Hit 50 installs this year and actually kept my notes organized the whole time

So I've been doing residential alarm installs for about 2 years now, mostly in the suburbs around Denver. Last week I wrapped up my 50th system for the year and realized I kept a binder with every panel wiring diagram and customer notes from day one. Usually I'm terrible at paperwork, but I forced myself to write down stuff like which zones had issues or where I hid the transformer. It actually saved my butt twice when customers called back about false alarms. Does anyone else use a physical notebook or do you all just keep it digital?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara70011d ago

50 systems in a year is solid work, especially keeping a binder going the whole time. I did security installs for about 5 years before I switched careers and I always kept a physical notebook too, wrote down every panel code and where I ran the wires. Saved me more than a few times when a customer moved a fridge and tripped a window sensor they forgot about. My tip is to use a binder with plastic sheet protectors for each job, then you can slide in the diagram and any notes without them getting wrecked. Otherwise you end up with coffee stains or torn pages by job 15.

grant.jason11d ago

Hard disagree, paper just gets lost or wrecked on a jobsite.