ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrician App

Charging the Card on File When the Electrical Tech Taps Complete

Small electrical shops do not usually lose money on the work. They lose it on the gap between the work and the payment. The invoice goes out three days late. The homeowner means to pay and forgets. The office spends Friday afternoon calling about $165 GFCI replacements from two weeks ago. Every day between finishing the job and getting paid is a day the money is not in your account.

Complete Creates the Invoice

The arrived text, covered in The Arrived Text: Letting the Homeowner Know the Electrician Is at the Door, starts the visit. Complete ends it, and in ElectricalBossPro it also starts the payment.

When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created from the job's line items, with sales tax where it applies. Nobody in the office has to build it from a paper work order at the end of the day. The work and the invoice happen in the same moment, at the house.

Charging the Card on File

If the customer has a card on file, it can be charged when the job is completed. Payment can happen before the van leaves the driveway. For the customer, there is no check to write and no link to remember to click. For your shop, the job is paid the same day it is done.

You choose how auto-charging works for your business. Some shops charge on completion for every customer with a card on file. Others charge on a schedule. Either way, the tech does not have to handle the card, ask for a number on the porch or carry a separate card reader. The card lives with the customer's account, and Complete takes care of the rest.

How Cards Get on File

The card has to be on file before the tech gets there. There are a few ways that happens:

• Sign-up form. When a new customer signs up through your website sign-up form, the card is captured and the sign-up lands in Form Responses. One click converts it into a client.
• Customer app. Customers can add or update their own card in the customer app.
• Service plans. Customers who sign up for a yearly safety inspection or generator maintenance plan put a card on file as part of signing up.
• The office. The office can add a card while on the phone with the customer.

Recurring customers are the easiest win. A homeowner on a yearly generator maintenance plan priced at $189 pays automatically each time the tech completes the visit. Nobody chases anything.

No Card? Online Payment in the Customer App

Not every customer will put a card on file, and that is fine. When the job is completed, the invoice is created and shows up in the customer app, where the customer can view it and pay online. Automated past-due follow-up handles the reminders, so the office is not making those calls by hand.

The customer app side is covered in The Customer App: What the Homeowner Sees While Your Electrician Is on the Way.

Property Managers and Monthly Statements

Commercial accounts work differently. A property manager with fifteen rentals, a gym chain or a retail account does not want fifteen separate charges. For accounts set to Monthly, ElectricalBossPro sends one statement each month that covers every address, with each line labeled with its address.

The tech still taps Complete at each location, and the work still lands on the account as it happens. The property manager just gets one statement at the end of the month instead of a stack of invoices.

Changes Before Complete

Electrical calls change on site. The homeowner who called about one outlet asks about a ceiling fan while the tech is there. A troubleshooting call turns into a breaker replacement. When the work changes, the invoice needs to match it.

The simplest approach for most shops is for the tech to note the change on the job and let the office adjust the line items from your service list before the charge goes through, or for the shop to price common add-ons in advance so the office can add them quickly. Whatever your process, the goal is that the invoice the customer sees matches the work the tech did and the price comes from your own list.

Paid Before the Van Leaves

Getting paid at completion changes the feel of a small electrical business. The end-of-week billing session shrinks. Collections calls mostly disappear. The money from today's calls is in motion today. To see payment at completion with the rest of the tech app, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrician app page.