Will you bill customers?

I may have asked this before but curious if you will bill customers?....I dont like to but since ive been back in Ive billed businesses and three residential jobs...all three have paid...I questioned two but they pulled through.

Right now I believe I have it where if they dont pay me they worry they cant use me anymore. The other options are not a close second ...based on my customers responses.

no billing except for the regular customers like prop management, real estate, offices, etc


I like to settle up and be done with it, no checks in snail mail. Soon we wont even accept checks anymore

I do with commercial accounts, but I have stopped for residential.

I try to make my presence in the home a positive one. Less of being the contractor and more like a guest by leaving time to converse with the customer...a little bit of charm goes a long way.

I always felt that the image of having a "friend" over to clean the carpets gets damaged by standing there insisting on payment. Billing leaves that friendly visit intact.

I did this for years and it worked out fine, but I got burned by 3 people last summer, so those days are done. Sad part was that they all were quite wealthy people and were prominent business people in town....also dead-beats.

I wish the old days still existed. Deals were done by handshake and bills were paid in a timely fashion, but even in this small pond, that World has moved on.

Payment or I put the dirt back now.

If a wealthy stiffs me....they will beg to pay later! I recently helped a woman raising kids without the dad around....she was paying me off like clockwork....she had one more payment (friend of a friend deal) I told her she was square with me and put the rest in her fridge!

Wealthy...I will strategically learn about them and haunt them (lol)....I had an attorney stiff me years ago and when my son started dating his granddaughter is was fun to be in the room with a group of people who he didn't want to know of his bad credit with me.....I would mention things like Hey! remember that job?...hey! I wonder what happened to that job! I kept leaving opened ended statements he couldn't answer in the crowd ...He asked me one day if I had a problem with that job...I said YES! I never got paid....he said REALLY! (playing stupid) then asked if I remembered the amount...I told him and he paid me and said sorry it must of been over looked when he and I both know there was a good argument between us about this job. Its a small town and he didn't want his granddaughter to reap any of his crap....she wouldn't have but he didn't know that. $750 is what I said he owed and it was really $650....he didn't even ask! I told him thanks and it was the right move for him. lol

That's right Scott, $ 100 for the interests sounds like a great deal to me, lol.

No I don't bill unless for property management that we do business on a regular basis, if they're new, payment is due after job is completed, they often ask how do we pay you now, I said it's easy I can run your card over the phone now. I don't even take checks anymore unless from repeat customers.

I don't do commercial currently. But IF I did, that would be the only billing I would do.

All my residentials like to pay by check, or CC. Very few pay cash. I don't like checks, but my clients haven't burned me yet. If they did, I wouldn't take them anymore.

I always tell customers that I prefer checks, they understand that we pay cc fees. I have two PMs that I bill no problem paying although one is a little slow at times but she knows she be getting a call if I don;t receive payment within a week

Mo....I like them to know up front what method because when its a CC they spend more....I just had my last job today do just that! She easily added two large rugs and bumped the invoice roughly $120. My day was a $750 and I did not have anything scheduled originally. I dont put custy's on Friday because I like it off....but it always fills. lol

Good point Devon they do spend more with CC. I have the CC stickers on my van and website

By offering the ability to accept CC's on your phone, and being willing to accept a check as a last resort, any customer who cannot accommodate any of these forms of payments at completion is a red flag.

Not offering to accept all of the above payments limits a customers options to d*ck you around, as they cannot claim they "don't have cash only a CC", or "I was going to give you a check".

Even if you don't take checks, to take one in such a moment where no other payment can be offered, leaves you in possession of a valuable legally binding document that can be used as leverage and evidence if needed to support a claim.

I still have several elderly customers who insist on paying half with cash and half with check. They do that because back in the 70's and 80's you didn't have 24 hour banking, so the cash was so that you had spending money until the bank opened the next day.

It still cracks me up when I clean for them, but you didn't need a lot of cash back then as nothing was open passed 6 pm anyway.

97% of the time NO! 3%- It depends on who it is. But as a rule give em an inch....... For long time customers that I have to bill due to some unseen circumstances, not home, left for an emergency, can't give a total until job complete, it's their rental property and they live out of town....... I use the Square mobile charging app which now enables me to send an invoice to their email where they can pay it on their end with out me having there card # or info. No excuses now. Like Ray Liotta in Good Fella's- FU pay me! lol

Milspec....I never thought of that! they do that to me alot....now I get it.

First time customers COD. Commercial billing. Checks OK. Cash discount. We've only been stiffed once in thirty years.