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The key to getting paid faster is by streamlining your cleaning service invoice process.
In order to get your clients to pay you faster, you’ll need to start quickly sending out professional invoices once the cleaning service is rendered.
Itemized invoices are a great way to get your clients to pay faster because they know exactly what they’re paying for. Coincidentally, it’s also a great way of justifying your prices.
Plus, these invoices help you to track your cleaning business’ success, file your taxes right, keep track of client details, maintain payment history records, and much more.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to create instant professional invoices that’ll save you time and get you paid faster… And as an added bonus, you’ll get a few free downloadable gifts along the way too.
Before you can start creating your professional cleaning service invoice, you need to know how you’re going to bill your clients.
Depending on your range of cleaning services, how you charge, and types of clients, you may use more than one of the main types of invoicing.
Flat fee billing is when you charge a set fee for your cleaning services. This is also known as a value-based pricing approach.
Typically, clients prefer flat fee pricing because it’s more straightforward and predictable. Also, they don’t have to worry about you milking the clock for extra money.
This type of billing is fairly common in more established cleaning businesses who know exactly how long jobs will take.
Flat fee billing also works great if you have a high route density, and you have work in a cookie cutter neighborhood with similar, predictable floor plans.
While this is a preferred pricing method among clients and established cleaning businesses, newer cleaning businesses should be cautious when choosing this method.
In general, I would steer clear of using flat fees until you’re able to accurately estimate how long jobs will take, or you’ll end up losing money.
This is why precise tracking your time on jobs is so important.
After a while, you’ll begin to see trends, which will help you to better estimate how long different types of cleaning jobs will take.
By far, one of the best ways of tracking your time is by using a cleaning software like Service Autopilot.
Service Autopilot allows you to easily track how much time you’re spending on each job, and it’ll also help you to determine your hourly profits.
Plus, you can quickly see which jobs are your most profitable so you can try to clone those cleaning clients.
Until they know their average cleaning times, many new cleaning businesses prefer hourly billing.
Hourly billing is great for new cleaning businesses because it ensures you’ll make money on every cleaning job.
However, established cleaning businesses tend to stay away from hourly billing. This is because you’ll start getting penalized for getting jobs done faster.
When you’re first starting out, you don’t have a proper cleaning system down yet, so it’s understandable that you’ll take longer.
Established cleaning businesses consistently strive for better average cleaning times so their cleaners can take on more clients and make more money.
If you choose this cleaning method, keep in mind that clients don’t usually like hourly billing. If clients think you’re milking the clock to make more money, then it could cause an issue.
Don’t Forget: If you choose hourly billing, you’ll need to take your cleaning employees’ wage into account.
Typically, when you bill a client less than once a month, it’s considered one-time billing.
For example, if you do a one-time cleaning job or an annual spring cleaning, it would be considered a one-time bill since you’re not regularly billing the client.
Since you won’t be billing this client for another job any time soon, you should send your cleaning invoice for the one-time service within 24 hours after the job is done.
Recurring billing is when you have an ongoing contract over the course of several months or billing cycles.
For this reason, you’ll likely only come across recurring billing if you do commercial cleaning since most residential accounts don’t have contracts.
For instance, if you have a large commercial cleaning contract with a set of office buildings, you’d send a recurring bill once a month (or each billing cycle).
By sending a monthly bill, you’ll save yourself loads of time and paperwork on your larger accounts.
Plus, your clients will much prefer to see one condensed invoice, as opposed to an influx of multiple invoices for different properties.
Keep in mind, even though recurring billing is helpful with larger accounts, you’ll want to avoid using it for smaller accounts. This is because you don’t want to combine several weeks’ worth of payments into one monthly bill.
For smaller jobs, it’s better to send the invoices within 24 hours after the job is done. Plus, there will be less room for error and confusion.
Pro Tip: Use Service Autopilot’s instant invoicing tool to send professional invoices to a bulk list of clients in one click.
A great cleaning service invoice gives your clients a clear itemized list of charges so that there’s little room for dispute or confusion.
Your invoice is a great way to make you look more professional while also listing any fees, taxes, discounts, and charges on their invoice.
The main goal of your invoice should be to establish clear financial expectations in writing between you and your cleaning client.
Additionally, you should also include warranties, satisfaction guarantees, and job notes on your cleaning invoice.
And if you’re looking to go the extra mile, you can also provide your clients with general maintenance tips so they can make the most out of their services.
By doing this, you’ll be able to cultivate a strong, mutually beneficial relationship with your clients (while also establishing yourself as a pro).
In turn, when your pesky competitors try to steal your clients, you’ll have already built a solid relationship with your clients.
Pro Tip: Create instant professional invoices from anywhere using your templates in Service Autopilot. Plus, bulk send your invoices to entire client lists with the touch of a button.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
Typically, most cleaning businesses send their invoices within 24 hours after rendering a service.
If you don’t send your invoices on a schedule, then you can appear unprofessional and disorganized to your clients.
When you send your invoices on a set schedule, you’re establishing clear expectations between you and your clients.
After all, how can you expect your clients to pay on time when you don’t send your cleaning invoices on time?
Even though some businesses might still send paper invoices, the general cleaning industry standard is digital.
This is because digital invoices have less chance of errors, it’s faster, and it offers easier organization.
In addition, the vast majority of clients prefer digital invoices. It’s way more convenient for them than paper because it’s one less thing they have to keep track of.
Plus, there’s less of a chance of a client disputing whether or not they’re received your invoice.
With digital invoicing, you’ll receive a confirmation when your client receives or pays their balance.
Plus, your cleaners can access your cleaning invoices from anywhere when it’s digital, which is particularly helpful when you’re upselling.
Now, you have all the information and tools you need to start sending instant cleaning invoices that get you paid fast.
Hands down, the fastest, most efficient way to instantly send and track your invoices is by using a cleaning software like Service Autopilot.
Use Service Autopilot’s invoicing tool to bulk send your cleaning invoices to a list of clients with the touch of the button.
Not to mention, you can instantly create and customize new invoices from anywhere using the app.
Follow the simple tips listed in this article so you can start saving time and getting paid faster with your cleaning service invoice!
Related: How Much to Charge for House Cleaning
Originally published March 18, 2021 1:02 PM
Tags: Business Operation, Featured Post
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