Callahan’s Corner: Price Matrices for Estimating Delegation (submitted question)
Video Transcript
0:00
you ask the questions we answer them
0:01
live right here on Facebook got another
0:02
great submitted question here by David
0:04
uh from one of the Facebook groups hey
0:07
y’all trying to create an Excel rate
0:09
Matrix and eventually in service
0:11
autopilot as well uh that went upon
0:14
entering bed square footage it produces
0:15
a number of yards of mulch slash hours
0:17
projected including the installation
0:20
um I’d like to do the same for bed
0:22
weeding as well as pruning and maybe
0:24
some other services we were trying to
0:25
streamline our maintenance estimates if
0:27
anyone has anything similar I’d love to
0:29
chat thanks well David the good news is
0:31
uh we’re gonna chat live over Facebook
0:33
and I’m going to give you the exact
0:34
step-by-step experts that I used in my
0:37
seven figure business as well as uh the
0:40
systems that we use and set up for other
0:41
service business owners such as yourself
0:44
so first thing I do is pop open the
0:45
screen here and start with the simple
0:48
growth estimate blueprint and this
0:51
blueprint is going to be the answer to
0:52
David’s question of how do we go out and
0:54
set up the bed square footage for mulch
0:57
installation and shrub pruning as well
0:59
as maybe some bed maintenance so I’m
1:01
going to break down the basics here of
1:02
how we would recommend doing this uh for
1:04
any software and then once we build out
1:06
the Matrix matrices here in a Google
1:08
sheet which basically Excel how do we
1:10
get that into a software like service
1:11
autopilot or any other
1:13
so first thing I’m going to do is go in
1:15
and take the first one that Dave wanted
1:17
to do and I’m going to do uh mulch
1:20
installation
1:23
and if you may be wondering why are we
1:25
putting this in Excel shoe a David asked
1:27
me to put an Excel sheet first but
1:28
really uh David is on to the the correct
1:31
process we need a blueprint in a blue
1:33
Excel sheet and then put it in the
1:35
software and reason being you’ll see
1:36
here in a few minutes once I put a some
1:38
formulas in here we want to double check
1:40
our assumptions for profit profit
1:42
percentage
1:43
um on the sheet so I’m going to show you
1:45
how we do this so service name is mulch
1:47
installation custom field or job
1:49
variable is going to be bed square
1:50
footage as David alluded to in his
1:52
question
1:54
um and we’re going to go in here
1:55
and let’s assume David has a three-yard
1:58
minimum and he’s putting the mulch in at
2:01
um a one inch depth so that is going to
2:04
be from 1 to 900 square feet that’s
2:08
going to cover our three yards uh
2:10
budgeted hours here is going to be one
2:12
or three hours and uh let’s say David
2:14
here is charging 85 on his maintenance
2:17
crew and if he’s done some overhead
2:18
recovery for his financial systems maybe
2:20
he’s breaking even at forty two dollars
2:22
that’s what it’s costing him to operate
2:24
before he makes a profit so different
2:27
between the 85 and the 42 is going to be
2:31
um his profit margin now what we’re
2:33
going to do is build this out here
2:35
um for labor only we’re going to add in
2:37
the materials so there’s a couple
2:38
different ways we can do this we can
2:39
build the materials in but I’m going to
2:40
in this example I’m going to build out
2:41
labor in that material so once again uh
2:44
in this example I’m assuming Dave has a
2:45
three yard minimum so one to 900 square
2:48
feet in a one inch depth
2:50
um and then every 300 square feet over
2:53
the first 900 is an additional yard so
2:56
it’s going to take one hour if he’s
2:58
doing it manually and at one hour times
3:01
the 85 an hour is going to get us 85
3:03
bucks it’s costing us 42. so that’s our
3:05
mulch installation uh Dave had one more
3:08
question regarding shrub trimming and
3:10
bed maintenance so let’s say Dave
3:11
doesn’t necessarily have a production
3:13
rate for for weeding those beds and
3:15
obviously we have some I’m gonna play
3:17
devil’s advocate here maybe he’s looking
3:18
at it and this is just not your normal
3:20
setup
3:22
um so we’re going to do uh bed weeding
3:25
man minutes how many minutes does he
3:28
think it’s going to take on a
3:29
reoccurring maintenance process or you
3:31
maybe this bed reading is when we go to
3:34
do The Mulch and that’s included in it
3:35
so let’s play that game here
3:37
um so bed weeding man minutes and that
