[pineymountain]

How do you all handle this?


example: Cut for the month of April, Bill for April at the end of April, payment due at the end of may?


or... Bill for April on April 1- payment due last day of April?

 

[USA Lawn Care]

i used to bill at the end of the month and sit and wait for $ to roll in.
Bad idea. Especially with 2 trucks, 2 crews, and everything that goes with it.
The last 2 seasons I have been 'pay as you go' (just like a restaurant) and this year everyone is 'pre-pay'.
The 'pay as you go' system was the single most important decision and best decision I ever made with my business and kept me 100% out of debt of any kind. I always have positive cash flow.
When customers ask, 'how do you want me to pay you?' simply tell them 'pay as we mow' or 'pre pay'. I never had anyone at all raise an eyebrow to 'pay as we mow'.
Don't bill and wait. I repeat.....don't bill and wait.
If you are just starting out, I would maybe establish my business a bit for a year, etc before going 'pre pay' so your customers know you are legit. Get insurance and let everyone know you are insured. It helps to establish you as a real company in the mind of the customer.

 

[Tha5150]

Good idea. Thanks for the tips. I was wondering this myself as I am just getting started.

 

[Exact Rototilling]

i used to bill at the end of the month and sit and wait for $ to roll in.
Bad idea. Especially with 2 trucks, 2 crews, and everything that goes with it.
The last 2 seasons I have been 'pay as you go' (just like a restaurant) and this year everyone is 'pre-pay'.
The 'pay as you go' system was the single most important decision and best decision I ever made with my business and kept me 100% out of debt of any kind. I always have positive cash flow.
When customers ask, 'how do you want me to pay you?' simply tell them 'pay as we mow' or 'pre pay'. I never had anyone at all raise an eyebrow to 'pay as we mow'.
Don't bill and wait. I repeat.....don't bill and wait.
If you are just starting out, I would maybe establish my business a bit for a year, etc before going 'pre pay' so your customers know you are legit. Get insurance and let everyone know you are insured. It helps to establish you as a real company in the mind of the customer.

Do you send out statements for monthly pre-pays or do clients automatically mail you checks for the upcoming month? Checks due by the 1st 5 day grace period. I really would like to get my paperwork hassles reduced for this season. Most of my clients pay at time of service or leave payment on the back door.

 

[fireman gus]

We bill at the end of the month. Never had a problem. When I first started 30+ years ago it was pay when I finished the yard. However there were many times the people were not at home and therefore I had to wait until the following week. Made bookkeeping a major headache. That is when I went to leaving a statement at the house at the last mowing of the month. If the people are at home they normally pay then, if not we get it sometime that week through the mail. But you have to decide what will work best for you and your situation.

 

[smallstripesnc]

We bill at the end of the month. Never had a problem. When I first started 30+ years ago it was pay when I finished the yard. However there were many times the people were not at home and therefore I had to wait until the following week. Made bookkeeping a major headache. That is when I went to leaving a statement at the house at the last mowing of the month. If the people are at home they normally pay then, if not we get it sometime that week through the mail. But you have to decide what will work best for you and your situation.

This is what I'm doing this year. I believe it makes like easier for me and the client. They don't need to be home every week for me to service their property and it just makes life easier in my opinion.

 

[USA Lawn Care]

everyone gets a letter with first invoice at the start of the mowing season. 2012 letters are going out in the next week to give them a heads up that payment is due by April 1st if they would like to get it in the mail.

We will email invoices (reminders) toward the end of each month and snail mail invoices for a few customers but everyone knows to get the payment in.

 

[Exact Rototilling]

everyone gets a letter with first invoice at the start of the mowing season. 2012 letters are going out in the next week to give them a heads up that payment is due by April 1st if they would like to get it in the mail.

We will email invoices (reminders) toward the end of each month and snail mail invoices for a few customers but everyone knows to get the payment in.

