Commercial Contract Question

[hardatworknc]

We are looking to finalize a commercial contract here by the end of the week. My question for all of you out there with commercial contracts is; when do you receive your money? Do your contracts pay for the month up front? Do you bill them at the end of the month? And if they are going to need things like pine straw or mulch changed throughout the year, do you include those prices and break that up into the monthly figures? or do you add that on when it is changed out?

[BillyRgn]

your always a month behind. i usually bill at the begining of the month and i am extremly lucky if i have it by the end of the month (30 Days). As far as monthly all that we include is mowing, 2 shrub trimmings, spring & Fall Clean Up, and fertlzing. any other service is a one time charge, however if there is any material imvolved at all get at least 50% up front, for instance we just did a mulch job for a small condo. We used about 20 yards of mulch and charged roughly $2,300.00. before we started the job we made sure we recived, deposited, and made sure the deposit check for $1,150.00 cleared and did not bounce. Remember with my experiences i found that if a customer refused to give a deposit check it was for one of two reasons, reason 1- they were never going to pay in the first place. reason 2 - they don't have the money to give you for the deposit and most likely your going have to wait several months to hopefully collect all of your money, and by then i would say the job was a loss.

[mngrassguy]

Same here. Bill on the first every month. If I'm not paid by the end of the month I'm in someones office till I get a check

[Carolina Cuts]

We are looking to finalize a commercial contract here by the end of the week.

looking to finalize a 'bid' or a contract?
If you're looking to finalize a 'contract' then all this should have already been done for the potential customer to review and compare. A years worth of cutting, mulch/pinestraw, shrubs, trees, labor etc... all totaled up for a years worth of work divided 12. That's the customers monthly payment. I bill the first of the month.

A contract comes AFTER the customer agrees to your bid and/or awards you the job.

[hardatworknc]

sorry. we are trying to finalize the bid.

[puffyhead929]

Is it too late to yet and hey commercial accounts