Free templates
Three things worth writing down
A lost bid log, five texts for customers who went quiet, and a client card that fits on one page. Free, no signup, no email wall. Download them, change the columns, never think about us again.
Why these three
These came out of arguments in contractor and estimating forums, not out of a marketing meeting. Each one fixes a specific hole that people described themselves: a bid log that records the outcome but never the reason, a customer list that is not a list of anything, and a client record that lives in one person's head.
Nothing here needs an account, a plugin or an integration. They are a spreadsheet, a text file and a sheet of paper.
Template 01 · Spreadsheet
Lost Bid Log
Almost every bid log has the same columns, and the one thing that decides whether the log is worth keeping is in none of them. Nobody records why they lost.
Awarded yes or no gives you a hit rate. It does not give you anything to act on, because lost by four percent, lost to a guy they already knew, never awarded, owner shelved the job and we got the invite late and they had already picked are four completely different facts, and only the first one is about your number. A log with just the outcome measures the weather. You end up sharpening the pencil on jobs that were never going to be built.
The number that falls out once you write the reason down is what share of your losses were actually price. Most people guess high on that before they check.
The second column nobody keeps is a revisit date. A lost bid file is a dated list of people who have already decided they want something built. A job shelved in March is a warmer call in September than any fresh name off a bid board.
Scroll the table sideways
| Date | Client | Job | Amount | Outcome | Reason lost | Revisit date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-14 | Harborview Apartments | Roof replacement | 18,400 | Lost | project shelved | 2026-09-14 | Postponed to the next budget year. Nothing to do with the number. |
| 2026-04-02 | D. Whitfield | Kitchen remodel | 9,250 | Lost | price | 2026-10-02 | About 6 percent over. Ask what the other scope covered. |
| 2026-04-21 | Cedar Street Dental | Parking lot resurfacing | 12,800 | Lost | invited late | 2026-07-21 | Bid list closed before we saw it. Get on it in June. |
Reason lost: pick one, keep the list short
Six values are enough. A longer list turns into free text, and free text never adds up to a number at the end of the year.
- price
- went with someone known
- project shelved
- invited late
- never heard back
- other
How to actually use it
- Fill the reason the week you lose. It evaporates fast and you will not reconstruct it in December.
- Revisit date is a real date, not "later". Shelved job: six months. Lost on price: six months. Invited late: three months before their next season starts.
- Once a quarter, count the rows where the reason is price. That share is the only honest argument for changing your number.
Template 02 · Five scripts
Lapsed Customer Texts
Five messages for people you worked for six to twelve months ago and have not heard from since. They are not waiting on you. They are not thinking about you.
The list most people are missing is everyone they have ever invoiced, with the date and one line about what the job was. Not the people you promised to call back. The ones from last spring who never said anything. Service work repeats on a slow clock: the deck you built in April wants stain, the kitchen has a punch list nobody got around to, the guy with the rental has another unit.
Send these the next time you are about to advertise because the schedule looks thin. Same trigger you already have, pointed at names you have already worked for.
An ad buys a stranger you still have to sell, schedule and earn trust from. A text buys a job in a house you have already stood in, which you can price from memory, for someone who already knows what your work looks like.
The five
Hi Dana, it's Mike from Redline Carpentry. I built your back deck in April. I have room in the next two weeks and wanted to ask if anything else on the house is on your list. No rush either way.
The thing you built is visible every day and it has neighbours. Stain, steps, a gate, gutters. Something next to your work has aged since you left.
Hi Tom, Mike from Redline. We finished your kitchen in October and I know we left the pantry door and the trim by the window unfinished. I have a couple of open days in the next two weeks. Want me to come close those out?
You are not asking for new work, you are offering to finish something they have been looking at for months. Almost nobody says no, and that visit is where the next job gets mentioned.
Hi Sam, Mike from Redline. I did the turnover on Unit 4 at Cedar Street last spring. I have room in the next two weeks if any of the other units need work before your next tenant.
One property owner is not one customer, they are a building. They think in vacancies, so give them a date they can plan a turnover around.
Hi Erin, Mike from Redline. I cleaned your gutters last September, so you are about due again. I am booking the next two weeks now. Want me to put you down?
The calendar does the asking. Send it two or three weeks before the season they will remember, not during it, when you are already buried.
Hi [name], it's [your name] from [business]. I did [the job] for you back in [month]. I have room in the next couple of weeks and figured I would ask whether anything is on your list. If not, no problem at all.
The whole pattern in four lines. Job, month, opening, question, easy exit.
The rules they follow
- Name the job and the month. That is the proof you are a person who stood in their house, not a list they landed on.
- Say you have room in the next two weeks. It gives the message a reason to exist today.
- Ask if anything is on their list. One question, easy to answer.
- No offer, no discount. A discount turns a reminder into a sales pitch and invites a no.
- Two or three a day when you are quiet. Not fifty at once. Boring and specific beats warm and general.
Nobody decides you are unreachable because you were busy. They decide it because you went quiet and never came back.
Template 03 · Print or spreadsheet
One Page Client Memory
A homeowner does not keep a maintenance list. You are their maintenance list. This is one page per client so you stop being the only copy.
Most of what matters about a client is not in any invoice: what you promised on the way out, what they asked about and you never priced, when you last spoke, what is supposed to happen next. That sits in your head, and your head is busy. One page per client, filled in the day you leave the job, and the whole thing is retrievable a year later by anyone, including you.
What they asked about is the field that pays for the rest. "Do you guys do tile?" is the next job, and it dies within the hour of being asked unless it is written down.
How to fill it
- In the truck, before you drive off. Two minutes on site beats twenty minutes of remembering on Sunday.
- Next step always has a date. "Call about the pantry price" without a date is a wish. With a date it is work.
- Job history is three lines, not a file. Month, what it was. That is enough to write a text that sounds like you were there.
Made by the people building zapyo.app, an app that keeps track of clients, quotes and callbacks so you do not have to hold them in your head.