The Wash Book

How it works

One week, five people, one record.

Everyone opens the same app and sees the part of it their job needs. What one person does shows up on everyone else’s screen without anybody re-entering it. Here is a week.

Monday morning

The owner reads last week.

Before the trucks roll, the Business pulse on a phone: what last week invoiced and what hasn’t been yet, how many units went through, minutes per unit, wash hours, and the sixteen weeks before it. Nobody filled in a sheet over the weekend. The numbers are the logged washes, the invoices and the tracker times.

  • Who’s due for an inspection, which add-ons are coming due, which stops were never logged.
  • Hours approved: the office reviews each person’s week by kind of work and approves it, ready for payroll.
app.thewashbook.com/#/hours
Hours · week of 21 SepMarcus · 41.5 h
DayWashingDrivingShop
Mon7.01.5—Approved
Tue8.01.0—Approved
Wed6.51.51.0Edited · was 7.5
Thu7.51.0—Approved
Fri5.01.5—Approved
34.0 washing · 6.5 driving · 1.0 shop · breaks unpaid

Edits keep the original beside them. Pay rates never appear.

Monday afternoon

The office sets the week.

Recurring stops are already on the board, because they come from each yard’s own schedule: Tuesday, 4pm, four hours, every other week. The Day board lays the week out as a column per person with their hours on top, and anything with nobody on it sits in an Unassigned column where it can’t hide.

  • A person on approved time off is blocked outright; anyone scheduled inside a new block comes off automatically.
  • A double-booking is badged, not refused. On a sick-day morning it may be the intent.
  • A yard the customer asked to skip is skipped with the reason attached.
app.thewashbook.com/#/board
Tuesday3 trucks · 7 stops · 1 unassigned
Marcus 8.5 h
Northside Freight7:00 · 3 h · truck 1
County Transit11:00 · 4 h · truck 1
Harbor Disposal16:00 · 1.5 h · truck 3
Dani 7 h
Midwest Foods6:30 · 3 h · truck 2
Lakeview Dairy10:30 · 2.5 h · truck 2
Harbor Disposal16:00 · 1.5 h · truck 3
Unassigned 1
Ridge LogisticsThu 17:00 · 4 h · nobody yet
Harbor Disposal takes two trucks: one log for the yard, a time for each truck

Tuesday

The crew log the wash from the stop.

A washer opens the app on their phone, clocks in as Washing, and sees only their own day. Tapping the stop opens the yard: gate hours, who to call, chemical rules, what the customer has complained about before, which units are excluded. They read it at the gate instead of finding out at the wash rack.

Then they tap the units they washed off that yard’s roster, each showing when it was last done. A unit that isn’t on the roster yet gets added right there. Detailing and hourly work like dock washouts go on their own tabs so they never land in the fleet wash count. If an add-on is due at this yard, the sheet asks, and the job can’t close until it’s answered.

  • The truck’s time inside the yard comes from the vehicle tracker, so nobody writes down when they arrived.
  • A mistake is edited, not deleted and re-entered, with who changed it and what it said before kept on the record.
Harbor DisposalTue · 16:00 · 1.5 h
Watch for: hopper lids are missed most here
WashesDetailHourly
601last 1 wk
602last 1 wk
604last 1 wk
610last 3 wk
611excluded
615last 1 wk
R12roll-off
R14roll-off
R17last 1 wk
Add-on due: Reclaim tank rinse · Done, 27 of 27

The crew’s view. No price appears on it anywhere.

Wednesday

A lead inspects.

The inspection picks the washer who has gone longest without one, the yard from their stops that week, and the units from that yard’s roster. Each unit gets a side-view drawing laid out for its own type, and the inspector taps the parts that came out badly and scores them one to ten. “Looks clean” fills in the rest.

Then, once for the visit, the wash fundamentals: chemicals used sparingly, hoses handled and not yanked, pressure relieved before moving. Bad, Neutral or Good. Pace comes from the units the crew actually logged for that stop.

  • Over a few weeks each person’s record shows the spot they always miss, by name and by count.
  • Conduct notes are logged beside the scores, dated and marked discussed or not, and never mixed into them.
app.thewashbook.com/#/who
Where this washer misses90 days · 11 inspections
8.1overall, 90 days
  • Wheels & wheel wells×7
  • Fuel tanks & steps×5
  • Lower body×3
  • Glass×0
Conduct, 90 days: +2 · −1 · last discussed 9 Sep. Not part of the score.
Fundamentals this visit: Good · Good · Neutral · Good · Good

Friday

The invoices build themselves.

One invoice per yard for the week, with one line per unit type: the units the crew tapped, sorted and de-duplicated, priced from that yard’s rate card. Hourly work on its own line at the yard’s hourly rate. The card fee and the fuel surcharge as their own lines, each mapped to its own QuickBooks item. A per-visit minimum where the contract has one.

  • A preview you can read, then one tap writes the invoice to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks keeps the number and the tax.
  • Not connected to QuickBooks? Copy the lines. They’re already in the shape an invoice wants.
app.thewashbook.com/#/invoices
County Transit · week of 21 Sepdraft · 2 visits
Bus3131 × $48.00 · $1,488.00
1102, 1104, 1107, 1110, 1111, 1115, 1118, 1120, 1121, 1124…
Cargo van66 × $38.00 · $228.00
V21, V22, V24, V27, V28, V30
Add-on · Interior sanitize3131 × $6.00 · $186.00
Due every 4 weeks at this yard. Answered Done by the crew on Tuesday.
Fuel surcharge4% · $76.08
Routed to its own QuickBooks item.
$1,978.08 before tax · Preview, then Send to QuickBooks

And in the background

The things nobody has to remember.

Notices

A time-off request reaches the people who can approve it; the answer reaches the asker. Next on the same outbox: an evening nudge to the crew on any stop with no units logged, and a Monday brief to the leadership team with every number a link. Coming

Add-ons that come due

Each add-on has a cadence per yard. When it is due the crew must answer before the job closes; a skip never resets the clock, a partial wash does. The office is warned on the stop and never has to chase it.

Maintenance

Hour meters on every pump, oil intervals that come due on their own, and a weekly walkaround that tells you what’s overdue while you’re standing next to the machine.

Time on site

Trucks matched to the tracker’s vehicles, yards to its geofences. The minutes inside the fence become each stop’s time on site: previewed, then applied, never overwriting a time a person set.

Your data

Goes in from one spreadsheet. Comes back out the same way.

Getting in

Every new book starts empty. Fill in one workbook, people, trucks, accounts, yards, unit rosters, schedules and wash history if you have it, and upload it. Before anything is written you get a plan: what will be created, what will be updated, and every row it couldn’t read with the reason why.

Getting out

Download the whole book any time, either as that same spreadsheet or as a complete copy of every record. It’s your customer list and your employees’ records; leaving should never require asking us for anything.

Who sees what

Five roles out of the box, editable, plus your own, plus exceptions for one person. Crew never see pricing, commissions, revenue or minutes. The rules are enforced by the database, not by hiding a menu.

Start a book and put one yard in it.

Fourteen days free, no card. If it doesn’t fit how you run, you’ve lost an afternoon.