3:40
is going to be our custom field so for
3:43
one minute to one minute is and if we
3:46
took one minute divided by 60 Minutes
3:49
that is 0.02 that’s a minute so if we
3:51
took that 0.02 and multiply that by his
3:53
hourly rate of 85 bucks per man hour
3:56
obviously these are not David’s numbers
3:58
but I’m going to put some real world
4:00
examples in here so it’s applicable to
4:02
the video
4:03
um and then we’re going to go in and
4:06
take the top lines and copy them right
4:09
down because that’s what he would be
4:11
charging
4:12
so we’ve got our mulch installation at
4:14
one inch we got our bed weeding and man
4:16
minutes
4:17
um so those are going to be the two
4:18
variables that David’s looking at here
4:20
to uh take care of his mulch
4:22
installation is bed weeding
4:24
and we’re gonna do uh shrub pruning
4:29
final part of his question here
4:32
that’s going to be a parent service so
4:34
we really don’t need any data on there
4:37
that’s just a service that we’re going
4:38
to be using and then the final part here
4:40
is we’re going to drive that in here and
4:42
we’re going to use some production rate
4:43
this number of small medium and large
4:46
shrubs
4:47
foreign
4:57
service name that is our custom field as
4:59
well and we’re going to say for every
5:01
one shrub let’s say that is going to be
5:04
these are not industry production rates
5:07
so please don’t copy them but I’m going
5:08
to say 0.07 on here and we’re going to
5:10
drag that in with a formula so 0.07
5:13
times our hourly rate
5:15
and that is going to give us our cost
5:17
and this is going to be 0.07 times our
5:20
break even so you can see as a sheet now
5:23
is going to be
5:25
pumping out
5:29
our profit and profit percentage let me
5:32
just pop this bad boy over here and
5:35
fix that up all right
5:38
and our profit is
5:42
now for Speed I’ll just copy this in
5:45
uh so the beautiful thing about a Google
5:46
sheet here is if you are using a Google
5:48
sheet you paste this down the line it is
5:51
going to
5:53
um copy those formulas down so equals
5:56
our
5:58
oh that was our mistake was on my end
6:01
here so uh budgeted time is 0.07
6:04
0.07 man hours times
6:07
85. there we go that looks a lot better
6:09
and then our Breakeven 0.07 times 80 or
6:14
42 bucks per hour profit of three
6:16
dollars a fifty percent net margins
6:18
we’re gonna do the same exact thing here
6:19
we’re gonna take this one to one ratio
6:20
and drive this across the bottom part of
6:22
matrices and keep our 595 our 0.07 man
6:27
hours
6:28
and our budgeting cost and I’m going to
6:31
drive this right down through our small
6:33
medium layer of shrubs and show you how
6:34
to build this out in a software system
6:36
so we’re going to bump this out to an
6:39
additional number like I said these are
6:41
not industry production rates
6:43
um
6:44
we do have those but we are obviously
6:46
not going to be using these on the
6:48
Facebook live
6:49
because a lot of times people will look
6:51
at these and get themselves into trouble
6:54
so it depends how you set these up
6:57
um
6:57
your software but I’m going to use some
6:59
some fictitious numbers here to get you
7:01
set up so I’m literally just copying and
7:03
pasting these in small medium and large
7:05
shrubs and in a Google sheet or Excel
7:08
sheet as David asked we could go in and
7:10
drive some Creeds good speed and
7:12
efficiencies we’re building these out
7:16
um
7:17
so now we have our numbers here
7:20
that we’re going to be driving for
7:22
David’s matrices so we’ve gone in and
7:24
done mulch installation bed maintenance
7:26
based on time and now we’ve done uh malt
7:29
or shrub trimming small medium large
7:31
shrubs I also recommend if you’re doing
7:33
this hedgerows per linear feet uh with
7:35
or without a ladder these numbers should
7:37
include clean up on average time of
7:39
based motion studies the best way to do
7:41
it uh if you do struggle with that let
7:43
us know we do have some industry
7:44
averages that are really good these
7:46
numbers here are not industry averages
7:48
uh they’re a bit fictitious uh numbers
7:50
that put in Ultra conservative just to
7:52
give you an idea of the workflow and how
7:54
to set this up so the final thing here
7:55
is now that we’ve got them in we’ve
7:57
we’ve assumed that we’ve got a profit
7:58
profit percentage that’s pretty
8:00
consistent all the way across the board
8:01
here about 50 percent uh we know we’ve
8:04
done our math right so we blueprinted it
