PlumbingUsing a professionally designed plumbing estimate template is a good place to start improving your estimating process, and we’re offering our free PDF template for you to download and customize.
But a blank template is only a relatively small piece of the puzzle. That’s because the most common problems that plumbers have with estimating jobs are usually related to operational and process issues.
For example:
Miscommunications between techs and the office.
Pricing errors or math mistakes.
Inefficient use of time.
Misplaced or messy estimation paperwork.
Data entry errors in Microsoft Excel or other software.
Lost or forgotten open estimates.
These are non-trivial issues that have adverse effects on many plumbing businesses — whether they focus on residential services or commercial construction projects.
To overcome these problems and to impress potential clients with modern, accurate, and timely job estimates, a growing number of plumbing contractors are using plumbing estimating software.
They’re finding that the best software solutions streamline the client-facing estimating process while also sharing information behind the scenes. That way, they can automatically integrate estimates with their pricebook and other relevant areas of their business, like scheduling, invoicing, and maintenance agreements.
» Want to grow your plumbing business? Click here to get a demo.
In this article, we’ll cover:
How to download and use our free plumbing estimate template.
The difficulties with plumbing estimating that we’ve solved with our plumbing estimating software.
A walkthrough of how our software streamlines the plumbing estimation process by integrating with other aspects of your business.
Our plumbing software helps increase your profits with timely, accurate estimates and a streamlined estimating process. Want to see ServiceTitan in action? Schedule a call for a free product tour.
How to Download and Use Our Free Plumbing Estimate Template
To use our free estimate template, simply download it and save it to your computer.
You can then open it, customize it, and save it as a new file for each client.
Enter each client’s information before printing the PDF, then mail it or send an email with the file attached.
The first page of our template features a professionally designed layout with the necessary fields for you, your techs, or your office staff to fill in:
Your contact information (including your company name, address, and phone number).
Job site information including the name, address, and phone number of your client.
A job description section and a breakdown of the costs to include any necessary line items (parts or fixtures to be provided, hourly rates, plumbing work to be performed, warranty information, etc.).
The second page provides fields to document credit card payment information:
Keep in mind: Simply adding another piece of paper to your workflow doesn’t solve the system-wide issues that are at the root of common estimating problems.
Let’s take a closer look at these issues — which have been the inspiration behind our plumbing estimating software.
Why Plumbing Estimates Are So Difficult to Manage Manually
Plumbing estimates are complicated, with a lot of information to coordinate:
The prices of parts and labor fluctuate frequently and can be difficult to look up on the fly.
Inventory and lead times change.
Techs’ work schedules and other time management considerations also come into play.
The process is made even more complicated by the fact that most shops don’t have dedicated estimators. Instead, they have different people preparing estimates:
The techs out in the field.
The CSRs in the office.
The business owners (particularly in smaller shops).
When all these people are working off a patched-together system of separate forms, calendars, and schedules that are on paper or online, it’s difficult for even the most careful and conscientious employees to prepare timely and accurate estimates.
When techs are responsible for creating estimates, issues come up like:
Miscalculations on the pricing of parts or labor.
Less-than-professional presentation due to creating estimates in their work truck.
Wasted time from not being out in the field working on revenue-generating jobs.
On the flip side, when CSR’s are responsible for estimate creation, that comes with its own set of issues:
They might not have the technical and practical knowledge to understand exactly what needs to be done.
Looking up pricing and lead times is time-consuming and repetitive.
Coordinating appointments requires manually looking up the techs’ work schedules.
If you can’t get estimates priced accurately and delivered quickly, you can’t get cash in — and that makes it difficult to keep your head above water — let alone think about growing your business.
In order for your business to grow, you need to streamline the project estimation process by finding better, more efficient ways to coordinate efforts and share information.
Below, we’ll walk through exactly how our software works to solve these problems.
The #1 newsletter for the trades.
How ServiceTitan Plumbing Estimating Software Works
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive and easy-to-use system that helps your business maintain productivity and profitability.
You, along with all authorized employees (whether they’re in the field or in the office) can access the most current and accurate information needed to prepare a beautiful cost estimate for customers — all in about five minutes.
Plumbing Estimate Templates Make Estimate Creation Quick and Easy
Templates save time and improve accuracy when building bids.
The ServiceTitan estimate templates allow you to enter data into one place where it’s visible to everyone in the business.
All pertinent information needed to prepare an estimate is stored in the system and can easily be accessed on the fly.
You can add parts, pricing, fixtures, and item groups, and then you can set the system to automatically update when new information is entered later on.
To provide a clear, easy-to-understand presentation that helps your clients weigh out their options, you can enter product and service descriptions, including photos.
If information is updated — for instance, a new price and part number from a faucet manufacturer — that information will instantly display in bids or proposals that your team presents to potential clients. This saves your team from having to manually check for updates on every product, every time they prepare a bid or proposal.
After a template is saved in the system, all that you and your team need to do is call it up, select the pertinent options, finalize the estimate, and present it to the customer.
The entire process only takes about five minutes.
Auto-Update Your Pricebook for Speed and Accuracy
A current, accurate pricebook is essential for your business, but constantly having to look things up can cause headaches and wasted time.
ServiceTitan makes it fast and easy to ensure that estimates are always priced accurately.
When you or someone else enters an update into your pricebook, the new prices, parts, material costs, and labor costs are automatically visible to everyone in the business, and they’re incorporated into estimates and proposals.
Build Additive (“Add On”) or Progressive (“Good-Better-Best”) Proposals
When building proposals, you and your team can decide whether you’ll be asking clients to select one estimate from a variety of choices (which is called a “progressive” or “good-better-best” proposal), or allowing them to add multiple estimates to a job (an “additive” or “add-on” proposal).
After you’ve decided on the format, you or your team can draw from your template library to easily build proposals that reflect the appropriate options.
Any of your employees can build proposals, and they can present as many options as they’d like.
Your office staff can easily build proposals from a desktop:
And with our mobile app, your techs can build proposals just as easily when they’re out in the field:
Because the software is linked to your live pricebook, the most current prices are automatically calculated and added to the proposal form that your team will share with clients.
Give Clients Attractive, Easy-to-Understand Estimates and Proposals
A few minutes after starting work on an estimate, your techs or office staff will be ready to present it to your client via email, printed document, or the in-person mobile app.
The homeowner or property owner can easily see the details, including information about parts, terms, and financing options, as they consider their decision. They’ll also be able to e-sign to authorize the work and schedule their job.
Check In on Open Estimates
If a customer doesn’t book a job right away after receiving an estimate or proposal, you can set up ServiceTitan to remind your team to follow up with them.
Making sure that your team checks back in with prospective clients helps them land projects that otherwise would have fallen through the cracks.
Get Organized, Improve Accuracy, and Grow Your Business
ServiceTitan is a powerful tool for estimating plumbing jobs, but that isn’t all it can do. It’s a complete system that helps manage and coordinate all aspects of your plumbing business.
In addition to helping your team share information about estimates, it also helps streamline your company’s scheduling, dispatching, and billing systems to improve efficiency and profitability. It even syncs with QuickBooks to ensure that all your financial and tax information is in one place. No PDF template or Excel spreadsheet can do all that.
Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about the best plumbing software system for your business. Our customer support team is always here to help you implement any part of the process.
Want to see how ServiceTitan can help your estimating process run more smoothly? Schedule a call with us to learn more about how our software can help your and your employees share information and communicate more effectively.
