Window Treatments and the Product Catalog

Updated

Overview

Window Treatments are varied and contain complex options and components. In many ways, window treatments can be more intricate than flooring. Each window is measured for congruent angles, treatments can be installed with more than one set contained in one headrail and the finishes can be endless. For example, once a window treatment is selected, finishing components will then be selected as to whether the cords fall left or right and what behavior the shad performs such as top goes down and bottom goes up or at the same time. Installation of the blinds is considered in the selection process as well. Installing a headrail of treatments can happen inside or outside the window.

Keeping up with the fashion trend changes in window treatments might require an invitation to Fashion Week in New York City! Trends in fabrics, colors, and styles change rapidly in the window treatment world. It can be quite daunting to keep your product catalog current within this environment. Over the decades, here at Pacific Solutions, we have worked with many clients and their window treatment product catalogs. We have worked through the higher needs of product information needed for job itemization and reporting analysis. 

This process document walks through the window treatment process in the management systems focusing on those necessary pieces. This process will get enough information on the job for ordering and installation as well as give owners enough information about which styles from which vendors are performing.

The window treatment industry, for the most part, possesses wonderful online ordering and information tools for dealers. We strongly recommend you use these tools when officially ordering your window treatments. Many window treatments' online accounts and ordering portals will have a print-out format for the dealer that itemizes the blinds, the manufacturing details, and the dealer pricing. We will refer to this type of information as the "dealer order copy". 

Product Structure

If your product structure (Admin>Product Structure) does not have a structure for window treatments, you will need to add this so that you can add it to the product catalog under the proper category.
A typical window treatment product structure looks like this:



Job Types

Running job-type trend reports may be important to the organization. If you wish to run these types of reports for job type "window treatment", you'll want to create a job type to select during the proposal-building process. A typical Job Type Entry for job types looks like this:



Vendor

Be sure you have the window treatment vendor entered in the vendor file. This is an important field for product catalog entry. A typical vendor entry looks like this:



Labor Catalog

All window treatments will need to be installed. If you are providing the installation, you will need labor catalog entries to add the installation to the job. A typical labor catalog entry looks like this:



Product Catalog

The product catalog in both FloorManager and JobRunner will only need to house this information:
  1. Manufacturer
  2. Product Type
  3. Style Name
  4. Unit of Measure
It is not necessary to put costs in the product catalog because the finish selections of things like fabric and hardware can change the landed cost of window treatments. 

If you are importing a product catalog list of window treatments, this template will come from Pacific Solutions and is a Non-B2B Product Import Template. If you can get the information from your provider in an excel document, that would help you tremendously. However, you'll still only be importing the columns listed above. The import spreadsheet would look like this:



You can also enter products into the product catalog manually. Whether you import or manually key in the product data, a typical window treatment product would look like this in the catalog:




Costs, sell and colors are not entered. If you feel you can remain current with the color changes, feel free to enter color palettes. This would be optional. You may also choose to get more simplified by entering the style name with no cell size or other defining characteristics. The example above could be entered just as "Duette Cellular Shades" and then the size of the cells could be defined later in the job line.

Quotes and Proposals

The site visit takes place before any proposal is made in the management system. All of the windows are measured, finishes are selected by the customer or contractor and then the selections are entered into the online ordering portal of the window treatment vendor. Once all the styles, controls, shapes, and installation components are entered into the vendor portal, the dealer order copy is printed to show the MSRP (manufacturer-suggested retail price) and the dealer's costs. This document is then used to enter the proposal into FloorManager or JobRunner.

A typical pre-proposal process (before a quote is made) looks like this:
  1. Sales Measure all windows at the job site
  2. Client decides on colors, fabrics, controls, shapes, and hardware options
  3. Sales enters client selections into the vendor's online ordering portal
  4. Sales prints the dealer order copy document that shows the MSRP and Dealer Costs

The dealer order copy information is entered into the management system when it is time to build a bid for the window treatments in preparation to present to the client. Most of the finish information will be entered into the PO Notes field on each line.
A typical line entry for a window treatment order would look like this:



The sell price of the window treatments is not filled in yet. The costs on the profits tab for the window treatments have not been entered yet. The costs will be entered from the vendor's online order copy details. Once the costs are entered for the window treatments, the GPM tool can be used to set the sell prices or use the grand total override tool to set the overall MSRP that prints with the dealer order copy. 

Some pro tips for line itemization:
  1. Window treatments that install as 2 blinds on one head rail, enter as 1 each line. The other blinds in the same size, style, and color that are single blinds can be entered as quantity totals. 
  2. If every window size is different but the treatments are all the same style color and finishes, you'll want to list them each on their own line due to each size being different. Use the copy/paste tool to copy one line to the next and make minor alterations to the size information.
  3. The color of the treatment is hand-typed into the color field.
  4. The room and window where the line is being installed are noted in the Area field on the labor portion of the line.
  5. Enter the cost on each line based on the online dealer order copy information.
  6. Use the GPM tool to calculate sell prices based on the margin you want for the job. If your labor catalog has one margin set, you can use GPM option#1 to enter a GPM for All Materials only to affect just the window treatment lines.

Use the PO Notes field on each line for:
  1. Window size
  2. Treatment size
  3. Slat, Cell size
  4. Tape color
  5. Hardware specifications
  6. Controls directions and specifications
A typical PO Notes entry for ordering would look like this:



Use the copy/paste tool in the PO Notes field to copy/paste the information to the Notes Installer field. This information is important for the installer to know when installing the treatments. You can continue to paste the line item notes to the customer notes field as well if you print an itemized proposal.

Sales Order

Once the proposal becomes a job, transfer the window treatments to a PO. If the system detects repeated product ID#s, choose to keep them SEPARATED. You do not want to combine these because even though the product IDs are the same, the sizes and finishes are different. 
Order the window treatments through the vendor's online ordering portal.
The PO in the management system is made so that the window treatments can be received, delivered for installation and then cost verified in AP.
A typical PO print would look like this:



Installation: Work Orders

Create work orders for the installers to go and install the window treatments. A typical printed work order would look like this:



Warehouse

The processes for receiving and delivering are the same as flooring. Receive the materials and then deliver the materials out to the job site through the pick ticket process.

Accounting

The process for cost verifying materials and labor is the same as flooring. Cost verify labor at the work order and submit to AP. Cost verify the vendor bill at the AP bill. 

Once jobs begin to process through the system, reports can be run to see the profitability of different styles of window treatments.
The Sales Report by Manufacturer can be consolidated by style and subtotals for each style. It could print like this:


Many reports can be exported for further analysis.
A purchase by vendor report might be helpful as well. This report could be printed like this:



This process can be modified to fit whatever feels best for the organization. This process keeps it as simple as possible. It leverages the amazing online ordering portals by window treatment vendors and puts enough data in the job to gather helpful business metrics through reporting.


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