https://tradeyoke.net/blog/tag/window-cleaning Rounds, frequencies and the day-to-day of a window cleaning business. en-gb https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business Thu, 24 Sep 2026 02:33:16 GMT Most window cleaning and gardening businesses grow by word of mouth and a van sign — until the phone stops being the fastest way for a new customer to book. Here's when a website earns its keep, and what to put on it. Carl Randall Guides Window cleaning Gardening Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-plan-a-window-cleaning-round https://tradeyoke.net/blog/how-to-plan-a-window-cleaning-round Sun, 20 Sep 2026 23:33:16 GMT A round that looks full on paper can still waste an hour of driving if it isn't planned properly. Here's what actually makes a window cleaning round efficient, what dedicated round-planning tools get right, and how TradeYoke's Plan my day automates the decide-order-go routine every morning. Carl Randall Window cleaning Guides Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/getting-your-first-round-into-tradeyoke https://tradeyoke.net/blog/getting-your-first-round-into-tradeyoke Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:15:11 GMT A practical walkthrough: import customers, set frequencies, order the day, and send the first 'we're coming tomorrow' texts — without retyping a single address. TradeYoke team Guides Window cleaning https://tradeyoke.net/blog/pricing-a-window-cleaning-round https://tradeyoke.net/blog/pricing-a-window-cleaning-round Sat, 22 Aug 2026 10:15:11 GMT Price by time and access, not by the number of windows. The 2026 bands for UK homes, the rule for hard-access work, and how to raise prices without losing the street. 💡 Put the access notes on the customer record so the price and the reason for it live together. When you quote the house next door, you will remember why this one is £4 more. [Image: The customer record holds the price, the frequency and the access notes, so the next job and the next quote start from the same facts.] ### Density is the hidden multiplier The most profitable round in town is not the one with the highest prices; it is the one with the least driving. Nine houses in a row at £12 beat three scattered houses at £20 every day of the week, because you are paid for cleaning and not for the A31. Price lower to win a street, and hold the price on the outliers that cost you fifteen minutes each way. This is why we show the round's value and route in the app rather than just a list. The window cleaning trade page shows how a round is planned nearest-first, and the report tells you what each day is worth so you can see which day needs filling in. ### Raising prices without losing the street Every round drifts under-priced because you set the number years ago and added customers at the old rate. Raise little and often rather than a lot once. A £1 rise on a £12 clean is 8% and nobody cancels over it; a £4 rise after five years of silence loses the customers who were only ever staying for the price. Tell people in writing, a month ahead, with the new price and the reason in two sentences. Send it with the reminder text so they read it, not as a separate letter that gets binned. Then raise every price the same day so the round stays consistent; the app's message wizard sends the same note to the whole round at once. If you collect by Direct Debit the new amount simply applies from the next collection, which is one more reason to read why GoCardless changes the round. > You are paid for cleaning, not for driving. Price for the minutes on site and win the street with density. — TradeYoke ### What the round is worth Once your prices and frequencies are in the app, look at the round's value per week and per month. That number is your business. If it is short of what you need, the gap is filled with either more houses on existing streets or higher prices on the outliers, and the report shows which. It also makes the case for the software: a £19 plan is less than two cleans a month, and the pricing page shows what the higher tier adds if you want to collect online. [Image: The round: every customer with frequency, price and next due date, and the value of the round per week.] ### Questions people ask **Should I charge more for the first clean?** Yes. A first clean takes longer, uses more water and has no repeat to spread the travel over. Many rounds charge one and a half to two times the regular price for the first visit and say so on the quote. **Do I price by the window or by the house?** By the house, based on time and access. Counting windows looks precise but ignores gates, height and walking distance, which is where the minutes actually go. **How often should I raise prices?** Little and often. A small rise every year or two, announced a month ahead by text with the reminder, is easier on customers than a big rise every five years. Raise every house on the same day so the round stays consistent. **What about commercial work?** Price commercial on time and frequency too, but expect to invoice monthly rather than collect per visit. Reminder texts matter less; a tidy monthly invoice with a pay link matters more, which is where the day-before text gives way to the invoice email. ### Put the round in and see what it is worth Import your customers, set the prices and frequencies, and the app shows the value of every day. Thirty days free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Window cleaning Pricing https://tradeyoke.net/blog/direct-debit-for-window-cleaners https://tradeyoke.net/blog/direct-debit-for-window-cleaners Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:15:11 GMT Around 1% on a £12 clean, no Friday-evening collections, and money that arrives whether the customer was in or not. How Direct Debit changes a window cleaning round, and how to move customers onto it. ✅ Direct Debit is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, which customers know from their utilities. Say so when you offer it. It answers the "what if you take too much?" question before it is asked. ### What uptake looks like on a real round Do not expect everyone to switch. A realistic round ends up with a large majority on Direct Debit, a few on card pay links, and a handful of older customers who will always want to leave cash under the pot. That is fine. The point is not a perfect round; it is a round where collecting is the exception