A settlement of pennies to the dollar owed you will be offered. If you choose not to accept then you go to the judge for an acceptable amount. However the hearing may be in a far off state, wherever they filled bankruptcy.

You need to decide which is more costly, taking the loss or fighting for the balance. If you take a loss you can right it off on your taxes.

Dennis Unger
ClearView Windows and More - N. Manchester, IN

I don't see how you can write off money you did not receive. You only report what comes in. Where is the write off?

Stuart Victor
Victor's Window Cleaning - Ventura County CA

You can only write off as a bad debt what you counted as income on your taxes. But if you count it as income than you must pay corp. taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and any other taxes and fees related to income. I find it easier to just not count any uncollected revenue as income. Even as a write off you don't get as much back as all the expenses related to income.

Robert Lariviere
Looking Glass Window Cleaning - Cleveland, OH

This is a matter for an accountant, but whether or not you can write it off as a loss depends upon the accounting method you use.

The two basic types are ‘cash’ and ‘accrual’. If you use the cash method you could not write it off as a loss because you never recorded anything to write off.

Here is a link that explains: Toolkit.com Small Business Guide

Evan B. Pyle
Expert Window Cleaning - Baton Rouge, LA

Accrual counts income as it’s earned, so you pay tax on the money you earned even if you haven’t received any yet. This is where where accounts receivables are an asset, and one would “deduct” bad debts. You also count as an expense things you buy on credit, even if you have not paid for them yet. Accrual is much more complex than cash basis, but is far more accurate for tracking your business operations.

Regardless, when a client goes bankrupt, window cleaning companies usually have to eat the loss; a tax write off never equals the money lost.

Steve Miller
Grand Haven, MI

Can't go wrong with Guardian. AGC is another decent fabricator, as well as PPG.

Craig Aldrich
Sparkle Window Cleaning - Canyon Lake, CA.

I've always been comfortable recommending Guardian, PPG and AGC, But I won't risk my business on it. Everyone signs a waiver or they don't get their windows done by my company.

Fabricators can change their quality at any time. Such as a quality fabricator falling asleep at the wheel with keeping equipment maintained. And I would like to believe a poor quality fabricator might clean up their act when they find out they lost a few large clients because their heat-treated glass has been scratching.

Dan Fields
Fields Construction Services, Inc.

I don’t know of any one company that can supply glass without fabrication debris consistently, it’s (in my opinion) virtually impossible with the current environment that glass is heat treated. I would guess some have less of a problem and not every window is cleaned with a blade of any type thus some glass may seem better than others. Don’t get me wrong there’s allot of fabricators that don’t know or don’t care about fabrication debris and there are those that take pride in the product.

Cliff Monroe
Arch Aluminum & Glass Co.

Fabricators that always practice good housekeeping standards will produce a quality product. Not perfect, but acceptable and cleanable without damage - from the fabricators that believe their glass quality must be the best that can be fabricated for their clients to avoid the issues their client will be subjected to. On the other end are fabricators that don't follow standard housekeeping procedures.

I have always plugged Guardian Tempered Glass and I'm glad to see they are starting to take more business from poor quality fabricators. I believe sooner or later the poor quality fabricators will get with required maintenance. They will just start maintaining their equipment and act like nothing was ever wrong.

Dan Fields
Fields Construction Services, Inc. - Livermore, CA

GANA PR is misleading when it comes to quality. Simply stating that perfection is impossible does not mean quality cannot be achieved - without excessive levels of fabricating debris defects that cause scratches during cleaning.
At the Picnic, I showed the audience some microscopic digital photos of fabricating debris scratches. Typically on these images, taken through a common shop microscope, the field of view is about 1/4 inch. In one particular image there were over 40 defects visible.

Since one square inch has about 16 of these quarter inch views, that scratched poor quality 20x40 window might have about half a million defects.

(40x16x20x40=512000)

A rough estimate of a half million microscopic defects on a random piece of scratched poor quality heat treated glass? That's obviously far from perfect.

Gary Mauer
Since 1996 - the Window Cleaning Network - Oconomowoc, WI

I've heard stories about brushes in the glass washer not even touching the glass, or washers that didn't have any water in them. They don't care about their client, and think ASTM standards will protect them from any liability.

At present there are NO standards for washing glass prior to heat-treating. None! Not even a bulletin from GANA suggesting it might be a good idea. So at present, it's really up to each fabricator to decide whether they want to produce a quality product and spare their customers a lot of grief in the future.

Dan Fields
Fields Construction Services, Inc. - Livermore, CA

Zurn uses a larger square post in the hose bib, so you need a bigger key then the usual 4 way water key provides. A well stocked plumbing supply house will carry the larger key you need. Ask for a "Zurn key". A pair of needle nose pliers will do the trick in a pinch, but the metal will wear down if you use the pliers repeatedly.

Micah Kommers
We Wash Windows - Greenville, SC

Plumbing stores sell Zurn keys, but I think the old 4 way key needs to be updated. I have not seen a new building in the past 4 yrs that doesn't use that newer large size.

Geof White
Valley Window Cleaning, Inc. - Appleton, WI

In a standards interpretation letter dated April 2, 1992 - it is explained that "It is OSHA's belief that the employee's focus and attention while climbing up and/or down a ladder should be on making a safe ascent or descent and not on transporting items up and down the ladder. OSHA notes that an employee who needs to take a large or heavy object to a different level by means of a ladder can pull the object up or lower it with a handline."

Gary Mauer
Window Cleaning Network - Oconomowoc, WI

We’re involved in a project right now, where the screens are unusually large and heavy gauge. We got spring clamps from our local builder center and attached a cord to the handle, tying a loop in the end. In this manner the clamp can be hung from the rung just below the window being cleaned. The screen is removed and hung by the spring clamp while the window is being cleaned. Problem solved.

Evan B. Pyle
Expert Window Cleaning - Baton Rouge, LA

Can you work the price of a lift into it? They have small portable lifts you can rent by the day, week. etc.

Rich Boyd
Boyd Building Service - Tampa, FL

Your profit margin on work you do yourself is about the same as work done by your employee.

Your desired salary should be calculated into the prices you charge, just like the labor and other expenses you would have to pay someone else. (And the owner’s time should be more valuable than anyone else's.)

Teresa Emerson
Clearview Window - Springfield MO

Depends on how you view your business If you are always looking at margins and what it takes to keep your business going you are going to be far ahead of most. You have to figure out what the job is costing for labor if you want to grow and have employees. Many times we bid with us doing the work and when an employee goes out to do it we loose our shirts.

If you have a $100 job, and you figure you have $35.00 in it and pocket the rest, you have a 65% margin right? No - because next year when you send your employee to do it, that job has $35 in expenses and another $35 in labor which takes your profit margin down to 30%.

Michael J Draper
Clearly Windows - Illinois and Florida

A way to calculate profit would be to find out what it would cost to hire someone to do all that you do. Not just the window cleaning, but the selling, planning, management, bookkeeping, purchasing, advertising, etc. These types of calculations (and many more) would be done in most business purchase negotiations. And something you have to know if you desire to grow your business.

Some small business owners draw a management salary, plus pay themselves for any production work, just like they would pay someone else. This makes the financial picture much easier to see.

Steve Miller
Grand Haven, MI