PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Minimum Charges and Trip Fees as Line Items on Pressure Washing Invoices

Every pressure washing job has a fixed cost before a drop of water hits the surface. The rig has to be hitched, driven, parked and set up. Hoses come off the reel, the tank gets checked, the surface cleaner comes off the trailer. Then it all goes back on. That cost is the same whether the job is a whole house and driveway or one small front stoop.

The Small-Job Problem

Rain-Outs and Re-Washes: How Pressure Washing Companies Handle Billing When the Job Changes was about jobs that turn out smaller than planned. Minimum charges and trip fees are about jobs that start small, or start far away, and what to do so they still pay for themselves.

If you price every surface by its size, a tiny job comes out to a tiny price. Fifty square feet of stoop priced at your driveway rate does not cover the drive. Owners solve that in two common ways: a minimum charge, or a trip fee. Some use both.

Minimum Charges

A minimum charge is the least you will bill for any visit, no matter how small the work. If the surfaces add up to less, the customer pays the minimum. If they add up to more, the minimum does not apply.

The amount is your decision. Many owners set it around what it costs them to show up, set up, wash briefly and pack up. Whatever the number, the key is to say it on the estimate. A customer who reads “$150 minimum per visit” before they approve is fine with it. A customer who finds it on the invoice feels tricked.

Trip Fees

A trip fee covers distance rather than size. Jobs inside your normal service area carry no trip fee. Jobs far outside it carry an extra charge for the drive. It is a fair way to say yes to the lake house an hour away without losing money on the road.

Some owners set trip fees by zone, such as a flat fee for anything past a certain town. Others decide case by case. A zone approach is easier for the office to apply the same way every time.

Show Them as Their Own Lines

Whichever you use, it should be its own line on the estimate and on the invoice:

• Front Stoop & Walk — 120 sq ft — $60
• Minimum Visit Charge — brings visit to $150 — $90

or:

• House Wash — 2-story, vinyl, soft wash — $325
• Driveway — 1,100 sq ft — $175
• Trip Fee — outside service area — $45

Rolling the extra into a surface price makes that surface look overpriced, and it hides the reason. A separate line explains itself and gives you something to point to if the customer asks. It also lets the customer make a choice: add the back patio and the minimum no longer applies, which is a nice way to grow a small job.

Clear line items in general are covered in Line Items Customers Understand: Billing Pressure Washing by Surface and Square Foot.

Setting Them Up in Your Service List

In PressureWashingBossPro, estimates are built from your own service list. Add a minimum charge and a trip fee to that list like any other service, with your price. When the office builds an estimate for a small job or a far-off address, it adds the line from the list. When the customer approves, the line carries onto the job, and when the crew taps Complete, it carries onto the invoice.

Because the fee comes from the list, everybody in the office applies the same fee the same way. Estimate templates and packages help too: a “Small Job” template that already includes the minimum line keeps it from being forgotten.

Explaining Them to Customers

Most customers understand once you say it plainly. A few lines that work:

• “Every visit has a minimum because setting up the rig takes the same time no matter how small the job is.”
• “You are outside our usual area, so there is a trip fee to cover the drive.”
• “If you add the patio, the minimum no longer applies.”

That last one turns an objection into an upsell. The customer gets more washed for close to the same money, and you get a better use of the setup.

Commercial Minimums

Commercial routes use minimums too, often per stop. A single small dumpster pad on a night route still means pulling in, setting up and packing up. A per-stop minimum on the commercial service list keeps those stops worth doing. On a monthly statement, the minimum line appears under the address it belongs to.

Every Visit Pays for Itself

Minimum charges and trip fees protect the jobs that would otherwise cost you money. Put them on your service list, show them as their own lines and say them on the estimate. PressureWashingBossPro carries them from estimate to job to invoice so they never get dropped. For the rest of billing, see the pressure washing invoicing software page.