"Bookkeeping is a mess"
Chapter 7 of 7 from the guide "Turn Your Shop Into a Business That Can Run Without You"
The quote is in a spreadsheet. The deposit is in a text message. The change order is a conversation somebody had in the driveway.
The final invoice is you, at the kitchen table on a Sunday, trying to piece all three together.
And the customer remembers them differently.
Here's the shift.
The quote, the changes, and the invoice are the same job. They should live on it.
How you can get there
Back to the job sheet from Chapter 3. Front side, bottom corner. Three lines.
Quoted. Changes. Invoiced.
When the customer wants deeper drawers, it goes on the Changes line, with the number, the same day. When an invoice goes out, it goes on the Invoiced line.
Now the Sunday at the kitchen table is three lines of arithmetic. And when the customer remembers it differently, you have the sheet.
The trouble is the sheet doesn't make the invoice. You still do.
The Maestro way
The estimate is on the job. The proposal is made from the estimate. Mark the proposal accepted and the invoice is made from that.
A change order is its own document on the job, not a conversation somebody tries to remember. The invoice shows the running balance with the deposit and the change already in it. Nothing is retyped and nothing is forgotten.
Cabinet estimating and pricing software
The result
The final invoice is simple arithmetic.
No spreadsheet. No scrolling through text messages. No Sunday.
Credit card required. Nothing is charged for 14 days. Cancel before then and you owe nothing. On day 15 your plan starts at $199 a month.