8:05
now it’s time to implement it in our
8:07
software so I’m going to do is go into
8:08
service autopilot and actually break
8:10
this down so we’re gonna go to the gear
8:11
icon
8:13
and we’re gonna go in and uh create some
8:16
custom Fields here
8:18
uh that’s gonna be our first step those
8:19
are those job variables and we’re going
8:21
to go in and add a custom field and I’m
8:23
going to put some asterisks in here
8:26
um
8:27
do that just so we can find them but
8:28
first one is bed square footage
8:31
and we’re going to drop that in there
8:33
and that’s going to be Associated
8:34
customer and the number we’re going to
8:36
save and new we’re just going to walk
8:37
down the simple growth blueprint
8:39
uh bed weeding man minutes how many
8:41
minutes do we think it’s going to take
8:43
to actually weed those beds the first
8:44
time we’re there once again customer
8:46
number Association
8:48
and we’re gonna go down and now we’ve
8:50
got our small medium and large shrubs so
8:52
we’re going to copy and paste right down
8:54
here for Speed and simplicity to make
8:56
sure we’ve got the right custom field so
8:58
we’re going to go in now and grab our
9:00
medium shrubs custom field that’s our
9:03
job variable so we’re actually going to
9:04
have people going out in the field or
9:07
potentially customer submitting pictures
9:08
of their property with some instructions
9:11
um and those small shrubs are going to
9:12
be less than three feet those medium
9:15
shrubs are gonna be three to less than
9:16
six and those large are going to be from
9:18
six to ten feet so this is how we
9:21
actually created a production rate based
9:23
estimating system on a company that I
9:25
could delegate uh to someone who never
9:27
actually trimmed shrubs but they could
9:28
count the shrubs based on a little
9:30
training and the size now we’ve got our
9:32
custom fields
9:33
we’re gonna go and build out those
9:34
services
9:35
and we’re going to go in and go to gear
9:38
icon services and build out our matrices
9:40
for mulch bed reading and small medium
9:42
and large shrubs so what we’re going to
9:45
do is go in and
9:49
create these with a couple uh zeros in
9:52
front of them here
9:55
just so I can find them in this test
9:57
account
9:58
and our first service we scroll all the
10:00
way to the top is David’s mulch
10:03
installation based on a
10:05
one inch depth in a three yard minimum
10:10
and we’re going to go in select our
10:12
service mode and our invoice description
10:14
our account is going to be maintenance
10:17
services and our class is going to
10:19
probably be our summer class
10:21
and here is our estimate description
10:28
called at a
10:31
three inch depth
10:37
all right save so we are working down
10:39
the sheet now we’ve got our bed weeding
10:42
and we’re not going to call bed weeding
10:44
man Ministry it’s called bed weeding and
10:46
man minutes is our custom field so we’re
10:48
gonna go in and create our next service
10:51
here uh that David asked about here and
10:54
I’m just putting some zeros in here just
10:56
so I can find it it’s not going to be
10:57
your best practice here
11:00
um
11:01
for you so and this actually this
11:03
instance I’m going to make this actually
11:05
a um
11:06
using estimates only
11:09
and go in here
11:12
and create the account as maintenance
11:15
services and it’s summer class again and
11:18
I’ll put the rate matrices in here and
11:20
I’m going to go back and actually update
11:21
the mulch installation with the matrices
11:24
on it and use the description to say it
11:26
includes the one-time bad reading with
11:28
install it’s probably a little more
11:29
applicable to David’s question so we’re
11:31
gonna go quantity returns visits uh we
11:34
are going to go into bad leading man
11:36
minutes copy and paste that now the
11:38
blueprint is going to lay identical into
11:43
um service autopilot so one two one is
11:46
142.02 and 70 cents top five lines go
11:49
into the bottom five lines
11:55
and that is costing him he’s charging
11:58
142. it’s costing him 70 cents before he
12:00
makes a profit
12:04
and we’re just driving that equation now
12:06
identical because it’s a one over one uh
12:09
situation
12:10
and we’re going to hit save and we’re
12:12
gonna go back to our
12:16
thank you
12:19
service of mulch installation
12:23
and
12:27
we’ve got quite a few of these in our
12:31
test accounts let me just make sure I’ve
12:32
got the right one
12:40
I’m just gonna be
12:43
117.
