CarpetBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Auto-Charge for Carpet Cleaning: Charging on Completion or on a Schedule

Every billing decision someone has to make by hand is a decision that can be forgotten. Auto-charge takes the most common one off the table: when does this customer's card get charged? Set it once on the account, and the system follows the rule every time.

From One Tap to No Taps

Charging the card when the tech taps Complete is covered in Charging at Completion: Getting Paid Before the Hose Is Rolled Back Onto the Truck. Auto-charge is the same idea made into a standing rule. In CarpetBossPro, auto-charge can run on completion or on a schedule.

The difference is when the money moves. On completion, the charge follows the job. On a schedule, the charge follows the calendar.

Auto-Charge on Completion

This is the right fit for most residential carpet cleaning work. The customer books a cleaning, the tech does it, and when the job is completed, the invoice is created and the card on file is charged. No one in the office has to look at it.

It works especially well for:

• Yearly and every-six-months customers. They come due on the Waiting List, get cleaned, and get billed, year after year.
• Customers who are not home. A rental or a second home where the owner left a lockbox code in the access notes.
• Busy weeks. When the office is buried in phone calls, completed jobs still turn into payments.

Auto-Charge on a Schedule

Some customers are better billed by the calendar than by the job. A schedule makes sense when the arrangement is about a period of time rather than a single visit. Common examples:

• Ongoing maintenance agreements where the customer has agreed to be billed at a set interval.
• Customers who asked to be charged on a certain day, such as after payday.
• Accounts where the office wants to review invoices before they are charged.

For offices, apartment complexes and property managers, monthly billing is usually the cleaner answer. An account set to Monthly gets one statement each month covering every address, which is covered in Monthly Statements for Carpet Cleaning: One Bill for Offices, Apartments and Property Managers.

Tell the Customer What to Expect

Auto-charge only works smoothly when the customer knows it is happening. Say it plainly when they give you the card: “We'll charge this card when the job is finished, and you'll get the invoice in our customer app.” For scheduled charges, say when.

Customers who understand the rule do not get surprised by a charge, and customers who are not surprised do not call. They can see every invoice in the customer app and update their card there if it changes.

Make Sure the Job Is Right

Auto-charge charges for what is on the job. That makes the job details more important, not less. Before a job is completed, it should include every room, piece and add-on that was actually done. If a customer added stain protector on site, the tech tells the office and the office adds it before completion.

The tech's checklist helps here. It records rooms cleaned, add-on steps like pet odor treatment and stain protector when they are on the job, and any stains that did not come out. The office can look at the finished checklist on the job if a customer has a question about what was charged.

When Auto-Charge Fails

Cards expire and get replaced. When an automatic charge does not go through, the invoice stays open rather than vanishing. The customer can update their card and pay in the customer app, and past-due follow-up reminds them. Nothing falls through the cracks just because the charge was automatic.

A good habit is to check for open invoices once a week. Most will be the occasional expired card, and a quick text through two-way texting usually clears them.

It is also worth deciding who on the team is allowed to change a customer's billing rule. If anyone can switch an account from auto-charge to pay-later, accounts drift and nobody remembers why. A simple rule works: the office sets the billing rule when the customer is set up, notes any special request on the client, and only changes it when the customer asks. Tags and custom fields on the client are a good place to record those requests, such as a customer who wants to be charged after payday, so the next person in the office does not have to guess.

Choosing a Default

For most small carpet cleaning companies, the simplest setup is auto-charge on completion as the default for residential customers with a card on file, monthly statements for commercial and property accounts, and online payment in the customer app for everyone else. You can always set a different rule on a specific account when a customer asks for it. To see how auto-charge fits with the rest of billing, visit the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning invoicing software page.