SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Minimum Days Between Visits: How 90, 180 and 365-Day Solar Cleaning Plans Work

There are two ways to schedule recurring work. You can pick dates on a calendar months ahead and hope nothing moves, or you can say how far apart the visits should be and let each one set up the next. SolarCleaningBossPro uses the second way. This article explains how minimum days between visits work, and why they fit solar cleaning better than fixed dates.

The Plans, in Days

Quarterly Commercial Solar Cleaning Plans for Arrays, Carports and Rooftops covered the commercial side. Here is how all three common plans translate into a number of days:

• Quarterly: 90 days between visits, typical for commercial arrays and carports.
• Twice a year: 180 days, the most common residential plan.
• Yearly: 365 days, the easy starting plan for homeowners.

Those are the usual choices, not the only ones. If a site near a dusty road needs cleaning more often, or a customer wants something in between, set the days to match.

How the Count Works

The rule is simple: the count starts when a cleaning is completed. When the tech taps Complete on the phone, the plan notes that day. When the minimum days have passed since then, the cleaning comes due and shows up on the Waiting List.

Here is a twice-a-year home as an example. The tech completes a cleaning on April 10. The plan counts 180 days. Around early October, the address turns due on the Waiting List map. The office puts it on a truck and a day, the tech completes it, and the count starts again from that new date.

Nobody types the next date. Nobody keeps a list of who is due in October. The completed cleaning does that work.

Why Not Fixed Dates?

Fixed dates look tidy on a calendar, but solar cleaning does not run on a tidy calendar:

• Weather moves routes. A rainy week or high wind pushes a whole day of cleanings back. With fixed dates, every one of those customers now has the wrong next date.
• Customers move appointments. A homeowner wants you after the roofers leave. A commercial site wants a weekend. Each change throws off the schedule.
• Spacing matters more than the date. What the customer is paying for is clean panels on a rhythm. A cleaning done two weeks late should push the next one two weeks later, not crowd it.

With minimum days, every one of those changes takes care of itself. The next visit always counts from the last real one.

Due, Not Booked

Another difference worth understanding: when a plan's days are up, the cleaning becomes due. It is not automatically booked on a specific day and truck. It lands on the Waiting List, and the office decides when it fits.

That is on purpose. Routes are built from what is due in the same part of town, not from dates set a year ago. If eight homes in one subdivision are due this week, they can go on one truck on one day. The details of that list are in How Recurring Solar Cleanings Come Due on the Waiting List.

The 7-Day Grace

Not every due cleaning gets done the day it comes due, and it does not need to. SolarCleaningBossPro gives a 7-day grace. A cleaning that is due shows in the due color. If it sits past the 7-day grace without being completed, it turns overdue, so the late ones stand out on the map and get scheduled first.

That one rule does a lot of quiet work. After a rain week, the overdue pins show you exactly who got pushed and where they are.

Changing the Days

Plans are not locked in. If a yearly customer asks to go twice a year, change the days between visits on their job from 365 to 180, and the next due date follows from their last completed cleaning. If a commercial owner wants to drop from quarterly to twice a year over the winter, the same change does it.

For one-time cleanings, there is no repeat. The cleaning comes due once, gets completed, and that is the end of it unless the customer signs up for a plan.

One practical tip: when you first move existing customers onto plans, enter or complete their most recent cleaning so the count has a real starting point. A plan with no completed visit has nothing to count from, so the first cleaning is what sets everything in motion.

Let the Plan Do the Remembering

Minimum days between visits means the schedule follows the work you actually did, not the work you hoped to do. For the full view of how plans, the Waiting List and billing fit together, see the recurring solar cleaning software page.