12:47
so I’m going to throw a little asterisk
12:50
in front of this here so we’ll make sure
12:51
we have this
12:52
um so I’m going to go into the estimate
12:54
description here and update uh install
12:56
depth of three inches
12:59
and David wanted to know about the
13:01
weeding so I’m going to go in and
13:05
um
13:06
put
13:08
one time
13:11
red weeding
13:13
prior to mulch installation
13:19
so now we’re actually building that in
13:22
to the process of the mulch installation
13:24
so it’s going to be a parent-child
13:25
service I’ll show you how that works in
13:27
a minute so we’re going to hit save and
13:28
new
13:30
and now I’m going into our shrub pruning
13:33
so we’re going to go in and create a
13:34
parent service and then tuck the
13:38
um
13:42
other child service of small medium
13:44
large shrubs underneath that so that is
13:46
going to be how we actually tackle this
13:52
in our account for this with David would
13:54
be maintenance services if he has
13:56
classes it’d probably be summer or
13:58
maintenance division
14:00
and there will be no rate matrices on
14:03
this because the math is going to
14:04
actually be done on the child services
14:06
so as we go in we are going to go in and
14:09
grab these
14:21
and we’re going to use an estimate only
14:23
and quantity rate times visits and it is
14:28
going to be
14:29
number of small shrubs
14:31
and from one to one shrub we’ll go back
14:34
to the blueprint and actually see what
14:35
that is 5.95
14:42
and it is going to be 0.07 and 294 break
14:46
even
14:56
and we don’t need to look at the sheet
14:57
because we know it is going to be the
14:58
same production rate for each and every
15:00
shrub after the first small shrub so now
15:02
we’re going into our medium shrubs and
15:04
then we’ll do our large shrubs and we’ll
15:05
actually pull this all together here in
15:06
the next five to ten minutes not even
15:08
and uh dry this into an actual
15:11
production rate based estimating system
15:13
as David asked about
15:14
how I’m going to go into actually tackle
15:17
this from Excel to a software to
15:20
delegate
15:21
this is actually the fun part of growing
15:23
and scaling and maintenance business so
15:25
850.1
15:27
and this is how he is going to be able
15:29
to do that
15:32
and four dollars and 20 cents
15:40
all right so every one over one is
15:43
850.1 and 4.20 cents
15:46
receiving new and we got one more
15:50
a thing here large shrubs
15:53
estimate only and bring this across the
15:56
finish line here for you to show you the
15:58
workflow how to actually drive out a
16:00
production rate based estimating system
16:01
from a the simple group blueprint which
16:04
is basically an Excel or Google sheet
16:05
and be able to delegate these so 29.75
16:08
and 0.35
16:16
and if he’s charging 29.75 it’s costing
16:20
14.70 before profit
16:23
all right so we now have all the basic
16:25
steps that you’re going to need to build
16:27
out a price matrices from an acceler
16:29
Google sheet into the software final
16:32
step here is that we are going to need
16:34
to go in
16:37
and let’s just make sure
16:43
did not so I’m going to update this
16:44
naming convention just so I can find it
16:47
and use the right one because in this
16:49
test account there is a lot of large
16:50
shrubs we’ve shown this video a few
16:52
times
16:55
foreign
16:59
and let me just make sure before we go
17:01
in and put this all together everything
17:03
is there the way I need it so I’ve got a
17:05
small medium and large shrubs and we
17:08
need to just grab our medium shrubs with
17:09
that naming convention so I can find it
17:11
when I pull it into the estimate
17:12
template we should be good
17:13
and there it is
17:17
so this extra step of putting this kind
17:19
of naming convention on the front is
17:20
just for me here on Facebook because we
17:22
have so many in this test account now
17:25
we’ve got all our data that we need the
17:27
final part is uh David is doing mulch
17:29
installation we really want to go to the
17:30
gear icon products
17:33
build out that product because with some
17:35
of these V3 estimates coming out we
17:37
probably want to be able to go out and
17:39
track our labor and products separately
17:42