rather than the Friday. New customers are the easy win. Offer Direct Debit as the normal way to pay when you quote, with cash as the alternative rather than the default, and most say yes without a second thought. Existing customers move over in waves: when you raise prices, when you send the first tidy invoice, and when they miss a payment and get a polite reminder with a mandate link in it. [Image: Invoices on the phone: each clean becomes a numbered invoice, and a Direct Debit collection settles it automatically.] ### How it works inside the app In TradeYoke you connect GoCardless once from the Payments settings and it is switched on for the window cleaning module. When you mark a clean done, the invoice is generated and a payment is requested against the customer's mandate. When GoCardless confirms the collection, a webhook settles the invoice in the ledger. There is nothing to reconcile by hand and nothing to re-type into Xero, because the bookkeeping sync pushes both the invoice and the payment. Customers who do not want a mandate get a pay link by text or email, and a customer portal where they can see everything they owe and pay it. Taking payments online is a Premium feature and the customer portal comes with Ultimate on the pricing page; a round of 200 houses recovers the difference on the first Friday it does not spend collecting. There is a fuller picture of the payments side on the platform page. ### Moving a round across without a fight ### The switch, step by step - ✓ Connect GoCardless — Once, from Payments settings. Switch it on for window cleaning. - ✓ Offer it to every new customer — As the normal way to pay. Cash is the alternative, not the default. - ✓ Send one message to the round — Two sentences: you now offer Direct Debit, it is protected by the Guarantee, here is the link. - ✓ Add the link to reminders — The day-before text carries the mandate link for anyone not yet set up. - ✓ Ride the price rise — When you next raise prices, invite everyone to switch at the same time. - ✓ Let the reminders do the rest — Anyone who misses a payment gets a polite nudge with the link in it. Give it three months. By then the mandate link has been in front of every customer four or five times in the normal course of the round, and the ones who were going to switch have switched. The morning who owes me email shows you the ones who have not, and a personal word at the door usually does the rest. > Clean on Tuesday, paid by Friday, without driving back. That is what Direct Debit buys a round. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Do customers have to pay a fixed monthly amount?** No. The mandate authorises you to collect; each collection is for that visit's price. If you skip a clean, nothing is collected. If you raise a price, the new amount applies from the next collection. **What if a Direct Debit fails?** The app records the failure against the invoice and the customer stays on the owed list, so a reminder goes out and you can try again or take a card payment by link. It is treated exactly like an unpaid invoice. **Is Direct Debit worth it on a £10 clean?** At around 1% the fee is 10p. The alternative is a return visit or an unpaid clean, so for regular work it pays for itself many times over. The maths is set out in how to price a window cleaning round. **Can I use both cards and Direct Debit?** Yes. Stripe handles cards for one-off work and pay links; GoCardless handles the regular round. Both settle against the same invoices in the same ledger. ### End the Friday collections Connect GoCardless, offer it to the round, and watch the owed list shrink. Start with 30 days of Essentials, no card; online payments unlock on Premium. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Window cleaning Payments https://tradeyoke.net/blog/we-are-coming-tomorrow-texts https://tradeyoke.net/blog/we-are-coming-tomorrow-texts Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:15:11 GMT One text at 6 pm the day before, sent from tomorrow's plan, and the side gate is open, the car is off the drive and the money is ready. How reminder texts work and what to put in them. 💡 A version that works for most rounds: "Hi Sarah, it's Dan from Clearview. We'll be round to clean your windows tomorrow morning. Please leave the side gate unlocked. You can pay by the link below or leave it as usual. Thanks!" Then the pay link. ### What to do with the replies The reason to send from a real number rather than a no-reply service is that people answer. "We're away till Thursday", "the dog's out, can you do the back next time", "can you skip this month". Each reply is a decision that saves a wasted stop, so it needs to land somewhere you will see it in the morning rather than in a personal phone full of other messages. In the app replies land in the customer's own thread alongside the visit history, so when you open tomorrow's plan the reply is there against the job. A "we're away" reply becomes a skip and a carry-over in two taps, and the customer gets a receipt when the next clean is done. The same thread carries emails, so the story of that customer is in one place whichever way they wrote. ### Scheduled, not remembered The text has to go at the same time every evening or it does not work, and 6 pm on a Tuesday is when you are least likely to remember it. Schedule it. In the message wizard you choose email or SMS, write once, and pick "send now" or a time; the app sends it whether or not you are looking at your phone. If a plan changes after the message is scheduled, cancel and resend from the new plan in the same wizard. The same wizard sends the on-the-way text in the morning when the job before overruns, the receipt when a clean is paid, and the owing notice when it is not. One tool, four moments in the customer's day. It is part of Essentials and every plan above it on the pricing page and works for gardeners and every other trade on the trades page, not just window cleaners. [Image: Tomorrow on the phone: the plan the text was sent from, in the order you will drive it.] ### Keeping it on the right side of the rules A service message to an existing customer about a visit they are expecting is different from a marketing text, but the line blurs the moment you add an offer. Keep reminders as reminders, put marketing in a separate message people have agreed to receive, and honour a "please stop texting me" straight away. The ICO's guidance sets out the rules; if in doubt, keep the text about the visit and nothing else. See also: how to stop no-shows with the right reminder text [Direct marketing and privacy and electronic communications](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/direct-marketing-and-privacy-and-electronic-communications/): The ICO's guidance on the rules for marketing by text and email, and what counts as a service message. > Plan the day, then text the plan. Never text the round as you wish it were. