PestBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Monthly Statements for Commercial Pest Control: One Bill That Covers Every Location

Accounts payable departments hate small invoices. A property manager with six complexes does not want six invoices for the scheduled service plus four more for unit requests. A restaurant group does not want a separate bill every time a tech visits a store. They want one statement a month, with every location and every visit on it, that they can approve and pay once.

Why One Statement

Setting up a client with many locations was covered in One Account, Many Locations: Setting Up Multi-Site Commercial Pest Control Clients. Once the account is set up that way, billing it as one is the natural next step.

One statement is easier for the client to approve, easier for them to pay, and easier for you to follow up on. A single past-due statement is one phone call. Twelve past-due invoices across six locations is an afternoon.

How Monthly Account Billing Works

In PestBossPro, set the client's billing to Monthly. From then on, the client gets one statement each month covering every location you serviced that month.

The work behind the statement does not change. Techs still complete each stop on their phones, record what was applied, and take photos. Each completed visit still has its own record at its own address. The difference is that instead of sending a bill for each visit, the visits for the month come together on one statement for the account.

A statement for a three-store restaurant group might include:

• Main Street store: monthly service
• Airport Road store: monthly service, plus a rodent program check
• Lakeview store: monthly service, plus an extra visit for a fly problem

Every line shows the location and the service, so the client can see exactly what they are paying for.

That detail is what gets a statement approved fast. Accounts payable clerks often check each line against what they expected. When a line says which store and which service, they do not need to email you to ask what the charge was for. When it just says “pest control,” the statement sits in a pile.

If a location was skipped that month, because the tech could not get in, it simply is not on the statement, and the skip note with the reason is on the location for when someone asks.

Line Items and Sales Tax

Invoices carry line items from your service list and sales tax where it applies. Set up your commercial services once, like “Commercial monthly service,” “Rodent bait-station program,” “Apartment unit treatment” and “Fly service,” with your own prices. Then each visit carries the right items, and the statement adds them up.

Sales tax on pest control services varies by state and sometimes by city. Set your tax rates to match your area, and check with your accountant or state revenue department if you are not sure whether your services are taxable.

Getting the Statement Paid

Commercial clients pay in different ways, and PestBossPro handles the common ones:

• Card on file. Many small business owners are happy to have the statement charged to a card on a schedule.
• Online payment. The client opens the statement and pays online.
• Prepayment. Some accounts pay for a program ahead of time, covered below.

If a statement goes unpaid, past-due follow-up goes out on its own, so the office does not have to remember to chase it. More on that in Getting Paid on Commercial Pest Control Accounts: Invoices, Cards on File and Past-Due Follow-Up.

When Not to Use Monthly Billing

Monthly account billing is for clients with several locations, or with enough visits in a month that one bill makes sense. It is not always the right fit:

• A single restaurant visited once a month gets one bill either way. Charging the card on file when the tech completes the stop is simpler.
• A one-time commercial job, like a wasp nest at a church, is best billed on completion.
• An account where each location has a different payer should be split into separate clients, each with its own billing.

The rule of thumb: if the person paying would rather get one bill, set them to Monthly.

Prepaid Programs

Some commercial clients prefer to pay for a program up front, like a year of rodent service or a season of fly service at a restaurant patio. PestBossPro handles prepayments for programs, so the money is recorded and applied as the visits happen.

Whether a client prepays or pays monthly, the service history and records at each location stay the same. The billing is just how the money moves.

To see how monthly statements fit with the rest of running commercial accounts, visit the PestBossPro commercial pest control software page.