now there are some instances when we do
17:44
these deep diver essay setups with
17:45
clients that it’s applicable to include
17:48
the material such as fertilizing and
17:49
sometimes mulch depending on the
17:51
client’s needs and reporting that they
17:53
need so
17:54
uh if you’ve done one of these and we’ve
17:56
included the product inside your actual
17:58
Pro service itself that’s okay there’s a
18:00
reason why so I’m going to put uh
18:06
Brown Hardwood
18:09
mulch
18:11
that would be the Mulch Service that
18:12
we’re putting in this can be also be
18:13
done for pine straw in some of our
18:14
Southern areas as well uh default rate
18:17
is what we’re charging so let’s say
18:19
we’re buying it for 38 bucks we’re
18:21
charging 50 bucks per yard for the
18:24
product only
18:28
and there is no budgeted hours our
18:29
income account is going to be our
18:31
maintenance services cost of goods count
18:33
is going to be materials
18:36
and we don’t have to specify a class but
18:38
we can
18:39
and hit save all right so we’re ready to
18:42
go to drive this across the finish line
18:43
here for David’s question of how do we
18:45
do mulch installation bed maintenance
18:47
and
18:49
estimating around size of shrubs so job
18:51
estimate templates we’re going to go in
18:53
and grab a template
18:59
and we’re going to name this the star00
19:02
[Music]
19:04
Facebook live
19:07
Callahan’s corner
19:15
all right and we’re gonna add an item
19:17
and what we’re going to do is go right
19:18
to that that simple growth blueprint and
19:20
go from top to bottom so our first
19:22
service is going to be that mulch
19:24
installation
19:28
nothing like when your mouse dies in the
19:30
middle of a Facebook live but we got
19:32
this here so we’re gonna go
19:36
mulch installation apply and then we’re
19:39
going to set our child service of bed
19:41
weeding right underneath it so we’re
19:44
gonna go plus icon not a product but a
19:46
service
19:53
and
20:00
see if we got this here
20:04
I lost it in Facebook live here because
20:06
I’ve got some of the test accounts what
20:07
I’m going to do is just go back in and
20:09
actually go to this gear icon services
20:11
and pull up and select this service and
20:13
update it to make sure I’m pulling the
20:14
right one
20:17
obviously this probably would not be
20:19
happening in your account if it is I
20:21
would highly recommend
20:23
um doing a little database hygiene
20:29
foreign
20:37
was the issue let me update this service
20:39
here so we know which one we’re pulling
20:41
in
20:45
by the dates I
20:47
I forgot to put an asterisk in front of
20:48
it to find it but we’re going to do that
20:50
just to make sure we’re pulling in the
20:51
right one so as I demo this we’ve got
20:54
the correct pricing that David uh talked
20:56
about all right so we’re going back to
20:57
the templates and we’re gonna get that
20:59
green plus icon we’re going to add that
21:01
bed maintenance
21:04
a bed weeding
21:06
in
21:08
remember we’ve updated the estimate
21:10
description so now we know
21:12
um that that’s included in the price the
21:15
client’s not going to see it shrub
21:16
pruning uh right now in small medium and
21:19
large shrubs so we’ve got to pull those
21:20
into our job estimate template here
21:29
all right and now we’re going to create
21:31
sub services from the blueprint once
21:33
again we’re going to walk down and grab
21:34
each one of these small medium and large
21:36
shrubs and drive them into the matrices
21:39
here so once again the star00 is just
21:41
literally for me to be able to find
21:42
these a little bit quicker uh plus icon
21:46
once again we’re going to go in
21:50
medium shrubs
21:57
and our large shrubs all right so what
21:59
we’ve done now is we’ve got a fully
22:01
built out system from Excel like David
22:03
asked about building a proctory based
22:04
estimating system that now handles our
22:07
our overhead recovery our break even
22:10
um the one final thing that we have not
22:11
added in here is that mulch so you go to
22:14
Green Plus icon and add a product of
22:17
mulch
22:19
now that’s in there
22:21
we’re ready to rock and roll so we’re
22:22
gonna hit save and close
22:27
and we can go in and
22:30
add a lead
22:32
and
22:35
put in our friend
