ElectricalBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Commercial Lighting Maintenance Routes: Relamping Every 14 or 30 Days Without a Spreadsheet

Lighting maintenance is the closest thing commercial electrical work has to a subscription. A retail lot, a strip center, an apartment complex's walkways, a gym floor or a restaurant sign all need someone to check them on a regular cycle and replace what is out. It is not glamorous work, but it is steady, it is predictable, and the accounts that buy it tend to stay.

Why Spreadsheets Fail at This

Statements were covered in Address-Labeled Statement Lines: Making a Commercial Electrical Bill Easy to Approve. Lighting maintenance is one of the most common lines on those statements, so it pays to schedule it well.

Most shops start with a spreadsheet: each building in a row, the last visit date in a column, a formula for the next one. It works until a tech does a visit and nobody updates the row, or a visit gets pushed by rain and the next one is calculated from the wrong date, or the person who built the sheet goes on vacation. Then buildings go dark, and the account notices before you do.

Recurring Plans by Minimum Days

In ElectricalBossPro each recurring service is a plan set by the minimum number of days between visits. For lighting maintenance, that is usually 14 or 30 days. A busy retail lot might be on 14. An office building's common areas might be on 30. You pick the number for each address.

The plan counts from the last completed visit. If a visit runs a few days late, the next one is figured from when the work actually happened, not from a date on a calendar. That keeps the spacing honest without anyone doing the math.

Different buildings on the same account can run on different cycles. A chain might want its busiest stores on 14 days and its quieter ones on 30. Each address carries its own plan, so the office never has to bend one schedule to fit every location. When an account asks to change a building's cycle, the office changes the number on that address, and the next visit is figured from the new spacing.

Visits Come Due on Their Own

When a building's next visit comes due, it shows up on the Waiting List, a live map and list of every visit that needs to be scheduled. Pins are colored by status:

• Not due yet, for buildings still inside their cycle.
• Due now, for buildings ready for a visit.
• Overdue, for buildings past a 7-day grace period.

Nobody has to remember which buildings are coming up. The map shows it. More on reading it in The Waiting List for Relamping Visits: Which Buildings Are Not Due, Due Now or Overdue.

Building the Route

Lighting maintenance works best as a route, not a scatter of single stops. On the Waiting List map, the office can see which due buildings are near each other, pick a group, and assign them to a van and a day. On the dispatch board, auto-route sorts the stops Closest First or Furthest First from the shop. If one building has to come first, because the store opens at 9 or the lot lights are only visible after dusk, the office sets that stop's position by hand.

The tech's phone shows the stops in the same order, each with a navigation button, access notes and the building's equipment. Route sheets can be printed for anyone who wants paper on the clipboard.

On Site and After

At each stop, the tech taps Start, does the visit, takes before-and-after photos of anything replaced, and taps Complete. Notes go on the job: “Two poles out on the north row, replaced,” “Sign ballast humming, recommend a repair visit.” If something needs more than routine relamping, the tech notes it and the office can put together an estimate.

Completing the visit does two things. It records the work for billing, and it resets the plan, so the building's next visit is figured from today.

Billing the Route

For a single building, the visit can be invoiced and charged to a card on file when it is completed. For an account with several buildings on the plan, set the client to Monthly and each visit becomes a line on the monthly statement, labeled by address. A chain with six stores on a 14-day cycle sees every visit at every store on one document.

Selling the Plan

Lighting maintenance is easy to explain to an account: you come by on a set cycle, check everything, replace what is out, and they get one bill. Accounts can sign up for services and pricing through your sign-up form, and the card is captured at sign-up. Once the plan is in place, the software keeps it running. For how lighting plans fit with the rest of the commercial setup, see the commercial electrical software page.