A window cleaning company’s entire inventory fits in its vans - which is exactly the problem. There is no stockroom to glance around: the poles, pumps, pure water plant, ladders, and harnesses are spread across however many vehicles left the yard this morning, and what each one actually carries drifts a little further from the list every week. This guide covers how window cleaning businesses keep kit under control: what to track, how to run each van as a mini warehouse, and how to keep inspection dates on safety kit where an auditor can find them.
What you will learn
- Why kit drifts between vans
- What to put on the register
- Run each van as a mini warehouse
- Inspections, ladders, and working at height
- Getting started without slowing the round
- FAQ
Why kit drifts between vans
Window cleaning has a particular set of reasons the register and the vans stop agreeing:
- The round is relentless. Crews load at 7am and unload at dusk; nothing gets written down in between. A borrowed pump or a swapped brush is a shout across the yard, not a record.
- Pole kits intermingle. Carbon fibre sections crack, get replaced from another kit, and within a season nobody knows which sections belong to which pole - or which van the good brush ended up in.
- Safety kit carries paperwork. Ladders, harnesses, and rope access kit have formal inspection obligations, and the records typically live in a folder that was last opened when the folder was bought.
- Vans get broken into. Overnight theft from work vans is common, and an uninsured claim with no serial numbers and no purchase records goes nowhere.
The pattern underneath all of it: kit changes hands more often than anyone updates the record. The fix is making the swap itself the record.
What to put on the register
Track per item what hurts to replace or carries an inspection date; track as stock what gets used up.
| Asset class | Examples | Tracking approach |
|---|---|---|
| Water-fed kit | poles (by kit), brushes, pole hose, pumps, controllers, battery packs | Per kit or per item, with serials where they exist |
| Pure water plant | RO units, DI vessels, van tanks, trolley systems | Per item, with filter and resin changes logged |
| Access and safety kit | ladders, roof ladders, harnesses, lanyards, rope access kit | Per item, with inspection dates and outcomes |
| Traditional kit | squeegee handles, applicators, holsters, buckets | Kit-level, or accept as job cost |
| Consumables | DI resin, squeegee rubbers, scrims, applicator sleeves | Stock levels with reorder points |
Tip: label pole sections to a numbered kit rather than individually. A five-section pole is one asset; what matters is which van holds kit 3 and whether its second section is cracked - not a serial number per tube.
The pure water plant deserves more attention than it usually gets: RO membranes and DI vessels are the most expensive things in the van after the van, and their resin and filter changes are real service events worth logging.
Run each van as a mini warehouse
The assignment model that fits window cleaning: every item is checked out to a van or a crew lead - always exactly one.
- Standard van kit is assigned to the van (or its lead). The Friday scan-through takes five minutes and doubles as a stock-take: scan, confirm, done.
- Swaps are transfers. When crew two borrows the spare pump, recording the transfer takes seconds and the register stays true. This is the old paper equipment sign-out sheet, minus the paper and the arguments.
- Spares live at the depot as an assignable pool, checked out when they go to work - so “do we have a working backup pump” is never a van-by-van search.
- When crews or vans change, the kit transfers wholesale with a scan-through. The handover moment is when gear historically vanishes; making it a recorded event is most of the cure.
The same model works across field services - cleaning companies run van stock the same way - because the problem is identical: the vehicle is the warehouse.
Inspections, ladders, and working at height
Ladders, harnesses, and rope kit are the items where poor records stop being an annoyance and start being a liability. Working-at-height rules in most countries expect formal periodic inspections on top of pre-use checks, and the burden of proof sits with the business.
- Put the inspection date and outcome on the asset record. “Inspected, passed, by whom, when” against the specific ladder - not a tick on a sheet that does not say which ladder.
- Failed kit changes status immediately. A condemned ladder that stays in the van rack will be on a roof by Thursday. Mark it as in repair or retired the moment it fails, so the register itself says it cannot go out.
- Review the recorded dates monthly. A standing pass over the next inspection dates on each record turns compliance from a panic before an audit into a ten-minute habit.
Getting started without slowing the round
- Empty one van and list everything in it. Record serials where they exist, photograph the rest. One van is an evening’s work and teaches you your real categories.
- Label as you go. Durable laminated QR labels on poles (by kit), pumps, plant, ladders, and harnesses - placed away from grip and wear points.
- Create the owners. Vans, crew leads, and the depot - then repeat for the remaining vans over the week.
- Check everything out to where it lives today. The register is true from day one, even if day one’s truth is “most of it is in van 2”.
- Enforce one habit: every swap between vans is a scan. One habit consistently applied beats a policy document nobody reads.
AMPthilly is built for exactly this pattern: an asset register with photos, serials, and purchase records, checkouts to people or locations (a van works as either), transfers between crews, printable QR labels that any phone camera opens in the browser with nothing to install, a service desk for damage reports, and a full audit history per item. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets with no card required - enough to put your poles, plant, and safety kit on it this week.
FAQ
What equipment does a window cleaning company need to track? Water-fed kit, pure water plant, ladders, harnesses, and rope access kit per item; traditional kit at kit level; resin, rubbers, and scrims as stock.
How do window cleaners keep track of van stock? Each van is a location, kit is checked out to it, swaps are recorded as transfers, and a five-minute Friday scan-through confirms the register.
How do you track ladder and harness inspections? Log each formal inspection’s date and outcome on the asset record, review the recorded dates monthly, and change the status of failed kit immediately.
Do crews need an app to scan equipment labels? No - a phone camera opens the item’s record in the browser, where crews can see who holds it, check it in or out, or report damage.
Is a spreadsheet enough for a window cleaning business? For one van, perhaps. Once crews share kit, you need the swap itself to update the record - spreadsheets do not get edited at 7am in the yard.
The takeaway
Window cleaning kit scatters because the vans are the warehouse - so the register has to live where the swaps happen. Track poles by kit, plant and safety gear per item, and consumables as stock; check everything out to a van or a crew lead; put inspection dates on the asset where an auditor can see them; and make every swap a scan. Whether you run it on AMPthilly’s free plan or something else, the rule is the same: no anonymous kit in any van.