Hello, im just getting started guys and have gained tons of insight from this forum. My question is how do you bill comercial clients. Obviously a 1 time clean you give the invoice at the end of the job and recieve payment or they mail. How do you bill for ongoing clients? Do you rely on them paying you by mail on a predetermend date or do you go to them every month. The last option seems time consuming. How you guys do it would give me a huge help. Apreciate it!
Our 2nd most important metric we track with our commercial store front clients and staff is “collection ratio” - If you can collect at the time of service you will be better off in the long run. Your cash flow will thank you…
There is nothing worse than calling someone 60 days later to ask them to pay a $15 bill. I guess calling them 90+ days after would be worse… but you get what Im saying…
Expect them to want to pay on “net 30” or MORE! Be prepared to up front alert them that you require payment due upon completion, or payment up front if they cannot (or will not) pay in a timely fashion. I don’t know how many garages, electricians, plumbers, or hair salons allow you to just pay when you get good and ready to, but my guess is zip.
Make your payment terms clear BEFORE doing the job. Have standard payment terms in writing but let them know you can work with them if necessary. I only have a few commercial accounts. One is net 30 the others I send them an invoice and usually have a check within a week or so.
Thank you guys. This all makes since. Ive scored 3 small accts today. All willing to pay on completion. I agree withh Chris, it would seem pretty awkward chasing down a 15 dollar bill. I would though.
I have a $30 account that hasn’t paid for the last 2-3 services.
customers may not think much of missing a $15 dollar payment but they will add up fast if too many of your customers think like that, get your payments ASAP
Yes, $15 bill is a tiny amount of money.
But, it means a lot.
I’m gonna wait until it hits 10 and drop a $300 bill on them
Hey my question to you is if they have not payed the last three why would they pay for 10/$300?
So did they Pay up yet?
Why would they pay? Because they owe the money. No they haven’t payed yet
I just email them an invoice when I get home and I give them about 30 days to pay depending on the company’s policy. Some pay right away and others like waiting til the last minute.
I use invoice2go and email a invoice as I am chatting up the client.
ALLWAYS 14 days net. For my store fronts.
Diamondridge-
I got a $30 account that’s always 3 services late pay.
Must be the magic number…
But they ALLWAYS settle up eventually.
I would have dropped them but I really enjoy doing this account.
Pax
I always collect after the job is done. On the days I know it’s going to be super hot and muggy I like to start early, most places aren’t open yet. I do my route like normal and after the last stop I got back through my route in reverse and collect my cash. Works out good because its on my way back home, no extra driving. I haven’t had any problems with payments yet. If I don’t catch them this time they always pay on the next go around.
My only worry about doing it that way would be that the customer would have sticker shock when they realize they just paid $300 for window cleaning. $30, no problem, but $300, ouch. Collect every job and they don’t feel the pinch.
yeah, i can see that, I just don’t have time to be chasing $30 bills though
I am also a newbie in this business, but a veteran in others. I am using Freshbooks for my (mobile) invoicing. You can use your iphone, pad, pc to monitor your AR at a glance, email your invoices immediately and pre-invoice jobs, suggesting that I will be there that week and to have payment ready. Also, I am using an old ipad, mobile hot-spot and a wireless printer connected to a 110v inverter and my 1995 Ford F150 is my rolling office. Freshbooks can also generate invoices and snail-mail them for you (little pricey but damned convenient). They also can provide credit card processing (immediate and recurring) right on the ipad. My accountant loves me because all of the accounting is in the cloud and she can process my statements immediately. The main reason that I chose them is because you can look at each client and immediately see pay history and what’s owed. I also include all of my expenses as they occur, to keep me straight with bigbrother. Good Luck!
