In this guide 6 sections
Track quotes won, paint used against plan, painter days and wages, dealer balances with unpaid stage bills, and open snags, site by site. Together they show which jobs earned money and which only kept the gang busy. GullySystem’s Painting Contractor Management Software draws these from records the office already keeps.
Quotations sent, won and still waiting
Count the quotations that went out this month and how many turned into jobs. Then look at the ones still unanswered after a week. Each needs a call.
Note why lost quotes were lost, where the client said. Price, timing and scope tend to come up. Patterns appear after a few months of honest notes.
Paint and material against the plan
Every site has a measured area and a number of coats. From those, the putty, primer, paint and thinner needed follow from your own coverage figures. Set the tins drawn from the dealer against that plan.
A site drawing far more than planned needs a visit. The cause may be a putty coat missed in the estimate, a shade changed after the first wall, or tins that went elsewhere. Each cause has a different fix.
Count the tins returned too. Unused tins left at a finished site are money nobody records.
- Measured area and coats per site
- Tins drawn from the dealer per site
- Tins returned at handover
- The gap between plan and use
Painter days, wages and advances
Mark attendance by site each day for painters, helpers and the mestri. Advances taken go on the same record. The Friday wage sheet then comes from attendance, not from two counts that disagree.
At month end, set labour days against each site’s measured area. A site that took many more days than similar flats deserves a look. Rework, rain or a slow gang will show in the notes.
Dealer balances and stage bills
List what you owe each paint dealer, with purchases and payments for the month. Credit across several sites builds up quietly.
On the other side, list stage bills raised and still unpaid. Advance, after putty and primer, and completion are common stages. A bill raised late is harder to collect.
Read the two lists together. Both move in the same month.
- Purchases and payments per dealer
- Balance owed to each dealer
- Stage bills raised this month
- Bills unpaid, oldest first
Snags open and shade codes handed over
Before a final bill, the client’s walk-through list must close. Count snag items still open by site at month end. Assign each to a painter by name.
Check that every finished job has its shade codes recorded and handed to the client. A touch-up next year depends on it.
A painter doing three homes a month can keep these five checks in a notebook. The habit matters more than the tool.
Monthly site review sheet
A sheet listing each site on its own line, with columns for area, tins planned, tins drawn, tins returned, labour days, bills raised and snags open. Fill it on the last working day of the month. Rows that look unlike the others are where to start.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can these figures go straight to Tally?
Not built in. Bills, payments and dealer balances can be exported for your accountant. Whether a direct Tally link is worth building is settled during scoping.
Which number should a contractor read first?
Paint used against plan, site by site. It is the earliest sign that an estimate was wrong or that material is going astray.
Does the software decide my coverage figures?
No. Coverage per product is your own figure. You enter it once and change it when your experience says so.
Do I need software to track all this?
Not always. With one gang and a few sites, a monthly sheet with these five headings works. Several gangs on several sites is where a system starts to help.