PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Billing & Rental Invoices

28-Day Billing Cycles vs Calendar Months for Porta Potty Rentals

Ask ten porta potty owners how they bill long-term rentals and you will hear two answers: "monthly" and "every 28 days." Both work. Both have trade-offs that are easy to miss until a customer complains.

Two Ways to Count a Month

How to Invoice a Porta Potty Rental: What Every Invoice Needs covers what goes on each invoice. This article is about when the invoice goes out.

A calendar month bills on the same date each month: the first, or the anniversary of delivery. A 28-day cycle bills every four weeks, no matter what the calendar says. Because a year has 52 weeks, a 28-day cycle produces thirteen bills a year instead of twelve.

The Case for 28 Days

Most long-term units get serviced weekly. Four weeks is four services, every period, every time. That makes the rental-plus-service charge identical on every invoice, which is easier to quote, easier to check and easier to explain. A calendar month has four services in some months and five in others, so either the price swings or you eat the fifth service.

The thirteenth bill is real money, too. On a unit renting for $150 a period, thirteen periods brings in $150 more per unit per year than twelve months at the same rate. Across a few hundred units that adds up.

The Case for Calendar Months

Contractors and property managers think in months. Their budgets are monthly, their accounts payable runs monthly, and their project managers sign off on monthly costs. A bill dated the 14th for a period running from the 17th to the 14th confuses people. A bill that says "October" does not.

Calendar billing also lines up with month-end statements. If you bill contractor accounts on one monthly statement — and you should — calendar months make that statement cover a clean, easy-to-check period.

Be Honest About the Thirteenth Bill

If you choose 28 days, say so on the quote and the sign-up form: "Billed every 28 days." Customers who find out on their own that they paid thirteen times this year feel tricked even when the price was fair. Customers who were told up front rarely care. The difference is entirely in how it was presented.

How PortaPottyBossPro Handles the Rhythm

PortaPottyBossPro bills from completed work. Each weekly service is a job, and when a job is completed the invoice can be created and the card on file charged on completion, or charged on a schedule you set. For accounts set to Monthly, every completed job at every site rolls into one statement each month, each line labeled with the site address.

That means the price per service is what you control. If you want the rental-plus-service charge to come out the same every period, price it as a per-service amount and let four services make up the period. If you prefer monthly accounts, the monthly statement handles it. Read Rental and Weekly Service on One Porta Potty Invoice for how to show the two pieces together, and One Monthly Statement for Contractor Porta Potty Accounts, Every Site Included for how the statement looks.

Short Rentals Do Not Need Either

Neither rhythm applies to a weekend event or a ten-day remodel. Those rentals bill by the job: a delivery, a rental with a set number of included days, any service in between, and a pickup. If the unit stays out longer than planned, extra days bill at a daily rate. Keep monthly and 28-day thinking for the long-term accounts and do not force it onto short work, where it only creates confusing partial periods.

What Happens When a Site Closes Mid-Period

Long-term rentals end eventually, and they rarely end on a billing date. Decide ahead of time what you do with the last partial period. Some companies bill the full period no matter what. Others prorate by the day. Others bill by completed services, so the final invoice simply covers the visits that actually happened before pickup. The last option is the easiest to explain, because every charge matches a date the customer can check.

Whatever you choose, put it in your rental terms. A contractor who pulls off a site on the 9th will ask about the rest of the period, and "it is in the agreement you signed" is a much shorter conversation than making up a policy on the phone.

Pick One and Write It Down

The worst choice is mixing the two without meaning to: some customers on 28 days, some on months, some on whatever the last office manager did. That is where double bills and missed bills come from. Decide your rule for each kind of customer — events, homeowners, contractors — write it down and set them all up the same way.

For the full picture of rental billing, see porta potty billing software and set up your billing rhythm in a free trial.