| Aside from the typical accounting spreadsheet, | | | | One other thing that can be added to this formula is |
| Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs, can | | | | a factor such as high time difficulty. The idea being |
| do everything from calculating the quantities of your | | | | that painting something at 8' is a lot faster going than |
| estimates to handling all of your mailing and marketing | | | | painting something at 20'. So what I do is to insert a |
| needs. I am sure that there are many more uses for | | | | multiplier at some point in my spreadsheet that |
| the painting contractor; but, these two are the things | | | | multiplies the item by a high time difficulty factor. For |
| that I use Excel most in my painting business. | | | | example, if I have a house that is 1000sf of siding at |
| | | | | 8' and 1000sf of siding at 20', I would take the final |
| As far as estimating for the painting business, the | | | | figure for the siding at 20' and multiply by 1.6 or |
| Excel spreadsheet can be set up to do the entire | | | | whatever factor you might like to use. In text |
| estimate, or just use it to add to your existing | | | | format this sounds complicated; but, when done |
| estimating software. Most of the estimating software | | | | inside of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, it becomes |
| is variations on the spreadsheet. On-line courses, | | | | very easy to set up and use. |
| tutorials, or even a class or two will teach you a | | | | |
| world of things to do with this software that will | | | | The beauty of a template is that once the work of |
| make your job easier. | | | | creating the formula is finished, the difficult part |
| | | | | never needs doing again. Whether it is the template |
| One of the areas that I originally started using the | | | | that you use to cut out a piece of wood, or the |
| spreadsheet for was to add and compute ceiling | | | | spreadsheet that does all the boring calculations over |
| square footages, wall square footages, and | | | | and over, templates can take the drudgery out of |
| baseboard footages. With a really simple formula you | | | | repetitious work. Learning just a fraction of what |
| can make a tool that will complete the calculation of | | | | Excel does can make your estimating easier. |
| room or siding square footages in the blink of an eye. | | | | |