Every accurate window bid starts from a rate you actually measured. Panes divided by hours is that rate — and once you have it, estimating a new building is one division away.
64 panes in 3.5 hours is 18.3 panes an hour. A 200-pane building will take roughly 11 hours at that pace.
The example
Three completed jobs used to set the crew's benchmark rate.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job | Panes | Hours | Panes/hr |
| 2 | Office suite | 64 | 3.5 | 18.3 |
| 3 | Storefront row | 120 | 4.0 | 30.0 |
| 4 | Residential 2-story | 88 | 6.5 | 13.5 |
The formula
A single division, rounded so the number is readable:
How it works
The value is in what you count, not the arithmetic:
B2is the pane count — count sides if you clean both, since an in-and-out job is two panes of work.C2is crew hours on site, including setup and ladder moves. Excluding them flatters the rate and blows the next bid.ROUND(...,1)trims 18.2857 to 18.3, which is as precise as this measurement deserves.- Divide a new building's pane count by the rate to get an hour estimate: 200 / 18.3 is about 11 hours.
Keep separate rates by job type. Storefronts run three times faster than second-story residential, so one blended average will underbid houses and overbid retail.
Try it: interactive demo
Enter panes cleaned and hours worked.
Variations
Revenue per hour instead
Speed only matters if it pays. Divide the ticket by the same hours.
Crew average across jobs
Total panes over total hours — not the average of the rates, which weights small jobs too heavily.
Pitfalls & errors
Averaging the rate column gives the wrong answer. Divide the summed panes by the summed hours instead, or a quick 10-pane job distorts the whole benchmark.
Log first-clean jobs separately. Construction cleanup and neglected windows can run at a third of the maintenance rate and will poison your benchmark.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
Should I count a French pane as one or many?
How many jobs before the rate is reliable?
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