ElectricalBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Estimates for Tenant Improvements: Quoting Commercial Electrical Work From Your Service List

When a commercial space changes hands, the new tenant usually wants it changed too. More outlets along a wall, new lighting in a sales area, a dedicated circuit for equipment, a few fixtures moved. The landlord or property manager calls you for a price. Tenant improvement work can be some of the best-paying commercial work a small shop does, and it starts with an estimate that is clear enough to approve.

Where Tenant Improvement Requests Come From

How requests from managers arrive is covered in Service Requests From Property Managers: From a Text or Form to a Scheduled Job. A tenant improvement request is just a bigger version: instead of “fix this,” it is “what would it cost to do all this?”

The request usually comes from the property manager or landlord, sometimes from the tenant directly. Either way, the first step is to decide who the estimate goes to and who will pay. If the landlord is paying, the estimate goes on the landlord's client at that suite's address. If the tenant is paying, they can be their own client with their own address, so the work never mixes with the landlord's statement.

Build It From Your Service List

In ElectricalBossPro estimates are built from your own service list. Whatever you have set up becomes a line item: outlets, dedicated circuits, light fixtures, recessed lighting, surge protectors, troubleshooting, service calls and so on. You set the names and the prices. A tenant improvement estimate is a list of those line items, with quantities, plus anything specific to the job.

Using the service list keeps your estimates consistent. The same work has the same name and price across every estimate, which makes it easy for a manager who gets several quotes from you over a year to compare them.

Use What You Already Know About the Space

If you have worked in the building before, the address already has information that helps the estimate:

• Measurements. Square feet, fixtures and circuits are saved on each property, and services can be priced off them.
• Equipment. The panels and subpanels on file, with ratings, phase and location, tell you what the space is working with.
• Past notes. Earlier visits might mention things that affect the work, like a crowded panel or a hard-to-reach electrical room.
• Access. If the space is only workable after hours, that may affect how you price the job.

Equipment details can also be filled in on the estimate itself, and they carry onto the job when it is approved. If the improvement adds new equipment, it is already on the job when the tech arrives.

Templates for Common Jobs

Tenant improvements often repeat. Office suites get the same set of outlets and lighting changes. Retail spaces get similar lighting packages. Estimate templates let you start from a set of line items you use often and adjust from there, instead of building every estimate from a blank page.

A template is a starting point, not a final price. Every space is a little different, and you adjust the quantities and items to match what you saw on the walkthrough.

Keep the Estimate Readable

The person approving a tenant improvement estimate may be a property manager, an owner or a tenant's office manager. None of them are electricians. A few habits make the estimate easier for them:

• Group line items so related work sits together.
• Use plain names from your service list rather than shorthand.
• Note any assumptions, such as after-hours work or access through the landlord.
• Leave optional items as their own lines, so they can see what is required and what is extra.

This article keeps things general on purpose. How you scope and price tenant improvements is your expertise. The software's job is to make the estimate easy to build, send and approve.

Sending It and Following Up

Once the estimate is ready, send it to the customer to approve online. If they do not respond, estimate follow-up emails go out on their own, so the estimate does not quietly sit in someone's inbox. When it is approved, the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job, with the line items and any equipment details carried over. The approval flow is covered in Getting a Commercial Electrical Estimate Approved Online and Onto the Schedule.

Your office can also reach the manager through two-way texting if they have questions about a line item, so the conversation stays in one place.

Winning the Next One

A tenant improvement done well usually leads to the next one in the same building. A clear estimate, a job that matches it and a clean bill make that easy. For the rest of the commercial tools, from monthly statements to equipment records, see the commercial electrical software page.