MaidBossPro Blog — House Cleaning Software

Invoicing and Card on File: Getting Paid for Every Cleaning

Most maid services do not have a pricing problem. They have a collecting problem. The cleaning gets done on Tuesday, the invoice goes out on Sunday if somebody remembers, a few clients pay right away, and a few take a month. Multiply that by every client on the books and the gap between work done and money in the bank gets wide.

The Last Step of Every Cleaning

Texting and Alerts: Reminders, On-the-Way and Arrived Messages for Cleaning Clients covered how clients hear from you before and during a cleaning. This guide covers what happens after: the invoice and the payment.

The Invoice Is Created at Completion

In MaidBossPro, when the team taps Complete in the team app, the invoice is created. Nobody at the office has to build it later. It carries:

• Line items for the cleaning and any extras, from your service list.
• Sales tax, where you charge it.
• The client and the address it was for.

If the team noted an extra the client asked for on the spot, the office can add it as a line item before the invoice goes out, using the same prices as your service list.

Card on File

A card on file is the single biggest help in getting paid on time. When a client has one, MaidBossPro can charge it automatically:

• On completion. The team taps Complete, and the card is charged for that cleaning.
• On a schedule. For clients who prefer to be charged at a set time instead of after each visit.

Cards come in a few ways. The sign-up form on your website captures one when a new client signs up. Clients can add or update their card in the customer app. Many companies simply ask for a card on file as part of starting recurring service, so every cleaning is paid the day it happens.

Online Payment

Not every client wants a card on file. For those who do not, invoices can be paid online from the customer app. The client opens the invoice, sees the line items and pays. There is no check to deposit and no card number read over the phone.

Past-Due Follow-Up

Even with cards on file and online payment, some invoices go past due. A card expires, a payment fails, a client forgets. MaidBossPro follows up on past-due invoices so you do not have to remember who owes what.

A few habits help here:

• Look at past-due invoices once a week.
• When a card fails, text the client and point them to the customer app to update it.
• For long-time clients, a friendly personal message usually works better than anything formal.
• Decide ahead of time when you stop scheduling a client who has not paid, and apply it the same way to everyone.

Office and Property Manager Accounts

Some clients should not get an invoice after every visit. An office cleaned weekly, a dental group with three locations or a property manager sending move-out cleans all month would rather get one bill. MaidBossPro handles that with monthly account billing, covered in the next guide, Monthly Statements for Office Accounts: One Bill Covering Every Location.

Billing in Your Clients' Currency

MaidBossPro works in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and bills clients in their own currency. A company in Canada invoices in Canadian dollars; a company in the UK invoices in pounds.

Why Billing Belongs in the Same System

When invoicing lives in a separate tool from scheduling, somebody has to copy the week's cleanings over by hand. That is where invoices get missed, extras get left off and the same job gets billed twice. With billing in the same place as the schedule, the job and the invoice are the same record. If the team tapped Complete, there is an invoice. If there is no invoice, the job was not completed, and you can see why.

It also makes it easy to answer a client's question. When someone asks what they paid for in March, the invoices, the jobs and the before and after photos are all in one place.

Setting Up Billing in Your First Week

Start by putting your services and extras into the service list with your prices, and set your sales tax if you charge it. Then ask your recurring clients to put a card on file through the customer app. Once those two things are in place, most of your billing happens on its own. To see how billing connects to the rest of the system, visit the house cleaning software page.