WindowBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

The Month-End Billing Review for a Window Cleaning Company

Billing software takes care of most of the day-to-day: invoices created at completion, cards charged, reminders sent. But it does not replace the owner looking at the numbers once a month. A short month-end review, half an hour with a coffee, catches the things automation cannot: a customer who has gone quiet, a statement that never got paid, a job that was done and never billed.

Why a Monthly Habit

Getting through the slow season was covered in Window Cleaning Cash Flow in the Slow Winter Months. Much of that depends on keeping open invoices short all year, and the month-end review is how you do it.

Weekly is too often for most small window cleaning companies; quarterly is too late, because a three-month-old invoice is hard to collect. Monthly is the sweet spot. Put it on the calendar for the first business day of each month and treat it like an appointment.

The Checklist

Here is a review that works for most window cleaning companies. Each step takes a few minutes in WindowBossPro.

1. Open Invoices

Look at every invoice that is still open. Sort by age. Anything recent is probably fine; past-due follow-up is already reminding those customers by text and email. Anything older than a few weeks gets a personal text or call this week. See Past-Due Window Cleaning Invoices: A Follow-Up Routine That Gets Them Paid.

2. Declined Cards

Open invoices from declined cards need a different nudge: “Can you update your card in our app?” Check whether any of those customers have a cleaning coming due soon on the Waiting List. Fix the card before the next visit, not after.

3. Monthly Statements

Property managers, storefront owners and other clients set to Monthly get one statement covering every location. At month end, check that each statement looks right: every address that was cleaned is on it, each line is labeled, and nothing is missing. Then check last month's statements were paid on their terms.

4. Completed Work Without an Invoice

Because invoices are created when the tech taps Complete, this should be rare. But look for the exceptions: a one-time job someone finished without the app, a re-clean that should have been free but was billed, extra work a tech noted that never made it onto an invoice. Notes on the job are where these show up.

5. Skipped Jobs

Look at the jobs that were skipped this month and the tech's notes on why: locked gate, customer not ready, weather. A skipped recurring cleaning is a missed invoice unless it gets rescheduled. Make sure each one is back on the schedule or has a reason not to be.

6. Sales Tax

Glance at the tax collected this month. If you file monthly or quarterly, this is the number you will need. Spotting a problem now is easier than at filing time.

7. The Big Picture

Finally, look at the month as a whole. Reports in WindowBossPro show what was billed and what was paid. Compare to last month and the same month last year if you have it. Is residential up? Did storefronts hold? Is the open balance growing or shrinking?

Questions Worth Asking

• Are more customers on card on file than last month?
• Which customers are always late, and should they move to card on file or a different arrangement?
• Did any recurring customers stop booking? A text to ask why can win them back.
• Are extras like screens, tracks and hard water being billed as often as they are being done?
• Is one van or one route producing much less revenue than the others?

Keep It Short

The point of the review is to catch problems while they are small, not to build a spreadsheet. If it takes more than an hour, something upstream needs fixing: more customers on card on file, better notes from techs, or clearer line items so fewer bills get questioned.

Write a few notes at the end of each review. Three or four lines is enough: what came in, what is open, what to fix. Next month you will be glad you did.

For Owners With an Office Person

If someone else handles billing day to day, the month-end review is still worth doing together. They run through the checklist; you look at the big picture. WindowBossPro has office user roles, so they can have the access they need.

Thirty Minutes a Month

Open invoices, declined cards, statements, unbilled work, skips, tax and the big picture. A monthly review keeps small billing problems from becoming big ones. For more on reading the numbers, see Window Cleaning Billing Reports: What to Check and What It Tells You, and to see how WindowBossPro handles billing, visit the window cleaning billing software page.