the condition of the door.
• Clear line items, so nobody has to ask what a lump sum covers.

An estimate that arrives with its own backup gets approved faster.

Quoting Several Doors at Once

Commercial replacements often come in groups. A warehouse wants three dock doors replaced, or an HOA board wants a price for every unit in one building. Put each door on its own line, labeled with its bay or address, so the client can approve all of it or pick the doors that need it most this year. A clear, door-by-door estimate makes it easier for a manager to split the work across budgets, and the record of what was quoted stays with the client for the next conversation.

Scheduling and Billing the Install

Once approved, the replacement shows up as a scheduled job. In a typical setup, one van handles installs, so the office puts the job on that van's day. The tech sees the new door details on the job card, takes before-and-after photos and taps Complete. The invoice is created from the job, with the line items from the estimate and sales tax, and either goes out on its own, charges a card on file or lands on the client's monthly statement under the right address.

For how replacement estimates fit with the rest of your commercial work, go back to the commercial garage door software page.