2 Ways to Get Your Plumbing Invoice Paid Faster

The job is complete and the van is already idling, waiting to go to the next job. It’s time to charge the customer, but how can you get your plumbing invoice paid faster?

Cash flow is king in almost all companies, but especially so in service businesses. Even with the strictest of payment terms, customers sometimes end up taking longer to pay than you would prefer.

When you have too many unpaid invoices, the cash is not flowing in the right direction fast enough. Finding a way to get the money onto your company’s side as fast as possible can be vital to a plumbing company’s success.

1. Accept Payment on Site, Immediately

The simplest and fastest way to get paid immediately is to accept payment on site. You can incorporate a payment gateway into your plumbing software and take payment as soon as the job is done.

From their phone or tablet, technicians can generate invoices from their work orders, enter the payment information (credit card) of the customers, and process the payment with their permission, on site.

In some cases though, you’ll have to send an invoice and wait for payment. How you send the invoice and what you include will have a massive effect on the speed of payment.

2. Send Your Plumbing Invoice by Email

If you’re not ready for on-site payments, the next best thing to streamline the process of sending an invoice. While that van is idling in your customer’s driveway, the customer should already have the invoice for the completed job. The easy way to make this happen is to have your technician “clock out” of the job, marking it as complete. An invoice can then be sent immediately to the customer via email.

Your technician is a licensed plumber; an expert in their trade. Their time is valuable, especially as it applies to working on the billable stuff: the pipefitting itself. You may have hired them for their technical skills as well as their mannerism with customers — but they may not be comfortable (or effective, time-wise) collecting fees from customers.

This is especially true in the case of commercial clients or recurring maintenance jobs. It is much more efficient to forward the invoice to the appropriate contact and have your technician get on with their day. Sending your invoice by email after the job is complete means it arrives as early as possible, and in front of the appropriate parties.

Bonus Tip: Accept Online Payments

The second way to reduce the time it takes to get paid is to include a payment link right in the email invoice itself. Giving the customer the ability to pay immediately from the invoice makes it easy for them to process your payment.

Depending on your payment terms, you might even be paid before your technician’s van has even backed out of the customer’s driveway. A link in your invoice to an online payment gateway makes it possible. After the job is done, the technician can send the invoice before they even start the van. The customer can open the email on their mobile device and have the payment made immediately. Now, that cash flow has shifted to your side, and you can be left with fewer unpaid invoices and less time to receive payments.

Convenience for Customers

These days, many customers prefer a completely digital experience. They like when online booking, appointment confirmations, and payments can all be done from their mobile device. If your company does not offer this, they will simply take their business to the company who does.

It’s worth the investment of updating your invoice process with plumbing software. You’ll be able to serve this key demographic and reduce the time it takes to get your plumbing invoices paid.

Want to learn more about how plumbing software with digital invoicing and online payments can help you grow your business? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.