22:38
test tester
22:39
and we’re going to put their address in
22:41
billing address and information here
22:51
foreign
22:54
information that lead would be in there
22:57
just for Speed I’m not filling that all
22:58
out and the final process is we’re going
23:00
to go in
23:02
and hopefully measure it online use an
23:04
on-site estimate form but really uh the
23:07
question that was asked is how do we
23:08
build that out so I’m going to skip a
23:09
couple of those extra steps
23:12
and I’m going to go in and
23:17
grab
23:19
our template
23:23
foreign
23:30
just make sure what template we’re
23:32
working with here
23:34
gear icon job estimate templates is
23:37
where we made that template
23:43
screen around here on Facebook it’s easy
23:45
to forget so I just want to make sure
23:46
I’m pulling up the right template here
23:49
that is right here our Facebook live so
23:54
that is the one I’m looking for I’m
23:56
gonna make sure final step that while I
23:58
was talking I forgot we want to
24:00
associate to both
24:02
and Associate it to a
24:07
estimate document save and close
24:12
all right once around that lead screen
24:14
we’ve captured the information or we can
24:16
enter it physically into the template
24:17
don’t recommend necessarily entering it
24:19
right into the template as I’m going to
24:20
do here I’d rake it I’d create an
24:21
on-site estimate form or measure it
24:23
online
24:24
and that is would be the hot the process
24:27
of what we’re looking to do here
24:31
they have to x out of this to get this
24:33
to capture my new template that I made
24:36
so we’re going to go in add an estimate
24:38
go to the middle header of adding a
24:40
template
24:44
there it is apply and everything should
24:47
load is in here so let’s just say we’ve
24:50
got
24:51
um a 1200 square foot bed and we think
24:54
it’s going to take about 45 minutes for
24:57
one person to go in
24:59
and we’ve got that information in there
25:02
and there’s our mulch
25:06
and let’s just double check our service
25:08
here because it’s not pulling up
25:10
the service we may not have connected
25:12
the custom field in my speed here trying
25:16
to get through this before my meeting so
25:18
this is going to be our
25:20
this is helpful too just to kind of go
25:22
through some troubleshooting because you
25:24
will probably run into this as you’re
25:25
building them
25:27
so if no price is coming up we want to
25:29
go to the rate matrices and
25:31
through my haste we did not actually
25:33
update this
25:36
so this is going to be
25:40
are
25:42
bed square footage sorry custom field
25:45
that we made
25:47
a cool thing is if it’s not a package
25:49
this will automatically operate update
25:51
uh in the template too so one to 900 was
25:55
to 225 in three hours that’s our our
25:59
three yard minimum that David was doing
26:06
it was every 300 over the first 900 was
26:14
85 bucks
26:18
one more hour and 42 is just break even
26:21
so we’re gonna hit save
26:23
we are going to x out of this estimate
26:26
and now once we load this estimate all
26:28
the data should go in so that’s actually
26:29
something that was kind of glad it
26:30
happened
26:32
um through my haste of speed here trying
26:33
to get this done is that you can now
26:35
actually see what the troubleshooting
26:37
methodology looks like and you don’t
26:38
have to call service autopilot support
26:40
so if we put 1200 in there it actually
26:42
kick in our price now at 340. we put our
26:45
45 minutes to the weeding in that kicks
26:46
that in and uh based on four hours I
26:49
know I need four or four yards of mulch
26:52
so it’s 603.90 4.9 hours uh cost is 420
26:58
50 and our profit margin is 30 40 uh
27:01
three four Thirty point four percent
27:03
final part here is we’re going to put in
27:04
the number of small
27:07
medium and large shrubs
27:16
and let’s say we’ve got two large
27:19
and that shrub for me now is 306 360. so
27:23
we’d hit both draft a quote all the
27:25
customer is going to see is mulch
27:26
installation with weeding for 603 and
27:28
shrub pruning for 306. that’s how you
27:30
tackle your production rate based
27:32
estimating on an Excel sheet into
27:34
service autopilot Callahan’s Corners you
27:36
ask the questions we answer a lot