What should a curtain workroom job sheet include?

A curtain workroom job sheet should hold everything the maker needs to cut and make the curtains without picking up the phone. That means the customer and window, the finished width and drop and where they were measured from, the heading and fullness, the fabric with its width and pattern repeat, the number of widths and the cut drop, the lining, the hems and returns, and the track or pole. If the maker has to guess any of these, the job sheet is not finished.

What goes on the sheet

The job

Customer name, job number and the room and window, so the curtains go to the right house and the right window.
The fitting date and who is fitting, so the workroom knows when it is due.

The measurements

The track or pole width and the finished drop.
Where the drop is measured from: the top of the track, the underside of the pole rings, or the ceiling.
Where the curtain finishes: on the sill, below the sill, just off the floor, or puddled.
Returns and overlaps, if the track has them.

The curtain

Pair or single, and if single, which side it draws to.
Heading type and fullness.
Fabric name and code, fabric width, and pattern repeat.
Number of widths per curtain and the cut drop.
Lining and interlining, and how much of each.
Hem and side turnings, and weights if you use them.

The hardware

Track or pole, its finish, the length it is cut to, and the bracket type.
Corded or hand drawn, and the side for the cord or wand.

A worked example

Here is one pair of lined pencil pleat curtains as it would sit on a job sheet. All the figures are example figures, so use your own allowances.

Field	Value
Track width	200 cm, plus 20 cm for returns and overlap
Finished drop	230 cm from the top of the track, 1 cm off the floor
Heading and fullness	Pencil pleat, 2.25 times
Fabric	137 cm wide, 32 cm pattern repeat
Widths	220 cm x 2.25 = 495 cm, divided by 137 cm = 3.6, so 4 widths, 2 per curtain
Cut drop	230 cm plus 30 cm for hem and heading = 260 cm, rounded up to 9 repeats = 288 cm
Fabric to cut	4 x 2.88 m = 11.52 m
Lining to cut	4 x 2.60 m = 10.40 m, no repeat

Every line on that sheet is a number the maker would otherwise have to work out again, or ask about. The cut drop is the one that goes wrong most often, because the pattern repeat is easy to forget when someone writes the sheet by hand.

Where job sheets go wrong

Retyping. The quote says one thing and the job sheet says another, because somebody copied it across late in the day.
Missing the measuring point. A drop of 230 cm means nothing if the maker does not know whether it was taken from the track or the ceiling.
Changes after the quote. The customer swaps the fabric, the quote is updated, and the old job sheet is already in the workroom.

The fix is to make the job sheet from the same job as the quote, so there is only one set of numbers. In InterioApp, once a quote is accepted it becomes the order, and the workroom gets a job sheet with the sizes, fabric, heading and hems, without anything typed twice. It costs £99 a user a month, with setup from £1,800, in which we load your products and prices for you.

See a job sheet made from your own quote

If you want to see a job sheet come out of one of your own jobs, book a 30-minute demo and bring the measurements from a recent pair of curtains.

First published on the InterioApp blog.