Slip up in Billing... What to do?

[BSDeality]

I'm doing all my invoices for fall cleanups and in the process discovered I didn't bill at least 3 customers (that I know of) for their fall cleanups last year (2005).

1) $250 cleanup. They moved so I'll never see them again. I do have their email address though.
2) $350 cleanup. One time job. I did 99% of the job There was one area under water that I was going to wait a few days for it to dry out. That never came until spring and I totally forgot about it.
3) $195 cleanup. From a regular customer. I'm not sure how I missed that one, but I did.

What would you do for each of these? Half of me says "chock it up as lesson learned" the other half says "you sweat for that money, collect it".

I was thinking of emailing #1 and just being very upfront with her (she was a nice lady, husband was a tightwad though). For #2 I was thinking of calling him up and explaining the situation or perhaps ringing his doorbell under the ruse of "just seeing if you needed your leaves done again this year". And #3 I think I will call or email them.

Are there time limits on how long I can try to collect since I never created/sent an invoice to them? Would you offer a partial discount just to get some of it?

[nysuz]

Dude send them all out in the mail. The worst that can happen is they won't send you the check. Hell you did the work. They got that money to work for them for a whole year free of charge. They all just might surprise you.

[MOW PRO LAWN SERVICE]

Jeez you are upside down,send em a bill if they don't pay send em another keep sending the bills.

[Uranus]

Just change the date on the bill back to 2005 and say that you got it returned to you in the mail the other day. Blame it on th post offfice. A little note in with the bill will help you collect the money. And Id email the one that moved and tell them the post office screwed up and that your sending the bill via email. might not see that check but maybe they will surprise you.

[CNYScapes]

I would send them a bill with a note that says exactly what happened with an apology. Any respectable customer will pay it. Any azz will not.

[MarcSmith]

after a year I would not send a bill. Heck you should have noticed the missing money back in early '06 when you did the taxes...

If the cable copmany sent you a bill from a year saying that you did not pay, I think most of us would tell em to pound sand...

Iwould chalk up the oversight as a learning experience.....yeah a few hundred bucks is an expensive lesson, but not one you'll make again I imagine.

to recup your money, you could always "pad" the next few estimates you do for them to slowly recoup your losses....

Billing was the most PITA part of doing the business. The cyclical stuff was easy since quickbook spit it out each month. but keeping track of the extra's was the worst.

[nysuz]

why lie about it,an honest person won't even need an explanation. He did the work why should he pass it off. He should not make someone else pay extra to recoup an over sight. We are human man. and you can darn well bet big biz goes back, man look at the irs, they can go way back, to heck with padding, he did the work.

[BSDeality]

I'm torn between. My gut feeling is with Marc, I should have caught it. Its not like I just didn't see it in the A/R report. I never physically generated the invoice so I didn't notice it was missing. Truth be told I wouldn't and didn't notice $800 was missing. Hell, I've probably got about $800 of missing bills this year. Its really small in the grand picture, but $800 more coming in would be nice to put into the house fund.

It sounds like most people would send them, I am going to be upfront with all of them and see what happens. Its not like its going to hurt if I don't get the money from last year.

[topsites]

I had that problem earlier this year.

Much like yourself, it wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough ... :cry:

Some I recovered, most I didn't.
But, some was better than none.

I would just bill it, see what happens.
It's still far less frustrating than deadbeats, especially in the long run.

[Tharrell]

Send them a "final notice" bill. Pretend like you sent them a bill. When they call with the "omg" stuff, let them down easy and say you're willing to forgive the late charges.

[HOOLIE]

You could always approach this a little differently...maybe a phone call and say you were going over last year's records and don't have any record of their paying...or something along those lines. Then see what happens? :laugh:

Although I also agree with Marc...

Of course you're also talking more than a few bucks here...

Well I've covered all the angles...:laugh:

I actually, and I kid you not, recently received a medical bill for my deceased great-aunt (she used to live with us). She died in 1994...12 years later they sent a bill!!! And it was for $6.03...

[grass_cuttin_fool]

My self personally, Ive done that, the forget to bill someone. I was to embarassed to send it out, and a year late, I would just eat it and chalk it up to a buisness exp (bad one)

wayne

[ECS]

I would not send them. By sending them a year later, it just shows the customer that you have no idea as to what you are doing. Right now they feel they got the deal of their life, do not prove to them that they did. Drop it and let it go. Frankly, I would feel like an ass and an idiot by sending one that late. Don't try to lie about it by blaming the PO. Perhaps you need to take a good look at your billing practices.

[mojob]

I'd send a bill with a note explaining your oversight. Big business does it all the time. I'm sure they can go back through their checkbook and see for themselves that they didn't pay you. Be honest and hopefully they're honest and you'll be putting $800 in the bank. Accounting mistakes happen. It doesn't mean that they don't have to pay for the service they received. In fact, big business would turn them over to collections if they refused to pay.

[rodfather]

That's a tough one there Matt. I would explain the situation to each of them and try to get paid. What can ya lose?

[AndyTblc]

If you know that customer really well, just tell him what had happend. But be careful, because they could also think "oh I'm having 2nd thoughts about the person doing my grass, he can't keep his billing straight. He must me so un organized." So you never know. It's up to you.

[Runner]

Send a letter with the bill. Do NOT let it go. Simply state in the letter that it may have been an oversight on their part, and OR it is possible that they just never received the invoice. Let them know once again your appreciation for being able to be of service, and that if there is anything you can do in the future for them, to please keep you in to consideration. Actually, I could probably write you a nice letter for this type of thing, that would certainly be favorable to you AND the customer. But regardless, send the bill. They KNOW the service was done and they were never billed for it. I've done this before, and I certainly can't afford to just let things like that go.