PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Crew App

Charging the Card on File When the Washer Taps Complete

The job is not finished when the driveway is clean. It is finished when the customer has paid. For a lot of washing companies, the gap between those two moments is days or weeks of invoices, reminders and phone calls. Charging the card on file when the crew taps Complete closes that gap before the rig leaves the curb.

The Texts Set It Up

The customer already knows the crew showed up, thanks to the message covered in The Arrived Text: Telling the Homeowner the Wash Crew Is Here. When the charge shows up an hour later, it matches a visit they were told about. That is a big part of why card-on-file charging causes so few complaints.

What Happens When the Washer Taps Complete

Tapping Complete in the crew app does several things at once. The job is marked done. The invoice is created from the job, with its line items and any sales tax. And if the customer has a card on file and is set up for auto-charge on completion, the card is charged for that invoice.

The washer does not handle the card, see the number, or ask the customer for anything. There is no card reader to keep dry and no awkward conversation on the driveway. The washer taps Complete, the office sees the job done and paid, and the customer sees the paid invoice in the customer app.

How Cards Get on File

Cards get on file in a few ways, all handled away from the crew:

• The sign-up form. Your website sign-up form captures the card when a new customer signs up for a service. Sign-ups flow into Form Responses, and one click converts them into a client.
• The customer app. Customers can add or update their card themselves.
• The office. The office can collect a card for a customer who calls in.

The best time to ask for a card is when the customer says yes to the work. A customer who approved a $325 house wash online is expecting to pay. Asking for a card at that moment feels natural. Asking after the work is done feels like a collection call.

Why Paid-at-Completion Matters for Washers

Pressure washing has a few things that make chasing invoices especially painful:

• The work is visible but the customer may be gone. Many customers are at work during the wash. If they have to remember to pay later, some will not.
• Yearly work. A customer you see once a year may have moved, changed email or forgotten you by the time a reminder goes out.
• Seasonal cash flow. Busy months pay for slow ones. Money in the bank the day of the job is easier to plan around than money owed.

Charging at completion turns each job into cash the same day, without anyone in the office lifting a finger.

It also changes the end of the day. Without it, someone sits down at night to send invoices for every job the crews finished, then spends part of next week following up. With it, the office looks at the day's completed jobs, sees which ones are paid, and only deals with the few that are not. For a one- or two-rig company where the owner is also the office, that is an evening back.

When Not to Charge at Completion

Not every customer fits this model, and that is fine.

• Monthly commercial accounts. A shopping center, a restaurant group or an HOA set to Monthly gets one statement each month covering every location, with each line labeled by address. Their completed jobs roll up into that statement instead of being charged one by one.
• Customers without a card. They get the invoice and can pay online from the customer app. Past-due follow-up handles the stragglers.
• Scheduled charges. Some customers prefer to be charged on a schedule rather than at each visit. Auto-charge can run on a schedule too.

Get the Invoice Right Before Complete

Because Complete creates the invoice and can charge it, the job should match the work before the washer taps it. If the customer added a patio on site, the office adds it as a line item first. If the driveway could not be done because a car was parked on it, the washer notes that so the office can adjust the invoice. The invoice side is covered in more depth in Invoices From the Job: Billing a Pressure Washing Customer Before the Rig Leaves.

For the full picture of what the crew handles from the phone, visit the PressureWashingBossPro crew app page.