ElectricalBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Moving Electrical Billing Off Paper Invoices and Spreadsheets

Paper invoice books and spreadsheets got a lot of electrical shops off the ground. They are cheap, everyone knows how to use them, and they work fine when the shop is one person and a dozen customers. They stop working when the shop grows: more vans, more customers, more plans, a property manager with fifteen addresses. At that point the spreadsheet is not saving money. It is costing evenings and late payments.

Wherever You Are Starting From

The previous guide, Billing Electrical Customers in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK in Their Own Currency, covered shops outside the US. Wherever you are, the move off paper looks about the same. This guide lays out a practical plan for making the switch without disrupting the work.

Step One: Bring Over Your Customers

Your customer list is the hardest thing to rebuild by hand, so do not. ElectricalBossPro has CSV import, and imported addresses are placed on the map automatically. Export your customer list from your spreadsheet, clean it up, and import it.

A few tips for a clean import:

• One row per address, with the client name on each, so a customer with many addresses comes in as one client with many addresses.
• Check phone numbers and emails while you are at it. Old contact details are a common reason invoices go unseen.
• Use tags or custom fields for anything you track in a spreadsheet column, like “plan customer” or “property manager.”

Step Two: Set Up Your Services and Tax

Turn the price sheet taped to the office wall into your service list: service calls, troubleshooting, outlets, GFCIs, breakers, fans, fixtures, recessed lighting, dedicated circuits, smoke detectors, surge protectors, EV charger installs, panel upgrades, generator installs and maintenance, rewires per square foot. Then set sales tax in your settings. From now on, every invoice uses the same prices and the same tax.

Step Three: Decide How Each Customer Pays

Go through your customers and decide how each should be billed:

• Homeowners: card on file, charged at completion.
• Plan customers: recurring service at 365 days for yearly inspections or generator maintenance, billed at completion.
• Property managers, gyms, retail chains: Monthly, with one statement covering every address.

You will not have cards on file for most customers on day one. That is fine. Point them to the customer app to add one, and ask at the next visit.

Step Four: Pick a Cutover Date

Do not try to move old invoices over. Pick a date, such as the first of next month. Anything done before that date is billed and collected the old way. Anything done after it runs through ElectricalBossPro. Old open invoices get worked off in the spreadsheet until they are paid.

A clean cutover keeps you from running two systems for the same jobs, which is where the worst mix-ups happen.

Step Five: Show the Techs the Complete Button

For the techs, the change is small. They log in to the tech app with the company login and their personal PIN, see their day in route order, and tap Complete when a job is done. That creates the invoice and can charge the card on file. Most techs pick it up on the first day. The rest of the tech app, from navigation to the safety inspection checklist, is there when they need it.

Step Six: Tell Your Customers

A short message to customers helps: invoices will now be in the customer app, they can pay online and save a card, and they can choose their visit alerts. Customers who sign up for plans through your website sign-up form get their card captured with the sign-up, and one click converts the sign-up into a client.

What Changes in the First Month

Most shops notice the same things quickly:

• No more retyping job tickets into invoices.
• Service calls paid the day they are done.
• Property managers getting one clean statement.
• Plan visits showing up on the Waiting List instead of a renewal spreadsheet.
• A short open list, followed up automatically.

For a longer look at the paperwork that goes away, see Cutting Billing Paperwork in a Small Electrical Shop.

Off Paper, Onto the Job

Moving billing off paper and spreadsheets does not have to be a big project. Import your customers, set up your services and tax, decide how each customer pays, pick a cutover date and show your techs the Complete button. To see the billing tools you are moving to, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrical invoicing software page, or try the 14-day free trial with no credit card.