PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

The Month-End Billing Review: A Pressure Washing Owner's Half-Hour Checklist

Most billing problems are small when they start. One job that never got invoiced. One card that declined and nobody followed up. One commercial location that got washed but was not attached to the right client. Left alone for a season, those small problems add up to real money. A short review once a month catches them while they are still easy to fix.

Why Once a Month

Cash Flow in the Slow Winter Months: Pressure Washing Billing Habits for the Off-Season made the case that winter is won during the busy months. The month-end review is the habit that makes that happen.

Weekly is too often for most small companies to keep up through the busy season. Quarterly is too slow; a three-month-old invoice is hard to collect. Monthly lines up with commercial statements, with most bank statements and with how most owners already think about money. Pick a day — the first business day of the month works well — and put it on the calendar.

The Checklist

Here is a checklist that fits in about half an hour for a one- or two-rig company. Adjust it to your business.

1. Completed Jobs With No Payment

Look at last month's completed jobs and their invoices. Anything completed but not paid should either be on a card-on-file customer whose charge failed, a customer paying online who has not yet, or a monthly commercial client whose statement is going out. Anything that does not fit one of those needs a look.

2. Open Invoices by Age

Look at every open invoice, oldest first. Past-due follow-up in PressureWashingBossPro sends reminders by text and email, so most recent invoices take care of themselves. The older ones need a person: a personal text, then a call. Decide which ones get which today.

3. Declined Cards

Scan for invoices that are open because a card on file was declined. Text those customers asking them to update the card in the customer app. Pay special attention to recurring customers, because their next visit will decline too if the card is not updated. See Declined Cards: Fixing a Failed Pressure Washing Payment From the Customer App.

4. Monthly Statements

For each commercial client set to Monthly, glance at the statement before it goes out. Are all the locations that were washed on it? Are any extras the crew noted added as lines? Are the addresses labeled correctly? A clean statement gets approved faster.

5. Skips and Partial Jobs

Look at last month's skipped jobs. Each one should either be rescheduled or have a reason not to be. A skipped recurring visit stays due on the Waiting List until it is done, so check for anything that has slipped into overdue.

6. Price and Setup Changes

Did anything change last month that should change billing? A commercial client added a location. A yearly customer asked to add the fence. A price on your service list went up. Make sure the address records and service list reflect it before the next month starts.

Use the Reports

Billing reports make the review faster. Rather than opening every job, look at what was billed, what was paid and what is still open for the month. Compare it with the month before. A month where billing was strong but payments lagged is a sign to push harder on card on file or follow-up. More on what to look at is in Billing Reports for Pressure Washing Companies: What to Look At and Why.

Write Down What You Find

Keep a short note each month: what was billed, what is open, anything unusual. It does not need to be fancy. After a year, you have twelve snapshots that show your busy months, your slow months and how quickly customers pay. That is useful for planning next winter and for conversations with your accountant.

Who Does It

In a one-person company, the owner does the review. As the company grows, an office person can do most of it, with the owner looking at the summary and the oldest open invoices. Office users in PressureWashingBossPro have their own logins, so it is clear who handled what.

Thirty Minutes, Twelve Times a Year

A month-end billing review is the cheapest insurance against lost revenue a pressure washing company can buy. Check completed jobs, open invoices, declined cards, monthly statements, skips and setup changes, and use the reports to see the trend. PressureWashingBossPro keeps every job, invoice and payment in one place so the review is quick. For more on billing, visit the pressure washing invoicing software page.