PestBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Chemical Application Records on Commercial Pest Control Accounts

A homeowner almost never asks to see your application record. A commercial client might ask any month. The restaurant owner wants it for the health inspector. The property manager wants it because a tenant asked what was sprayed in their unit. The school wants it because a parent called. Being able to answer those requests quickly, with a complete record, is part of what a commercial client is paying for.

The Record Behind the Bill

Billing every location on one statement was the subject of Monthly Statements for Commercial Pest Control: One Bill That Covers Every Location. The statement says what the client paid for. The application record says what was actually done.

Many states require pest control companies to keep application records, and the details required vary. Your state's lead pesticide agency sets those rules. PestBossPro helps you keep the records many states require, but it does not make anyone compliant. Check your state's rules and the product label.

What PestBossPro Records

For every completed treatment that used a tracked product, PestBossPro keeps an application record with:

• When: the date and start and end time.
• Where: the address with city, state and zip.
• What: the mix used and every product in it, with the name, active ingredient, EPA reg. no. if entered, rate and total amount used.
• How much: total applied and area treated, in square feet or linear feet of perimeter.
• Why: the target pest.
• Site: the site treated, like kitchen, dish area, exterior perimeter or unit interior.
• How: the equipment used.
• Who: the technician's name and license number, and your business license number.
• Conditions: wind speed and direction and temperature.
• Safety: the re-entry interval and drift-prevention notes.

Setting Up Products and Mixes

Records are only as good as the product information behind them. Set up each product once with its active ingredient, EPA reg. no., application method and rates, and turn on the Track Chemicals flag for the products you want recorded.

Then build mixes. If your commercial interior mix is the same at every restaurant, build it once from your products with rates per gallon. A perimeter mix for warehouses and offices can be its own mix. The tech app uses the mix to work out what to load for the day and what was applied, so the tech is not doing math on a tailgate.

Talk about products in your records by name and active ingredient, like a bifenthrin perimeter mix or a fipronil gel bait. The EPA reg. no. is what ties the record to the exact product label.

Catching Missing Records

The “need a chemical record” button on the schedule shows completed treatments still missing their record. On a commercial-heavy route, check it every day. A missing record on a restaurant account is not a small thing when the manager asks for it.

Common reasons a record goes missing:

• The tech completed the stop in a hurry and skipped recording what was applied.
• A product was used that is not in the product list yet.
• The office added a job by hand after the fact.

Each one is easy to fix the same day and hard to fix a month later.

Pulling Records When Asked

Chemical reports pull application records for any date range. When a property manager asks for everything applied at their complexes this year, set the range and gather the records for that client's addresses. When a restaurant asks for last month, set the range to last month.

The records answer the questions commercial clients actually ask: what did you use, where, how much, for what pest, and who applied it. Pair them with the job notes and before-and-after photos and you have a complete picture of each visit. For reporting across a whole account, see Commercial Pest Control Reports by Account: Answering “What Did You Do Here This Year?”.

Records Are Not a Substitute for the Label

A good record shows that you followed the label. It does not decide what the label allows. Treating food-handling areas, occupied units, schools and childcare facilities often comes with specific label directions and state rules. Read the label for every product, every time. The label is the law.

Records also do not replace good judgment on site. If wind is picking up on an exterior treatment at a school, the record will show the wind speed, but the decision to stop is the tech's. Drift-prevention notes are there to record what the tech did about it.

To see how application records fit with the rest of your commercial accounts, visit the PestBossPro commercial pest control software page.