How Should I Bill

[Orderlawncareonline]

Originally Posted by GSO LAWNEN4CER

If you hire a plumber to come out and fix a pipe.He gets paid after he's done.If you hire a auto tech to fix your car.He's paid after he's done with the car. If you go to the barber shop,he's paid after cutting your hair.

Why on earth would you cut someone's grass and wait a month to get paid? Thats insanity. IMHO your a fool to wait 30days for payment.

I bill by the cut, for the cut. No money no cut. Your customers know the day your coming.Leave the check at the property. Gonna be outta town? Pay in advance for the services needed. That 30 BS puts your neck on the chopping block. Before you kno it its 60days and no payment. And by that time,you've cut the property 8-9 times. All the fuel/windsheild time/labor/ wear & tear on the equipment. You just lost a ton of money! At this point good luck getting them to pay for 9 cuts at one time.

I completely agree with this quote. The lawn care industry I think is always behind other industries in terms of advancements. The Lack of customer service and automation in the industry I just don't understand. I first started lawn care with no experience but with mass knowledge in Operation management and finance. I am a firm believer in automating the payment process and taking payments from customers either before service or usually as soon as service has been completed. Monthly payments only for large businesses and corporations. My company didn't start growing until I implemented systems like how will bill and how we handle customers.

[Patriot Services]

High level of scumbags have hampered this industry. Sometimes you have to meet people halfway. Identity theft has everybody spooked. If you can do it, great. Just don't expect it across the board.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Orderlawncareonline]

Originally Posted by Patriot Services

High level of scumbags have hampered this industry. Sometimes you have to meet people halfway. Identity theft has everybody spooked. If you can do it, great. Just don't expect it across the board.
Posted via Mobile Device

i completely agree we have ran into many customers not willing to give up their c.c. info and want to pay after service . We find that gaining trust in our area has solved all of these problems. If your company is well known or customers see your trucks on a daily baises more than likely they will trust your service. also a well made website gives you a more professional appearence. We bill our customers c.c. after each service which keeps the cash flowing and operations running great. we went from 150 customers in 2010 to around 450-500 in our cleveland location. The c.c. method really works. I really cant imagine waiting a month to charge customers to much risk. lets just say only 30 customers fail to pay thats around a 900 hit. paying monthly is just to much room for error.
Posted via Mobile Device

[BradLewisLawnCare]

Originally Posted by GSO LAWNEN4CER

If you hire a plumber to come out and fix a pipe.He gets paid after he's done.If you hire a auto tech to fix your car.He's paid after he's done with the car. If you go to the barber shop,he's paid after cutting your hair.

Why on earth would you cut someone's grass and wait a month to get paid? Thats insanity. IMHO your a fool to wait 30days for payment.

I bill by the cut, for the cut. No money no cut. Your customers know the day your coming.Leave the check at the property. Gonna be outta town? Pay in advance for the services needed. That 30 BS puts your neck on the chopping block. Before you kno it its 60days and no payment. And by that time,you've cut the property 8-9 times. All the fuel/windsheild time/labor/ wear & tear on the equipment. You just lost a ton of money! At this point good luck getting them to pay for 9 cuts at one time.

The difference between plumber is recurring service. That being said, we have a bunch of customers that pay late. By late I mean, we do the spring cleanup in march and start mowing in may. Then we do fall cleanup in october and by december, they start calling saying: " I know I owe you a bunch of money. I will get you a check when I am back from florida."

Most people would say, you are crazy. They have a financial formula for this called Accounts receivable turnover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receivables_turnover_ratio

Every business is structured differently. I personally would rather have the money now rather than later, but I don't mind the guys working and getting the money in the winter so long as I am not completely broke. It seems as though no matter what happens, we can not get Accounts Receivable under $10k until the winter time.

Then we just send a pink invoice saying "Last bill before we apply for a mechanic's lien". They always pay then.

That being said, I bill monthly. If it has been 60 days we usually go out of our way to make sure we are not sending to the wrong email address and/or they are getting the invoices.

Some people think that is outright crazy. Some would say normal course of biz. Everyone has different levels and tolerances.

[BradLewisLawnCare]

Originally Posted by BradLewisLawnCare

The difference between plumber is recurring service. That being said, we have a bunch of customers that pay late. By late I mean, we do the spring cleanup in march and start mowing in may. Then we do fall cleanup in october and by december, they start calling saying: " I know I owe you a bunch of money. I will get you a check when I am back from florida."

Most people would say, you are crazy. They have a financial formula for this called Accounts receivable turnover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receivables_turnover_ratio

Every business is structured differently. I personally would rather have the money now rather than later, but I don't mind the guys working and getting the money in the winter so long as I am not completely broke. It seems as though no matter what happens, we can not get Accounts Receivable under $10k until the winter time.

Then we just send a pink invoice saying "Last bill before we apply for a mechanic's lien". They always pay then.

That being said, I bill monthly. If it has been 60 days we usually go out of our way to make sure we are not sending to the wrong email address and/or they are getting the invoices.

Some people think that is outright crazy. Some would say normal course of biz. Everyone has different levels and tolerances.

The point of this was that the one person I was quoting is a police sergeant/detective of our local police department. It is nice to have him in your back pocket. for anything.

[BradLewisLawnCare]

Originally Posted by GSO LAWNEN4CER

Good points! But just as you stated about the one time only hair cut.What about the one time only lawn cut? You've cut the lawn and now your stuck waiting on payment. I dont play that game.

I have the little credit card program on my phone for that. It is great when you are out plowing and get a call, you can just input the info and it is deposited right to your checking. MY crew leaders with iPhones have the program too. Works good for us.

[Orderlawncareonline]

Originally Posted by BradLewisLawnCare

I have the little credit card program on my phone for that. It is great when you are out plowing and get a call, you can just input the info and it is deposited right to your checking. MY crew leaders with iPhones have the program too. Works good for us.

Great point I guess it depends on what you want to get out of this business. I personally treat it as a business nothing more and nothing less. I guess all the years of hard nosed business professors taught me that. I care for each of our customers but business is business and I make a great living from the lawn care industry among many others. If you are in it for the extra cash and helping out the neighborhood thats great also.
Posted via Mobile Device

[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

I think the problem was that when I billed due on receipt the due date is the same as the invoice date. For those that pay as soon as they get my invoice, no problem. But for those that set it aside, I think they tend to give themselves longer than 15 days to pay it, since most billing cycles are 30 days. The reason I had changed to due on receipt was that I had my language saying that finance charges would be applied on invoices over 30 days late, but since they weren't due for 15 days, my customers could wait 45 days to pay me without consequences. I wanted it down to 30 days so changed to due on receipt. I have since gone back to net 15 but defined late as 30 days after invoice date. It's late...hope I explained that properly.

From what I'm told by my collection agency a 30 day cycle should be the norm, after that service stops a gentle nudge is given and so and so on until the small claims court is introduced. I agree that options are the best way to do business, weather it be for billing, listing services or whatever, the more rigid you are the less chance you have of aquiring new customers. Just think of how YOU like to do business.

[Big C]

Originally Posted by Mowin4Dollas

I think I will just have a chat with every customer, and ask how they would like to be billed. When mowing season starts I will see how they do with the payment option of their choice, and adjust accordingly.

Don't "ask" them how they want to be billed, give them 2 options...point of sale or monthly....letting them tell you how they want to be billed will cause more headaches than it's worth.

[cpllawncare]

We offer check, pay pal, might try CC this year just to see how it goes I also want to get an I phone this year so it would have the CC option available.