Routing Template

[lnbn1975]

I put together this routing template on Excel. What it's for is to set up a route, print the route out, the person that runs the route can fill in the blanks and turn it in at the end of the day with time, jobs, notes, etc. If you have other services that you perform, it's easy enough to change it to fit your particular needs. Also, it's handy to make some notes prior to printing that the person onsite can use, i.e. "be sure to lock gate", "check is under door mat", etc.... Likewise, the technician can make notes, such as "couldn't mow dog run, dog loose", "noted garage window broken upon arrival", etc....

Now, here is how you use it, if you are not familiar with Excel. Page 1 will be present when you open the program. Look at the bottom and you'll see a little tab that says "Cust". That is page 2, for your customer list. Where I have put "Cust A", "Cust B", you just overwrite those and put your customer name and address in there. There is room for 34 or so names. Easy enough to enlarge if you need to. When you get ready to make up the routes, you go back to page 1. Click inside the yellow box and you will see a little arrow to the right. Click on that and a window will open with all of your customers listed. Click on the customer you want in stop #1, then go on to stop #2 and do likewise. Feel free to change whatever you want to suit your needs. If you work on it and it gets messed up, just download another copy from this site.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Brad

[Steve]

Brad,

That's a great post!

[lnbn1975]

I also work for a fellow with snow removal since I am between "real" jobs right now. He gave me a list of things that he needs so he can bill properly. I was just keeping these records on plain paper then typing them out when I turned in my pay sheet, but I thought I needed a better way to keep records. I made out this sheet in "Open Office" but saved it as an .xls file. Hope it saved right. It's 2 pages long, but if someone needed more entries it would be a simple matter to copy and paste more pages. Update it to fit your individual needs.

[Steve]

Oh that is very nice!

[lnbn1975]

Here's another one that is interactive. This is for applications. I made it up specifically for the "Guys, you need to get into this" thread. In the yellow box you enter the number of thousand square feet. (7500 sq. feet would be 7.5, 3000 would be 3). This will then put in the amount of product needed. Now, the nice thing about this is that you can substitute anything in this chart. Change products, amounts per 1000, etc. You can even make up a cheat sheet for mowing prices, etc. Now, when you close the program, it will ask if you want to "save changes". Only answer yes if you want it to open up just like it is when you close it, not like it was when you started.

Actually, it would be very easy to add 1 more line on the program and calculate price. Then, make up and print out a sheet for various sized properties and carry them with you.

[Steve]

Oh WOW! So that would work well for the organic lawn care applications.

[lnbn1975]

Oh WOW! So that would work well for the organic lawn care applications.

Actually, it would work for about any activity that you would want to plug in. Mowing, fertilizing, etc. You could figure costs/1000, rates/1000, applications/1000, etc.

If anyone has any questions regarding other applications, feel free to ask!