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **What time should the reminder text go out?** Early evening the day before, around 6 pm, works for most rounds: late enough that the day's plan is final, early enough that people can move a car or unlock a gate before bed. **Should I send by text or email?** Text for the day-before reminder because it is read within minutes. Email for invoices, receipts and anything with an attachment. The wizard sends either, and both land in the same customer thread. **What if the customer replies and I miss it?** Replies land in the customer's thread in the app, against the job, so they are in front of you when you open tomorrow's plan. Nothing sits in a personal inbox. See on-the-way texts and live monitoring for the morning side of the same conversation. **Does it cost money to send texts?** SMS is charged per message by the network, pence at a time. Set it against one unlocked gate and it pays for the month. The mechanics of the pay link in the text are in Direct Debit for window cleaners. ### Send tomorrow's text from tomorrow's plan Plan the day, order it, and the reminders go out at 6 pm to the right customers. Thirty days free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Window cleaning Messaging https://tradeyoke.net/blog/rain-days-and-carried-over-work https://tradeyoke.net/blog/rain-days-and-carried-over-work Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:15:11 GMT A wet Tuesday is not a lost day if every visit has its own record. Carry the undone stops forward in one go, replan Wednesday nearest-first, and the round is back on cycle by Friday. ⚠️ Do not let a carried-over stop change the customer's cycle. If they are on four-weekly, the next visit after the carry-over should still be four weeks from the original date, or the whole round drifts a week every wet month. ### Replan tomorrow nearest-first A day with Tuesday's leftovers dropped on top of Wednesday's round is a long day, and the way to make it a possible day is the order. Plan my day takes tomorrow's suggestions, the carried-over stops and anything overdue, lets you decide each one (today, another day, not now) and then orders the day nearest-first from the first stop, with the map alongside if you want it. Then it sends the plan to the phone. That is also the moment to send the reminder texts, because they go to the customers on the plan rather than the round as it was meant to be. If you tell tomorrow's people tonight, the gates are open and the extra ten stops fit. The reasoning is in the text that stops locked gates. [Image: Plan my day on the phone: decide each stop, order the day, go.] ### Watch the weather before it watches you The dashboard and the schedule show the forecast for the days ahead, so a wet Thursday shows up on Monday. Use it. Pull a couple of Thursday's outliers forward into Wednesday's route while the weather is dry, and Thursday becomes a short day that can absorb the rain. For the full forecast, the Met Office is the source most of us check anyway. [Met Office weather forecasts](https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/): The UK's national weather service, for the week-ahead forecast that decides which day takes the carry-over. ### Telling customers, and telling the truth When a clean is carried over, the customer needs one line. "Rained off today, we'll be round Thursday" is enough, and the app sends it to the carried-over stops as a group. When the clean is done, the record shows the date it actually happened, so the invoice, the receipt and the customer's history all agree. That matters if you collect by Direct Debit, because the collection is for the visit that happened, not the one that was planned. Long term, per-visit records tell you how much weather actually costs you. The report shows what the round earned each week, so a wet fortnight is a number rather than a feeling, which helps when you price the round or decide whether a Saturday catch-up is worth it. Per-visit records and the weather view are on every plan, Free included, on the pricing page. There is more on the money side of the round in how to price a window cleaning round. ### The wet-week routine - ✓ Check the forecast on Monday — Pull outliers off the wet day while it is dry. - ✓ Clean what you can — Drizzle is fine with pure water. Only stop when it is genuinely pouring. - ✓ Carry over in one go — Move every undone stop on the day to its new day, keeping the visit records. - ✓ Keep the cycle — The next visit stays four weeks from the original date. - ✓ Replan nearest-first — Plan my day orders the long day so it is a possible day. - ✓ Text tonight — One line to the carried-over stops and the reminder to tomorrow's plan. > A visit is a fact. A series is a wish. Keep a record of the facts and the weather cannot rewrite your round. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Should I clean in the rain?** Light rain with pure water is fine and most customers accept it. Heavy rain is a carry-over. The judgement is yours, but the record per visit means either choice is recorded honestly. **What happens to the invoice for a carried-over clean?** Nothing until the clean happens. The invoice is generated from the visit when it is marked done, on the date it was done, so nothing is billed for a clean that has not taken place. **Does this work without signal?** Yes on the installed app. Marking stops done or carried over in a dead spot queues the change and syncs when you are back in range. The reasons are in why "works offline" is the feature you'll use most. **Do gardeners have the same problem?** Worse, because a wet lawn cannot be cut at all. The same carry-over and seasonal cadence apply; see fortnightly in summer, monthly in winter. ### Make the wet week a short one Carry over in one go, replan nearest-first, text the plan. Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Window cleaning