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Payment due upon completion.

In reality any way you get paid from a customer is the best way. If they're willing to pay up front thats great. upon completion or within a week/30 days thats all up to you. Adding interest/penalty if not within a time frame is your decision.

The only thing I wouldn't do is state "after satisfatory results/satisfaction gauranteed" a customer can screw you with language like that and non written agreements.

DirtyDan wrote:

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I'm curious how the business works? How you get paid and when you get paid is all up to the owner. Which method do you find works best? I wanted to focus on paying online. I love paying online it's so easy, and it will bring traffic to your website, in turn boosting SEO and more importantly educating consumers.

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Dan - keep in mind, paying online will typically mean 3% gone from your top line. Visa, MC, Paypal - it a costs the business owner.

Although American-ProTech gladly accepts Paypal, credit cards etc, we make it just a little more convienient for our clients to pay with a check or cash.  

Best wishes to you with your new business endeavor.

Dan just be careful how you word it. You arent supposed to tack anything extra on if the customer pays by credit card.

I'd have to check the numbers, but Id guess that less than 10% of our customers pay be credit card. Id only mention that you accept credit cards on your advertising and estimates. Leave it off and theyll either remember and ask to pay by credit card or they probably just send you a check.

Thats how it works for us. Either way the 3% is just a cost of doing business.

As far as payment terms go. We changed to Net 10 from Net 30. I had too many customers dragging their feet.

Our invoice now says "Total due now $XX. Please Pay $XX after X/XX."

The majority of our customers pay at completion. We accept credit cards, but do not advertise the fact. If someone asks to pay by cc that is fine. We use Square for cc processing. No monthly fees and a swiped card is around 1.7% and a manually entered is around 3%.

Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD wrote:

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Clark, how did you get the fee at 1.7% for Square? I'm using Square and getting charged 2.75% per swiped transaction.

We accept payment after completion by cash, check, CC or we leave an invoice if they are not home. I've only had one customer who took over a month to pay up, other than that people usually pay within 2 weeks and I'm fine with that.

I don't charge more or give discounts depending on the payment they use, I told a customer that one time (a discount for using cash) and they looked at me like I had a 3rd eyeball. There's a piece of bad advice that I wish I could take back!

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It would have been worse if they looked at you like you had a 3rd penis.

I don't get why you wouldn't give a cash discount, small cash discount is a big tax discount.

Are you saying to take cash and then hide it you'll give a discount? What's the difference in cash or check if it's going directly to the business? I guess it's one thing if you hide your money from Uncle Sam, but why cut them a break just for paying cash? The reason I don't offer a small discount for paying with cash is less about hiding the money or getting a tax break and more because it screams unprofessional, IMO. You end up looking like a shyster and no one trusts a shyster!

We use Quickbooks, I don't know what we'd do without it!

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD on Thursday 17th of November 2011 09:34:58 AM

DirtyDan wrote:

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Roof Cleaning West Chester PA wrote:

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Hey Dan, if the customer is home, we always collect cash/check on the spot ... if not, i leave my invoice in a return envelope, stamped and filled out net 7 days ... i used to just leave the invoice in the mail box but noticed that i started receiving payment MUCH sooner after leaving the return envelope

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So do you guys typically, do the work when the customer is home? Hoping to get payment immediately after? The return letter is a great idea. What program do you use to print invoices? Microsoft Quick books?

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 We use custom invoices and custom quote forms.  Both are in a constant state of further improvement.  

Some clients will get one quote form while others will get a different version, intentionally. (One size does not fit all    )

I'd recommend staying away from the generic store bought invoices (Staples, etc)  but that's just me.  

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Northern Virginia (571) 250 9650 on Thursday 17th of November 2011 10:30:41 AM

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA wrote:

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schedule your next available day, always book weekends so the neighbors can see you & i'd rather finish a job during the week at 6pm when people are coming home from work vs 2pm

it would be pretty difficult to base your schedule on the homeowner's presence, especially during the week ... and it sucks, but what happens sometimes is the homeowner will be home but "run out for 15 minutes" and 2 hours later when you're done they're still not home

some guys tell the customer to leave a check in the mailbox, we don't mind just leaving an invoice net 7 days

i just buy my invoices from office depot, though i plan to customize next year

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Ya I knew weekends were the way to go, and the net 7 invoice looks very professional.
Having the home owner watch works both ways, they can become an educated consumer, or a PITA.