So using this house as an example. Would you guys charge the ground Windows next to the slider doors as 4 panes or 4 French panes since the are close together and smaller in size. I bid houses like these and I have been doing 1 1/2 my pane price. Some times I also count the panes like French panes and meet in the middle between both prices. Just curious because they are kinda big for French but I feel I’m bidding high if I count each section as 1 pane.
Base rate per panel plus a charge for each pane. See our pricing halfway down the page, here: http://www.cleanvt.com/window-cleaning
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I would likely charge $2 per pane for the windows next to the doors. ($12 one side). The doors $5 each and $1 each above the doors. Open air above the doors to the ones that jut out on the roof - may be dirty (dusty) enough for an interior ladder fee if interior poling can’t do them justice. Nose to glass on first clean for sure.
Not to sidetrack the conversation however a quick question. Do you actually make the inside ladder fee a line item on an invoice? Or is it something you just consider in the overall price?
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Never do that
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Invoices only show cost to do the job. I do not break it down by window type, size, or tools required to do the job. In my arsenal of tools I have ladders, poles, Pivit Tool, scrubbers, scrapers, etc. One job may require one or two items, another may require all. I price by the job.
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I was wondering. I wouldn’t let a customer think I charged “extra” for using a ladder…
I don’t like listing a breakdown of cleaning windows. Every job is basically custom pricing based on difficulty of amount of dirt, safe access, equipment needed, etc.
That said, I do a breakdown of a particular office building interior. Cubicles, different offices have different large glass partitions. I give them a pane count broken down per section. It works well, and they pay nicely on time. 
For me anything over two panes, will get an extra charge per pane. So we do our DH rate, then count the extra panes, multiply that out, for instance it would be our set rate for in /out level one. Say $7.50, we then calculate a .15 to .25 cents per pane per side. So it would be $7.50 + the extra per pane cost ( per window ). And yes it gets costly. Do a double Hung window 1/1 window- time yourself. Then do a 6/6 or 9/9 and time that (start to finish including all detailing and moving to the next glass ). There is a huge difference in labor. Charge for it !!! I used to feel guilty handing the customer a quote that was that costly, but realized I had to get over it because I was eating so much of the cost ( out of kindness or feeling weird about the price ) You get over that real quick when you do a job that size and don’t charge enough extra and your avg. hourly rate goes from $ 65 hour to $38.00.
Incidentally, they do see the cost on the quote. It is there as a line item that I give them. Here is why: For me it justifies, to an extent, the pricing. It says, we have a price per “unit” that we touch / clean. When they see, for instance that they have 1080 individual panes of glass, they understand, Dang ! Really…that many ? They add up very quickly. We do a house twice a year that has 2,960 panes of glass, and she pays for that. That would probably convert to about 300 panes if not for the TDL.
