GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Estimates & Quotes

Pricing Your Own Garage Door Services Before You Write a Single Quote

Software does not set your prices. It carries them. Whatever you put on the service list is what shows up on every estimate, every job and every invoice, so it is worth an evening with a notepad before you load it in. This guide is not a price chart and it will not tell you what the going rate is in your town. It is a way to think through your own numbers.

Prices Belong on the List, Not in Your Head

Setting up the list itself is covered in Building Garage Door Estimates From Your Own Service List. Once the services are named, each one needs a price you are comfortable saying out loud to every customer, every time.

The point of writing prices down is consistency. If your service call is $89, it is $89 when the owner answers the phone and $89 when the newest office hire answers it. The customer who calls back with a neighbor's quote in hand gets the same answer as everyone else.

Start With What a Trip Costs You

Every garage door job starts with a van pulling into a driveway. Before you price any repair, work out roughly what one stop costs you: the tech's time on the road and on site, fuel, the van, insurance, the phone, the software and the office time it took to book the call. You know these numbers better than anyone, and they are different in every market.

That number is the floor under your service call. Some owners price the service call to cover the trip and the look, then price repairs on top. Others credit the service call toward the repair if the customer goes ahead. Either way, decide on purpose and write it down. The service call guide later in this series covers how to show it on the estimate.

Price the Repairs You Do Most

Go through your common repairs one at a time:

• Spring replacement. Parts, the time a trained tech spends on site, and your own policy on singles versus pairs.
• Cables, drums and rollers. Often quoted alongside springs. Decide whether rollers are per roller or a full set.
• Off-track repair. The time varies. Some owners set a base price and adjust on the estimate with a note.
• Opener repair and install. The unit, the labor, the haul-away of the old one, and any extras like a keypad or extra remotes.
• Tune-ups. The visit, the safety inspection checklist and the lubrication, priced so a yearly plan makes sense for both of you.

For each one, the question is the same: what does this cost me in parts and time, and what do I need on top of that to keep the business healthy? The answer is yours.

Big-Ticket Work Gets Priced Per Job

New doors and full opener packages are harder to put a single price on. Sizes, materials, insulation and options all change the number. Many owners keep one service on the list, like “New Door Install,” and set the price on each estimate, writing the door details on the quote.

Even then, it helps to have your own working rules: what you add for a double door versus a single, how you handle removal and disposal of the old door, whether the opener is part of the package or a separate line. Writing those rules down keeps quotes consistent even when the final number is set by hand.

After-Hours and Commercial Work

A spring that breaks at 8pm with a car stuck inside is a different call than a Tuesday morning appointment. If you take after-hours calls, decide what you charge for them and put it on the list as its own service. The customer should see it on the estimate, not discover it on the invoice.

Commercial doors and property manager accounts often have their own pricing too. Rolling doors and dock doors are different work than a residential sectional door, and an account with dozens of addresses may get set prices for routine visits. Put those services on the list with names that make the difference clear.

Revisit Prices on a Schedule

Parts costs change. Your labor costs change. A price that made sense when you started may not make sense now. Pick a time each year to look at your list again. GarageDoorBossPro reports help you see what you actually sell, which tells you where a price change matters.

When you raise a price, update the service list and tell the office the same day. New estimates pick up the new price. Customers on a tune-up plan should hear about a change before it shows up on an invoice, and two-way texting or an email is an easy way to tell them.

Write Your Policies Down Too

Prices are half of it. The other half is the policy behind them: whether you replace springs in pairs, whether the service call is credited, what is included with an opener install. Policies you decide once and write into the line item names or estimate notes save arguments later.

With prices and policies settled, the next step is saving the quotes you write most often as templates. See Garage Door Estimate Templates: Saving the Quotes You Write Every Week, and for everything else about quoting, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door estimate software page.