What to do when a visit gets missed: done, replan or skip
A booked visit's day has come and gone and nothing was recorded. Was it done, does it need a new day, or is it dead? How to decide, why a repeating job makes it trickier, and a five-minute routine that keeps the diary honest.
When a booked visit's day has passed and nothing was recorded, you have three honest answers: it was done and you are behind on admin, it still needs doing so it needs a new day, or it is not going to happen so you skip it. The mistake is the fourth answer: leaving it, so the diary quietly pretends nothing happened.
If you clean windows, mow lawns or do any repeat work on your own, you will recognise this. A wet Monday, a locked gate, a Friday when you did the round but were too tired to tick it off. This guide is about getting from "I think I did Mrs Ellis last week?" to a diary you can trust, with or without software.
Key takeaways
- Three answers, never a fourthA missed visit is either done (late on paper), replanned, or skipped. Anything left undecided is a hole in your records and your income.
- Record the real dayIf you did the job on Monday, record Monday, not today. Repeat dates and your own history both count on from it.
- Repeating jobs hide the gapA diary that quietly rolls an unrecorded visit forward turns a missed clean into an eight-week gap without telling you.
- Do it in five minutes, weeklyA short routine, at the same time each week, beats a monthly mountain of catching up.
- Look where you already lookMissed work should be on your home screen and at the top of your planner, not buried in a report.
Quick answer
Quick answer: when a visit's day has passed with nothing recorded, decide one of three things straight away. If it was done, mark it done with the day it really happened. If it still needs doing, replan it onto a day. If it is no longer going ahead, skip it. TradeYoke puts exactly those three buttons, Mark done, Replan and Skip, on every missed visit, on your dashboard, in your planner and in the job itself.
Why do visits get missed in the first place?
Quick answer: mostly not because you forgot the customer, but because the record did not keep up with the work. Four causes cover nearly all of it.
The four usual suspects
- It was done, but never recordedYou did the round on Monday, then Tuesday swallowed the evening. The job is finished and the diary says it is not.
- The weather or the gate beat youRain, a locked side gate, nobody home for a payment-on-the-day customer. The visit did not happen and nothing moved it.
- A customer moved it informallyA text on Sunday night that never made it into the diary. The visit happened on Thursday, or is waiting on a new date.
- It genuinely slippedA busy week, a van breakdown, a day off sick. The customer is still expecting you and you need to ring them.
How do you decide between done, replan and skip?
Quick answer: ask what actually happened, not what was planned. The answer picks the button, and the only wrong choice is to leave it.
Done, replan or skip
- Mark it done: the work was donePick the day it was really done. If you cleaned Mrs Ellis's windows on Monday, say Monday. That keeps your history right, and for a repeating job it is the date the next visit counts on from.
- Replan it: the work still needs doingChoose today, tomorrow or another day. If the customer has been waiting more than a visit or two, ring or text them first. A short "sorry, I'm coming Thursday" saves more customers than any discount.
- Skip it: it is no longer happeningThe customer cancelled, you are not doing that round this cycle, or the job was a one-off that has gone cold. Skipping is a decision, and it takes the visit off your list on purpose rather than by accident.
If you are unsure whether you did a job, check before you pick. A photo on your phone with the right timestamp, a message to the customer, or a payment that landed will settle it faster than guessing. Whichever you choose, do not mark everything done just to clear the list: a diary full of visits you never did is worse than one with honest gaps.
Why does a repeating job make a missed visit worse?
Quick answer: because a repeating job quietly works out its next date from the last one, so a missed visit that nobody records can push the whole series out of step without any warning.
Say Mrs Patel is cleaned every four weeks and her visit on 12 October passed with nothing recorded. A diary that simply rolls the date forward might now show her next clean four weeks from today. In reality she has gone eight weeks, you do not know it, and she will tell a neighbour. This is the same trap behind a rain day: a diary that only knows "every four weeks, Tuesday" cannot tell a gap from a normal cycle. Our guide to rain days and carried-over work covers how a record for each visit fixes it, and how a repeating job should behave explains the next-due date.
The defence is simple and works on paper too: every visit must end as done, replanned or skipped, and the next date must count on from the day the work really happened.
A five-minute weekly catch-up routine
Quick answer: once a week, at the same time, go through everything whose day has passed and give each visit one of the three answers. Five minutes weekly takes less time than the awkward monthly rebuild.
The routine
- Pick a fixed slotFriday afternoon in the van, or Sunday evening with a brew. Tie it to something you already do.
- Start with the oldestThe longest-overdue customer is the one most likely to be annoyed, so decide those first.
- Ring before you replanAnything more than one cycle late deserves a phone call, not just a new date.
- Record the real day for doneDo not default to today. The date you did it is the date that matters.
- Finish at nothing waitingAim for an empty list, not a short one. If a visit keeps sitting there, skip it and say so.
This sits naturally beside the rest of the morning: planning the round goes much faster when yesterday is settled first.
How does TradeYoke handle missed visits?
Quick answer: it never rolls a missed visit forward on its own. A visit whose day has passed with nothing recorded waits for your decision, and TradeYoke puts it in front of you in three places so you cannot miss it. These screens are TradeYoke's web app at phone width, shown with fictitious Bournemouth customers.
On your home screen
A Missed visits tile lists each one with how many days late it is. Tap a row to open the job, or Review all to go to the planner.
At the top of your planner
The planner opens with a Missed: needs a decision section above the day. Each visit shows its customer, address, days late and price, with Mark done, Replan, Skip and Open job. The planner's morning briefing says how many need a decision, so planning the day starts with clearing yesterday.
When you tell it the day it was really done
Mark done asks When was it done? and suggests the day it was booked, with Today or any other date one tap away. A repeating job's next visit is counted on from the day you pick.
In the job itself
Open a late job from the job list and the same three choices sit in a banner at the top of the job, so you can decide the moment you see it. When you have decided, the list behind refreshes and the banner goes.
One more change goes with it: a repeating job no longer rolls past today on its own. If its day passes unrecorded it shows up as missed, which is exactly when you want to know. It is part of scheduling and rounds, it sits beside Plan my day, and the job panel is the same one you use in job management.
What it will not do is decide for you. It will not mark anything done on a hunch. You choose, and your records stay honest because of it.
Questions people ask
What is a missed visit in TradeYoke?
A visit whose day has passed with nothing recorded against it: not marked done, not moved and not skipped. TradeYoke lists it on the dashboard, in the planner and in the job until you choose Mark done, Replan or Skip.
Can I mark a visit done for a day that has already passed?
Yes. Mark done asks when it was done and suggests the day it was booked, with Today and any other date available. For a repeating job, the next visit is counted on from the date you choose.
What do Replan and Skip do?
Replan moves the visit onto a day you choose: today, tomorrow or any date. Skip takes it off the missed list because it is not going ahead. Both are deliberate decisions rather than something that happens by default.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. The web app works on a phone's browser today, and the missed-visits tile, planner section and job banner are laid out for a phone. The Android, iPhone and Windows apps are in pilot and are not yet in the app stores; email hello@tradeyoke.net to ask about early access.
Does it work for trades other than window cleaning?
Yes. Missed visits are handled in the shared scheduling layer, so window cleaning, gardening, electrical, plumbing and solar jobs all get the same Mark done, Replan and Skip choices.
What does it cost to try?
Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. See the pricing page for the plans after that.
Stop visits slipping through
30 days of Essentials free, no card. See what is missed on your own round, and decide each one in a tap.
