ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrical Contractor Software

Square Feet, Fixtures and Circuits: Property Measurements That Price Electrical Work

Not every electrical job is a flat price. A rewire depends on how big the house is. A lighting job depends on how many fixtures there are. A commercial account with many locations needs the same work priced the same way at every address. Property measurements are how the software handles that.

Measurements Belong on the Property

Measurement-based services are set up on the list described in Building the Service List That Every Electrical Estimate and Invoice Pulls From. The measurements themselves live on each property.

In ElectricalBossPro, each property can hold measurements such as square feet, fixtures and circuits. They sit on the property next to its equipment, so anyone in the office can see them when a customer calls. A 2,400 square foot house with 38 fixtures and 24 circuits has those numbers on its record, and the next estimate for that address can use them.

Pricing Services Off Measurements

Services on your list can be priced off measurements. A few common examples for an electrical shop:

• Rewires priced per square foot. The house size on the property sets the line on the estimate.
• Lighting work priced per fixture. Fixture counts drive relamping, retrofits or fixture swaps.
• Work priced per circuit. Labeling or circuit-related work priced by how many there are.

The price per unit is yours. The software multiplies it by the measurement on the property, so the office is not doing math on a calculator while the customer waits.

Consistent Prices Across Many Addresses

Measurements matter most when one client has many addresses. A landlord with fifteen rentals, a property manager with several buildings, a gym chain or a retail chain with stores across town. When each address has its own measurements, the same service comes out at the right price for each one, without anyone working it out by hand.

Commercial lighting maintenance and relamping can run every 14 or 30 days at each location. With fixture counts on each property, every visit bills correctly, and a client set to Monthly gets one statement each month with every address on its own line. See Monthly Account Billing for Property Managers, Gyms and Retail Chains With Many Addresses.

Where the Numbers Come From

Measurements come from wherever you already get them. A homeowner tells you the square footage on the phone. A tech counts fixtures during a walkthrough or a service call. A property manager sends a list of their buildings. Enter them on the property once.

If a number turns out to be wrong, such as a basement that was finished since the listing, fix it on the property. The next estimate uses the corrected number. It is worth having techs note measurements on first visits the same way they note the panel and other equipment, so the property record fills in over time.

Measurements and Estimates

When the office builds an estimate for an address with measurements, services priced off them come out at the right amount. The customer sees a clear line and approves online. The approved estimate becomes the scheduled job, and the invoice is built from the same lines when the tech taps Complete.

That keeps the estimate and the invoice in agreement. A customer who approved a per-square-foot rewire at their house size gets an invoice that matches, which avoids one of the most uncomfortable conversations in contracting.

What Measurements Are Not

Property measurements are a pricing tool. They are not a load calculation, a design tool or a substitute for your electrician walking the job. Bigger work still needs someone to look at the house and decide what it needs. The measurements just keep the price consistent once you know what you are selling.

Used that way, they save time on the office side and make your pricing easier to defend. Two customers with similar houses get similar prices, and a property manager sees the same rule applied at every address. When a customer asks how a number was reached, the office can point to the measurement on their property and the per-unit price on the service, which is a much easier conversation than explaining a guess.

Start With the Ones You Use

You do not need measurements on every property on day one. Start with the services you actually price by size or count, and add the measurements for those customers. If you rarely do rewires, square footage can wait. If you run commercial relamping, fixture counts are the place to start.

Over a season, the properties you work on most will have their numbers on record, and pricing them becomes a few clicks. To see how measurements fit with equipment, estimates and billing, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrical contractor software overview.