GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Technician App

Charging the Card on File When the Garage Door Tech Taps Complete

A garage door company can do great work and still have a money problem. Invoices sit in a pile until Friday. Checks get lost. A homeowner who was thrilled when the door went back up is less thrilled three weeks later when the bill shows up. Getting paid at the moment the job is done fixes most of that.

Complete Creates the Invoice

The arrived text, covered in The Arrived Text: Telling the Homeowner the Garage Door Tech Is in the Driveway, opens the call. Complete closes it, and closing it is where billing happens.

When the tech taps Complete in the GarageDoorBossPro tech app, the invoice is created from the job, with its line items and sales tax. A $89 service call plus a $295 torsion spring replacement becomes an invoice the moment the work is done, not when someone in the office gets around to it.

If the customer has a card on file and your settings call for it, the card can be charged right then. Auto-charge can be set to happen on completion or on a schedule, depending on how you bill.

Getting a Card on File

Charging at completion only works if the card is already saved. GarageDoorBossPro gives you several ways to collect it before the tech ever arrives:

• Website sign-up form. The sign-up form on your site captures the card. Sign-ups land in Form Responses, and one click converts a sign-up into a client.
• Customer app. Customers can add or update their card themselves.
• Tune-up plan sign-ups. Customers who sign up for a yearly tune-up plan in the customer app add their card as part of signing up.

For customers without a card on file, the invoice is still created at completion, and they can pay it online from the customer app.

Making Sure the Invoice Is Right

Because Complete can charge a card, the invoice needs to match the work before the tech taps it. Most of the time it already does: an approved estimate became the job, and the job carries the same line items. The cases to watch are changes made on site:

• The customer asks for new rollers while the tech is there.
• The tech finds a second broken spring and the customer approves replacing both.
• The customer adds a second remote or a keypad.

In those cases, the tech notes what was added and lets the office know, and the office adds the line items from your service list at your own prices. Settle on a house rule for how this happens so nothing is charged that the customer didn't approve.

Monthly Billing for Property Managers and HOAs

Not every account wants a charge every time a door is fixed. A property manager with twenty rentals, a townhome HOA or a commercial account usually wants one bill. GarageDoorBossPro handles that with monthly account billing.

An account set to Monthly gets one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled with the address. The tech still taps Complete on each call, the work is still recorded, but instead of charging per job, it all rolls up into that month's statement. The manager sees exactly which door at which address was serviced. Our other guides on commercial work go deeper into running those accounts.

Past-Due Follow-Up

Some invoices still won't be paid on the spot. A customer without a card on file, a declined card, an account that pays slowly. GarageDoorBossPro includes past-due follow-up, so the office does not have to chase every invoice by hand. Combined with online payment from the customer app, most of those invoices get paid without a phone call.

What It Means for the Tech

For the tech, charging at completion removes the most awkward part of the job: asking for money. They don't have to carry a card reader, take a check or explain the bill on the driveway. They do the work, run the checklist, take the photos and tap Complete.

It also removes the end-of-day paperwork. There is no stack of job sheets to turn in, no invoices to write up at night. The job is billed when it is done. Start, Skip and Complete are covered in Start, Skip, Complete: The Three Buttons That Run a Garage Door Service Day.

Be clear with customers about how it works, too. When the office books a call or a customer signs up for a tune-up plan, say plainly that the card on file will be charged when the work is complete. Customers who know what to expect rarely dispute a charge, and the invoice in the customer app shows exactly what was done.

Paid Before the Van Leaves

The simplest test of a billing system is how long it takes to get paid after the work is done. With a card on file and charge at completion, the answer is: before the van backs out of the driveway. For the full tech app picture, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door technician app page.