Okay....how do you handle months that might result in 5 mowings vs 4 depending on the.day.of.the week or month?

What happens if you have.constant rain for week and you only mowed 3 times instead of 4?
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[USA Lawn Care]

i simply adjust the next month's invoice.
Sometimes it's 4 cuts.....sometimes it's 5.
If I owe them a cut, we'll just adjust accordingly.
All my customers know how the end of the month varies so we at least try to get 4 cuts per invoice.
Summertime, we'll see how things are going and they might have already paid for a cut in September if August is a burnout.
It might sound complicated but it's just a matter of staying on top of it and once a month taking a look at what we think is going to happen.

 

[Grasskeepers]

i sell my customers on 20 mows for the season. then charge a monthly rate.
$60 per cut, $1200 for the season
$200 a month for lawn maintance may- 0ct

i also have my invoicing software auto invoice every one, this saves me alot of time. alot of customers also pay with post dated cheques. it makes life easy

 

[All_American_lawn]

Check out invoice to go on the iphone or ipad. AMAZING for small business owners and solo operators! I do my work, sit in my truck while my other guy is finishing up and I send out my bill on the spot. For landscaping jobs and such I bill on the first, due on the 15th. Works really well for me.

 

[Tha5150]

Check out invoice to go on the iphone or ipad. AMAZING for small business owners and solo operators! I do my work, sit in my truck while my other guy is finishing up and I send out my bill on the spot. For landscaping jobs and such I bill on the first, due on the 15th. Works really well for me.

i wish there was a desktop app for free though.

 

[POWER STROKE]

I mail all my customers a invoice by the 1st of each month and it is due by the 15th of that month, for the mowing of that month. We do this because in the past we would mow for the month and then mail at the end but not received payment and then be out of that money. The new way we do it, we mow twice and by the time we are about to mow the 3rd time we have the payment for the whole month. Sorry for such a long respond.

-POWER

 

[DJLS]

i'm going to try biweekly this year. For the past 12 years its been monthly. This should help the cash flow coming in.

 

[hoyboy]

i wish there was a desktop app for free though.

You get what you pay for.

I sold my business a few years back, and it was very successful. However, I always thought that if I were able to go back and start over, the #1 thing I'd do differently would be to collect credit card numbers and emails. Every customer would be charged every week and a paid invoice emailed to them. NO EXCEPTION.

I can only imagine how many problems that system would have solved over the years. This business can be very lucrative, but poor cash flow can be the death of many companies.

Good luck!

 

[dlonestar]

We drop off invoices on the last cut of the month.

 

[USA Lawn Care]

DJLS....12 years ago (during the days of my first lawn business)....i switched to billling on the 15th and the 30th and my customers hated it. I tried to improve cash glow but too much stuff was crossing in the mail and it was way too confusing. All that was done via snail mail. If you're collecting via cc or as you mow, then it will be fine.

The last 2 seasons (new and improved lawn service) I collected as I mowed (best thing I ever did) and now we have all customers pre-pay by the 20th of each month for the next month's mowing (newest best thing we ever did).

If you're going to collect every other cut.....you might as well find a way to collect every time you're there.

 

[d_charters]

All materials are due up front except commercial accounts! commercial I will cover $500materials but anything above that is due up front. invoices are last day of the month and payment is due within 15 days! if you don't pay within 15 days of invoice and you dont let me know you will be late! 5% intrest!

 

[stickleylawncare]

Almost half of our customers are now on paperless invoicing, the other half we still use snail mail. All billing is sent out the 3rd week of the billing month with a "20" day due date, though we do not charge a late fee.. more of a friendly way to remind them to send it back to us in a timely manner.

 

[dKoester]

I find its best to have money coming in on a weekly basis instead of at the end of the month. The larger your company grows the more you will need a line of credit if that money doesn't come in every week. Money in hand has its advantages. You can make more with it than waiting for it. It could be put to work several different ways.