What to look for when choosing plumbing invoicing software
After fixing a leaking pipe, unblocking a drain, or any plumbing job, you will have to send an invoice to your customer so that you can bill them. Here you will be required to give a detailed invoice to your customer capturing the services billed for, the date to be paid, and how much you owe them.
Invoicing is not only crucial to your customer, but it helps you to keep track of your business revenue. You will have all the records of your customer transactions or any other financial information. It will help you pay taxes. With the help of plumbing invoicing software, invoicing will be easier and efficient. Consider the following tips when choosing invoicing software for your plumbing business.
Billing and invoicing
Billing and invoicing is the act of producing a document showing the amount of money the customer has to pay for a given service or product. When choosing a plumbing invoicing software, make sure that you selected one that has the following features on the billing and invoicing module:
- Creating an invoice anywhere
- Availability of custom-designed invoice template
- Allow creation and import of your price list
- Allow you to reuse the invoice template.
- Sending invoice through email or printing it.
Payment processing
Payment processing involves the process in which transactions and payments are made securely, in our case, from your customer to your account. It would be best if you chose a plumbing invoicing software that will have several features:
- Able to integrate with different payment processing services.
- It should support secure and faster payments
- Allow online payment
- Allowing mobile payments.
- It should enable easy integration of the payment gateway.
The third part adds to integrations.
There are a lot of other invoicing or billing software or services that you could not want to miss. Here the plumbing invoicing software should add or integrate other software or vital services from different vendors.
One of the essential software you could want to use is QuickBooks, So make sure you choose a software that you will be able to add other services on the software that will enable you to take complete control of your transactions.
Handling late payments with ease
Many times after the project has finished, but the customer cannot pay during that time. Others will want to pay the amount in bits as the project is going on. The software should be able to handle this irregularity in terms of payment.
For example, if the payment has passed its deadline, it will be able to flag it and send a reminder to your customer. It should also allow you to create your reminder alerting the customer to make the payment. It also has to allow you to create a customized late fee to the invoice if necessary.
Creating a service price list
The plumbing invoicing software should have the capability of allowing you to make a price list for your services or products. It will help you when you want to create a quote for your customer. It will help you to do it accurately and charge your customers consistently.
However, when creating this list, remember to base it on your speed, location, experience, complexity, and many factors.
It would be best if you did not assume that the invoicing system would differentiate your services. That’s why you need one that will help you to create a customized list. It will help you to manage and calculate the cost for you, the customer, without complication.
Issuing quotes
It would be best if you went to plumbing invoicing software that will help you to issue quotes for the plumbing work to your customer. For the big project, you will find that customers may request a quote before they decide if they can hire you or not.
It will allow you to formulate the quotes with all the necessary information based on your chosen format. It should also let you send the quotes to your clients, like sending them via email or printing them to send the hard copies to the customers.
Availability of invoice template
An invoice template is another feature you must consider if the plumbing invoicing software has before selecting it. It is essential because you will not have to create the invoice from scratch but use the available template to formulate your own. An invoice template will simplify the task, and you will be able to write an invoice with the correct requirements. Remember that some of the details that you must include in your invoice include:
- The contact details of your customer and your business
- Invoice number
- Issue date
- Cost of the services or products
- Your VAT number
- The date you provide the plumbing services.
- The due date
Therefore check the format very well to ensure it captures all the required information before you use it.
Support different types of invoice
When selecting the plumbing invoicing software, make sure that it can support different types of invoices. When a standard invoice does not work best for you, you will need the correct type to formulate the invoice. Some of these types include;
- Standard invoice – This invoice captures what the customer needs to pay for your plumbing services.
- Time-based invoice – This will be helpful if you want to charge your customer on an hourly basis.
- Prepayment invoice –this type of invoice will help you if you want to collect down payment from your customer before the project finishes.
In conclusion, you have to go for the invoicing software specifically built to handle invoicing or billing for plumbing services. It should run on various devices so that your technician can update what material and time they used to complete the task. It will help you convert the report into an invoice and do the final touches before sending a copy to your customer. Remember to check the payment processing capability of the plumbing invoicing software you select to ensure it will facilitate an efficient and secure payment process. Also, going for the one with multiple payment options will allow your customer to use the one they are used to, and it can help you receive the payment as fast as possible.