TrashCanBossPro Blog — Trash Can Cleaning Software

Getting Set Up on Trash Can Cleaning Software in One Day

Setting up new software sounds like a month-long project. For a bin cleaning company, it doesn't have to be. The business has a simple shape: customers, cans, trash days, plans, a route and a payment. Set those up in order and you can be running tomorrow's route from the new system by tonight.

Start With the List

The day goes fastest if your customer list is ready to go. If it isn't yet, start with Importing Your Customer List Into Trash Can Cleaning Software With a CSV. This guide assumes you have a reasonably clean spreadsheet and a free day.

Morning, Hour 1: Company Basics

Start with the things everything else depends on:

• Company name, address, phone and logo
• Your shop address, since auto-routing works Closest First or Furthest First from the shop
• Sales tax, if you charge it

It takes a few minutes, and everything you build afterward picks it up.

Hour 2: Your Services and Prices

Build your service list. For most bin cleaning companies that is short:

• Monthly cleaning, priced by number of cans
• Every-other-week cleaning
• Weekly cleaning
• One-time cleaning
• Dumpster pad cleaning for commercial and HOA work
• Extra can charge

Your prices are your own. Invoices and estimates pull from this list, so get it right now and you won't fix prices one invoice at a time later.

Hours 3–4: Customers

Import your CSV, then spot-check ten records against the spreadsheet. Fix anything that came over wrong before going further.

Then work through the addresses, street by street, and add the bin cleaning details: trash, recycling and yard waste can counts, trash day, can location notes and gate codes. Neighbors usually share a trash day, so going street by street is quicker than going alphabetically.

Lunch, Then Hour 5: Plans and Tags

Set each customer's plan: weekly (7 days between visits), every other week (14) or monthly (28). Add tags like Monthly, Every-Other-Week, HOA and Commercial. Set HOAs, property managers and businesses to Monthly account billing so they get one statement for all their addresses.

Then open the Waiting List. Every active customer should be a pin on the map, colored not due yet, due now or overdue. If it looks like your real business, you are in good shape.

Hour 6: Employees and Office Users

Add each tech as an employee with a personal PIN and assign them to a trailer or truck. Add office users with the role that fits their job. Have each tech open the tech app on their own phone in the browser, install it to the home screen, log in with the company login and their PIN, and clock in once to make sure it works.

Hour 7: Forms, Texts and Cards

Put the request form and the sign-up form on your website so new customers flow into Form Responses. Review your automatic reminders and alerts, and keep them short so they stay inside your text allowance.

Then text your existing customers: you've moved to a new system, they'll start getting a reminder the night before, and they can add their card and choose their alerts in the customer app.

Hour 8: Build Tomorrow's Route

Finish the day by doing the real thing. On the Waiting List, pick the due customers whose trash day lines up with tomorrow. Assign them to tomorrow on the right trailer. On the dispatch board, auto-route Closest First or Furthest First from the shop and adjust any stops you know better. Check the tech app to make sure the route shows in the same order.

Tomorrow, the tech runs it from the phone, and the first auto-charges come in as jobs are completed.

What Can Wait

Not everything needs to be perfect on day one. Custom fields, reports and your first estimates can wait until the first week is behind you. Get the customers, cans, trash days, plans and the first route right, and fill in the rest as you go. For more on what to avoid, see Common Mistakes Bin Cleaning Companies Make With Their Software.

Get the Crew Ready Too

The setup day is also the day to prepare your techs. Walk them through one job card on their phone: the cans line, the can location note, the navigation button, Start, the photos, Complete. Show them what Skip is for and ask them to add a note when the cans aren't out. Five minutes in the shop saves a dozen phone calls on the first route. If a tech is nervous about the change, have them ride along for the first few stops while you run the app, then hand them the phone.

The Takeaway

Company basics, services, customers, cans and trash day, plans, employees, forms and a real route. One focused day gets a bin cleaning company running on new software. For the full overview, visit the trash can cleaning software page.