I keep hearing Invoices.
Home Service Industries have unique operational challenges, largely because your work is performed at your clients homes. I don’t know a single HVAC company that had a client bring them a furnace to tune up. And an electrician certainly can’t install a ceiling fan from the comfort of their front porch. Throwing a wrench into your operation doesn’t take much: someone calls in sick, a truck breaks down, a grouchy customer insists that you’re late (even though they booked for tomorrow.)
As far as your bookkeeping is concerned, I need an invoice to get started. Your invoice is a signal to me that, “Hey, we went out and made money! Git-r-Done!”
I know, I know, I know…you hate paperwork. But here’s the thing, your invoices are tools, just like anything else in your toolbox.
Consider invoices as a communication device: it’s simply a script to walk your client through the scope of work. We need to clearly show what clients can expect and what they are paying for.
I recommend that home service invoices should include two different spots for client signatures. The first would be accepting the scope of work and price. The second would be signing off on their satisfaction of the work complete.
Properly documenting work for clients is not only useful in the sales process; it protects your technician therefore protecting your business. It protects your technician by providing evidence should there ever be an issue with a client, and it protects your business by providing documentation of revenue earned.
I don’t expect perfection so that’s why I help clients build systems that overlap so we can catch your revenue in case things fall through the cracks. And I’ll cover that in the next few posts.
