Holiday lighting software for the renewal season.
Your business is last year's customers saying yes again before someone else knocks. Redline drafts the renewal from what you hung last year, holds it with a deposit and puts both the install and the takedown on the calendar.
A renewal, booked both ways
Draft for Janet Whitaker: roofline C9, 140 ft at $6: $840. Tree wrapping, 2 at $175: $350. Wreath: $95. Takedown and storage: $225. Total $1,510, deposit at 50%: $755. Save it?
Saved. Booked the Whitaker install Tuesday, Nov 10 at 9:00 and the takedown Tuesday, Jan 12 at 9:00.
Quotes save as drafts. The deposit invoice is on Solo and up, and you create it.
Built around renewals and two visits a house
Last year's list, first
Every house you lit last year is a contact with last year's job on it. Work the list in late summer and move each one through the pipeline. See Christmas light installation software.
Deposits that lock the date
Put the deposit on the renewal quote, then on Solo and up bill it as its own invoice with a card pay link. Redline doesn't send it automatically when they say yes; you do it from Money.
Two visits per house
Book the install in November and the takedown in January for every customer. The calendar shows how many takedown days you've already promised.
Whose lights are whose
Note on each customer whether the lights are theirs or yours, the storage bin number and anything special about the roof. The crew sees job notes in their app on Team and up.
Outage calls in December
A dead section of roofline is a quick service call. Find a slot by town, add it to the job and invoice the visit if it isn't covered.
Leads from your Pro Page
Your free Pro Page takes quote requests, and they land in Contacts as leads. Free shows 3 a month; paid plans show them all.
A year squeezed into four months
Holiday lighting runs on a strange calendar. You sell in late summer and early fall, mostly to the people you lit last year. Installs start in fall and run until the week before the holidays with crews of 2 to 4. Outage calls come in all December. Then everything comes down in January and goes into labeled bins until next year.
The renewal is the business. A customer who loved their house last year will say yes again, but only if you ask before the competitor with the door hanger does. That's why the deposit matters: it's what makes a renewal a booked install date instead of a maybe.
Every house is two visits, and every house has its own story: which lights are theirs, which bin they live in, the gutter clip that doesn't fit their roof. When that's on the customer's file instead of in your head, a new crew member can hang it right the first time.
Straight answers for lighting installers
Redline does
- Quote roofline per foot, trees, wreaths and takedown by chat
- Bill early deposits with card pay links (Solo and up)
- Book install and takedown visits for every house
- Keep storage and ownership notes on each customer
- Dispatch install crews (Team and up)
Redline doesn't
- Make design mockups on a photo of the house
- Send renewal emails to your whole list on its own
- Track light and clip inventory in storage
- Let customers book or renew online
- Text customers (calling is one tap)
Questions contractors ask
How do I renew last year's customers?
Each one is a contact with last year's job. Draft a renewal quote by chat, then call or email them from your Gmail. Redline doesn't send a mass renewal email, so it's one customer at a time.
Can I book the install and takedown together?
Yes, by chat in one message, as two separate visits. Each one can be moved on its own if the weather or the customer changes the date.
Can I show the customer a mockup?
Redline doesn't make mockups. If you make one in another app, attach the image to the customer's job so the crew sees what was sold.
What plan for two install crews?
Team at $129 a month has 3 seats with the owner counted, plus the dispatch board and tech app. Team+ at $299 has 10 seats. See pricing.
Free holiday lighting paperwork and tools
- Holiday lighting estimate templateRoofline, trees, wreaths, takedown and storage
- Holiday lighting invoice templateBalance invoice with the early deposit applied
- Christmas light installation softwareHow renewals run in Redline, house by house
- Christmas light estimate appRoofline by the foot, trees and shrubs each, with a deposit
- Holiday lighting scheduling softwareInstall days before Thanksgiving, takedowns booked at the same time
- Markup vs margin calculatorPrice first-year lights so the renewal still pays
Keep reading
- Christmas light installation softwareRenew last year's houses, collect deposits early, book install and takedown.
- Quotes and estimatesItemized quotes by chat or from a photo, with a deposit. Options and tax in the composer.
- Contacts and CRMOne file per customer with calls, jobs, emails, invoices, notes and photos.
- Gutter cleaning softwareClear the fall backlog, rebook cleanings and quote guards and seamless installs by the foot.
- Landscaping softwareBid mulch by the yard, take deposits before ordering plants and run crews from one board.
Run your business by chat.
Redline is free to start. Tell it about the job and it handles the quote, the schedule, the invoice and the follow-up.