PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Porta Potty Rental Software

Billing in Porta Potty Rental Software: Invoices, Card on File and Auto-Charge

Doing the work is half the job. Getting paid for it is the other half, and for a lot of portable toilet companies it's the half that slips. In Quotes, Request Forms and Online Sign-Ups for Portable Toilet Rentals we looked at how jobs start. This is the overview of how porta potty rental software turns finished work into money.

Invoices Come From Completed Jobs

In PortaPottyBossPro, invoices come from the work the driver completes. When a delivery, a weekly service, an extra pump-out or a pickup is completed, the invoice has the job's line items, so there's no separate step of writing it up from a ticket. If the units stayed past their included rental days, an "Extra rental days" line is added automatically.

That's the biggest change for most companies: billing isn't a weekly chore built from memory. It follows the work.

Sales Tax Per Site

Portable toilet companies often work across city and county lines, and sales tax can differ by location. Invoices carry sales tax per site, so a contractor with projects in two places gets the right tax on each. The office doesn't have to look up the rate every time.

Card on File

Customers can keep a card on file, processed through Stripe. Cards come in a few ways: the customer adds one at sign-up on your website, updates it in the customer app, or the office adds it. A card on file makes everything after it easier.

Auto-Charge on Completion or on a Schedule

With a card on file, you can auto-charge in two ways:

• On completion: when the driver completes the job, the card is charged and the invoice created.
• On a schedule: charge at set times rather than per job.

Charging on completion works well for one-time rentals and homeowners. Scheduled charging can suit regular customers who'd rather see charges at predictable times.

Either way, the customer gets an invoice that shows what was done and what was charged. For a homeowner, that might be one delivery, a rental with its included days and a pickup. For a regular service customer, it's the services completed at their site. Clear invoices mean fewer calls asking what a charge was for.

Online Payment From the Customer App

Customers who don't use a card on file can see their invoices in the customer app and pay online. That's faster than mailing a check and easier to track than a phone payment. They can also update their card there, which keeps auto-charges from failing on expired cards.

Past-Due Follow-Up

Some invoices will go unpaid. Past-due follow-up goes out automatically, so the office isn't keeping a list of who to nudge and when. Pair that with two-way texting for the customers who need a personal message.

Don't wait too long to follow up. A past-due invoice from a one-time rental gets harder to collect every week. A past-due contractor who is still renting units from you is a different conversation: you might hold new deliveries until the account is current. The software gives you the list; how you handle each customer is your call.

Monthly Accounts

Contractors and other repeat customers often want one bill a month. Accounts set to Monthly get one statement each month covering every job at every one of their sites, with each line labeled with the site address. That's covered in depth in Monthly Accounts: One Statement for Every Site a Customer Rents At.

Billing in Your Customers' Currency

PortaPottyBossPro works in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and bills customers in their own currency.

For a company near a border, or one that sends units to events in more than one country, that keeps invoices in the currency the customer actually pays in. It also means the same software works whether you're running trucks in Texas, Ontario or Queensland.

What to Set Up First

When you start, set up three things for billing: your service list with prices, your sales tax for the places you work, and cards on file for the customers who'll pay that way. Then decide which customers are Monthly and which pay per job. Once those are in, invoices take care of themselves as drivers complete jobs.

Why Billing Belongs in the Same System

When billing lives in a separate program, the work has to be copied over, and every copy is a chance to miss something. When it's in the same system as the Waiting List and the driver app, the invoice is built from what actually happened. For the rest of the platform, see the porta potty rental software overview.