Whether you’re a solo plumber or manage a small team in your plumbing business, how you handle invoicing can significantly impact your bottom line. If you’ve been struggling with your invoicing process, you’re not alone. Many plumbers, just like you, are searching for effective solutions to streamline their invoicing.
This guide will walk you through best practices for plumbing invoicing, with a special focus on how ServiceM8 can help you achieve your goals. From creating quotes and invoices in the field to ensuring accurate job details are captured and shared across the team, we’ve got you covered.
Why Efficient Invoicing Matters
Efficient invoicing is essential for several reasons:
- Improves cash flow: Quick and accurate invoicing helps you get paid promptly, which is key for covering expenses, paying employees, and investing in business growth.
- Reduces administrative load: Streamlined invoicing frees up time that you can invest in more productive tasks - or get your nights and weekends back.
- Enhances professionalism: A well-structured invoice reflects a professional image and adds value to your brand.
- Legal compliance: Accurate invoicing helps you maintain records that meet all legal requirements.
The Challenges of Traditional Invoicing
Many plumbing businesses still rely on traditional invoicing methods, such as handwritten invoices or manually created invoices in word processors. These time-consuming methods often involve:
- Manual Entry Errors: Handwritten or manually created invoices are more susceptible to errors, such as incorrect pricing or missing information. They are also prone to misinterpretation.
- Slow Processing Times: Sending physical invoices via mail or waiting to get back to the office before creating and sending an invoice can extend the time it takes to receive payment.
- Storage Issues: Paper invoices require physical storage space and can be easily lost or damaged.
- Difficulty in Tracking Payments: Keeping track of unpaid invoices manually can be cumbersome.
Best Practices for Plumbing Invoicing with ServiceM8
Digital invoicing tools like ServiceM8, an all-in-one job management app designed specially for small trade and service businesses, address these challenges by streamlining the entire invoicing process. By incorporating the following best practices into your workflows, you can revolutionize your plumbing business's invoicing system - and reap the benefits.
1. Manage all aspects of the job in one app, from the initial booking to payment processing.
With ServiceM8, you can manage all aspects of a job in real-time, with one system. Plumbers in the field can update job details, add notes, and track progress through the mobile app. When the plumbing job is completed, the details are automatically included in the invoice, ensuring accuracy and completeness.
2. Create and send invoices directly from your mobile device.
ServiceM8’s mobile invoicing feature lets small businesses generate and send professional invoices on the spot. After completing a job, you can use your mobile device to create an invoice using pre-set templates, or you can create an invoice from scratch. The invoice can be sent to the customer immediately, reducing the delay between job completion and invoicing.
3. Offer the option to accept payments immediately after completing a job.
The ServiceM8 app lets you take contactless payments on the spot or send a link to pay online, allowing customers to pay as soon as the plumbing work is completed - a real boon to your cash flow and to the customer experience.
4. Use pre-set bundles.
ServiceM8 invoicing software lets you group labor, materials, and services that are typically billed together into pre-defined packages, or bundles. This simplifies both your estimating and billing processes, and also ensures transparency for your clients by presenting all necessary components for a job as a single description of services.
5. Use customizable plumbing invoice templates.
ServiceM8 offers customizable invoice templates that can be tailored to your business needs. You can add your logo, contact information, and standard fields such as payment terms and options, due dates, etc. Using templates ensures that your invoices look professional and reflect your brand consistently, no matter where the invoice is generated, and by whom.
6. Integrate invoicing software with accounting software.
By automatically synchronizing your invoicing data with your accounting software, you steer clear of double data entry and ensure accurate financial records. ServiceM8 integrates easily with popular accounting software like QuickBooks Online, Xero, and MYOB.
7. Set up automated payment reminders.
With ServiceM8, you can set up automatic emails or SMS reminders for booking confirmations, payment requests, and follow-ups on unpaid invoices. For the latter, you can configure the system to send reminders at specific intervals until the invoice is paid. This feature reduces the time and effort required to chase payments for those who don’t pay on the spot, helping you maintain a healthy cash flow.
8. Maintain easy access to past invoices.
Digital invoicing with ServiceM8 means all your invoices are stored in one place. You can easily access past invoices, search for specific transactions, and review payment histories. This centralized storage is invaluable for handling customer inquiries, audits, and financial reviews - and it keeps your entire team on the same page.
Sample Plumbing Invoicing Workflow
Let’s say you just got an urgent call for a residential plumbing repair. Here’s how a typical invoicing workflow might look using ServiceM8:
Job Creation: Create a new job in ServiceM8 with client details and job specifics.
Job Dispatch: Instantly dispatch the job to the nearest available plumber, using the dispatch map to see real-time GPS locations of staff and their schedules. The plumber receives notification and full details via the app.
Job Completion: The plumber completes the job and updates job details in the app, including labor and materials used and any photos or job notes for future reference.
Invoicing: Generate the invoice on-site upon job completion. The client can review and pay using contactless methods with a credit card onsite, or they can view and pay the invoice online.
Accounting Integration: Sync the invoice into your accounting package. Payments will be automatically reconciled against the invoice.
Case Study: Lloyd Plumbing's Invoicing Workflow
Lloyd Plumbing in Diamond Creek, Victoria, is run by Dean and Andrea Dynon. They have five technicians in the field, and they pride themselves on their great customer service and their ability to offer same-day responses for emergency calls. This is how they described their invoicing process before and after adopting ServiceM8:
BEFORE SERVICEM8:
- A client would ring up and request emergency service.
- Dean or Andrea would write down the information, then contact one of their plumbers on the road and verbally pass along the job details and address.
- The plumber would write down the address on a sheet of paper and head to the job.
- Upon arrival at the job, the plumber would use the same sheet of paper as their timesheet.
- Once the job was completed, the plumber would turn the timesheet and any notes over to the office.
- Dean or Andrea would then manually create an invoice based on the information on the timesheet and send it to the customer.
Before ServiceM8, Dean and Andrea spent a lot of time chasing timesheets and manually creating invoices! They had no visibility over calls the other may have taken, or jobs that were underway.
AFTER SERVICEM8:
- A client rings up and requests emergency service.
- The job gets logged into ServiceM8, capturing all job details and customer information, and is assigned to the closest available plumber.
- The plumber gets a notification on their mobile device about the job, logs in, and is navigated to the job.
- Upon arrival, the plumber's time automatically starts being logged against the job.
- As the plumber works, they add materials used in the mobile app. When done, they mark the job as complete.
- An invoice is automatically created, capturing exact time spent and materials used, ready for approval and release to the customer.
Dean and Andrea report that ServiceM8 is now an integral part of their business, and they could no longer see doing it any other way.
Learn more about how ServiceM8 transformed Lloyd Plumbing's operations.
Achieve Your Invoicing Efficiency Goals with ServiceM8
Efficient invoicing is no longer a challenge with the advent of job management software for plumbers, such as ServiceM8. Not only does it streamline the entire invoicing process, but it also improves professionalism and ensures faster payments. For small plumbing businesses, adopting these best practices can lead to substantial gains in efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Ready to transform your invoicing process? Give ServiceM8 a try and see how digital invoicing processes can take your business to the next level. Start your free trial today.
