GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Estimates & Quotes

Building Garage Door Estimates From Your Own Service List

Ask two people in the same garage door company what a spring replacement costs and you can get two different answers. One remembers last year's price. The other rounds up because the customer sounded rushed. The fix is not a stricter owner. It is a service list that everyone quotes from.

One List, Every Quote

The big picture of quoting is laid out in Garage Door Estimate Software: The Complete Guide to Quoting Repairs, Springs, Openers and New Doors. This guide covers the piece everything else sits on: the list of services you sell.

In GarageDoorBossPro, estimates are built from your service list. Each service has a name and a price you set. When the office builds a quote, they pick services from the list, and the names and prices come with them. The same list feeds jobs and invoices, so the words on the quote match the words on the bill.

What Goes on a Garage Door Service List

Start with the work you actually do, in the words your customers understand. A residential-heavy company might set up:

• Service call / diagnostic. The trip and the look.
• Torsion spring replacement. Possibly split into single and pair if you price them differently.
• Extension spring replacement. Often with safety cables as a separate line.
• Cable replacement and cable drum replacement.
• Roller replacement, priced per roller or as a full set.
• Off-track door repair.
• Opener repair and opener install.
• New door install and panel / section replacement.
• Safety sensor replacement, keypad install, remote programming.
• Weatherstripping and bottom seal.
• Yearly tune-up.
• After-hours emergency call.

Companies with commercial accounts add lines like commercial rolling door repair, commercial sectional door repair and loading dock door service. Whatever you sell, put it on the list.

Name Services the Way Customers Read Them

The service name shows up on the estimate the customer reads and on the invoice they pay. “TS-RPL-2” means something to you. “Torsion Spring Replacement (Pair)” means something to them.

A few habits help:

• Say what the work is, not the part number.
• Put the unit in the name when it matters: “per roller,” “per door,” “full set.”
• Keep similar services next to each other so the office picks the right one.
• Avoid near-duplicates. Two versions of “opener install” at two prices means someone will pick the wrong one.

Prices You Set, Adjustments You Note

Every service carries your standard price. On a given estimate, the office can adjust a price or a quantity when the job calls for it, such as a set of rollers for a 9x7 door versus a 16x7. When you adjust, write a short note on the line so the customer and your own team understand why the number moved.

Big jobs like new doors usually do not have one fixed price. Doors vary by size, material and insulation, and you price them the way you already do. A common approach is a single “New Door Install” service with the price set on each estimate and the door details written in. That is covered in Quoting a New Garage Door: Size, Material and Insulation on the Estimate.

Services Priced Off the Property

Each property in GarageDoorBossPro can hold measurements: square feet, number of doors, number of openers. Services can be priced off those. A tune-up priced per door, for example, can follow the number of doors saved on the house, so a three-bay garage quotes differently than a single. The measurements guide later in this series goes through it.

Keeping the List Clean Over Time

Service lists grow. Someone adds a one-off service for a strange job, someone else adds a seasonal special, and a year later there are four versions of the same thing. A short review every few months keeps the list honest:

• Retire services nobody has quoted in months.
• Merge duplicates and pick one name.
• Update prices when your costs change, and tell the office the day it happens.
• Check that the services the office uses most are near the top and easy to find.

When prices change, the new price applies to new estimates. Quotes already sent keep the price the customer saw, which is exactly what you want when they approve next week.

The Payoff

A clean service list means a new office hire can quote a spring pair on day one. It means the price on the phone matches the price in the driveway. It means the invoice reads like the estimate, because both come from the same list. And it means you can look at what you quote most and decide where your prices should go next, which is the subject of the next guide. To see how the service list fits with templates, approval and scheduling, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door estimate software page.