Setting Up a Painting Service List That Prices Jobs the Way You Do
A painting company's service list is its price book. Every estimate line, every job and every invoice line comes from it, so it is worth an hour to get right.
Name Services the Way Customers Hear Them
Customers do not buy “Interior Wall Application.” They buy “Interior Room Painting.” Use names that read well on an estimate and an invoice, because that is where the customer sees them.
Common Painting Services
- Interior Room Painting, priced per room
- Whole-House Interior Repaint, often priced by square foot
- Exterior House Painting, by square foot or quoted per house
- Cabinet Painting, quoted per kitchen or per door and drawer
- Trim & Door Painting
- Ceiling Painting
- Accent Wall
- Drywall Repair & Paint
- Deck & Fence Staining
- Unit Turnover Repaint for property managers
- Commercial Repaint
- Color Consultation
Flat Prices and Measured Prices
Some services have a set price, like an accent wall. Others depend on size. PaintingBossPro stores square feet, linear feet and rooms on each property, so services can be priced from the measurements instead of guessed. A whole-house interior at a set rate per square foot comes out the same on every estimate.
Templates for the Jobs You Quote Every Week
If half your estimates are “three rooms, trim and doors,” save that as an estimate template. Next time, you pick the template and adjust the rooms instead of building it line by line.
Extras as Their Own Lines
Ceilings, extra coats, wallpaper removal and heavy prep are easier to sell, and to explain, as their own lines. When a customer adds the hallway during the job, the extra goes on the invoice as its own line rather than a mystery increase.
Keep It Short
A service list with sixty items is as bad as none. Start with the twelve you sell most, and add when you notice yourself typing the same custom line twice. More on pricing in Pricing Interior Painting: Per Room, Per Square Foot or Per Job.
More on this topic: the Painting Contractor Software page and the rest of its guides.
Price Every Job the Same Way
Build your service list once and every estimate, job and invoice uses it.
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