PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Porta Potty Rental Software

Extra Rental Days: Billing the Days a Unit Stays Past the Rental

Ask any porta potty company owner where money leaks out, and extra rental days will come up. The unit rented for a weekend that stays two weeks. The customer who forgot to call. In Rental Tracking: Delivered Dates, Pickup Dates and Days Out on Every Job we covered how the software tracks days out. This one focuses on getting paid for them.

Why Extra Days Get Missed

Extra days get missed for simple reasons. The person who delivered the unit isn't the person who picked it up. The pickup date gets written on a ticket that doesn't make it to the office. The invoice gets sent from the original quote, which only had the included days. Or the owner just doesn't want to do the date math at 9pm.

None of that is about the customer refusing to pay. It's about the charge never reaching the invoice.

There's also an awkwardness factor. Some owners don't like sending a bill for extra days after the fact, especially to a homeowner they met once. When the extra-day charge is automatic and the terms were in the estimate, it isn't a personal decision anymore. It's just how the rental works, the same for everyone.

How the Software Does It

In PortaPottyBossPro, each rental job has a delivered date, a picked-up date, the days included in the rental, and a per-day rate after that. When the delivery is completed, the clock starts. The lists show the count as it grows, for example "Out since 10/3 (12 days, 4 extra)". When the job is invoiced, the extra days are added to the invoice automatically, on a line called "Extra rental days".

Nobody has to remember. Nobody has to count on a calendar.

Setting Your Days Included and Daily Rate

You decide the terms. A common pattern is pricing a short rental with a set number of days included, say a weekend or a week, and charging a per-day rate after that. Some companies charge a lower per-day rate for long rentals; others keep it simple with one rate. Whatever you choose, set it on the rental so the software can do the math the same way every time.

For example, if a party rental includes 3 days at your price and your per-day rate after that is $15, a unit out 7 days would add 4 extra days at $15 each to the invoice. Your numbers will be your own; the point is that they apply automatically.

Telling the Customer Up Front

The best way to avoid an argument over extra days is to make sure the customer knew about them before the unit went out. Include the days included and the per-day rate in the estimate. When the customer approves the estimate online, they've seen the terms.

Then, as the rental approaches the end of its included days, a quick text helps. Two-way texting from the office lets you ask "Are you done with the unit? We can pick up tomorrow." Many customers would rather call it done than pay extra, and either way you've given them the chance.

Extra Days on Construction and Events

On construction jobs, projects often run past the original estimate, and units stay out for weeks or months. For those accounts, many companies use monthly accounts, where one statement each month covers every job at every site. Extra-day billing is most useful on fixed-length rentals like events, parties and short projects, where the rental was priced for a set number of days.

On events, extra days often come from late pickups when the organizer isn't ready. A photo at pickup and the recorded picked-up date make the count clear.

Getting the Dates Right

Automatic billing is only as good as the dates it's built on. Drivers need to tap Complete when they deliver and when they pick up, not later. If a pickup is skipped because the gate was locked, that's on the customer, and the days keep counting until the units come back. A note and a photo on the skipped job make that easy to explain.

Payment Follows Automatically

Once the extra days are on the invoice, the rest of billing works the same as any other invoice. A card on file can be charged automatically on completion, the customer can pay online from the customer app, and past-due follow-up goes out without you writing it. You can read more about the billing side in Billing in Porta Potty Rental Software: Invoices, Card on File and Auto-Charge.

Small Money, Every Week

Extra days aren't huge on any one job. Across a season of parties, weddings and short projects, they add up. Software that catches them every time pays for itself quietly. For the rest of what PortaPottyBossPro does, see the porta potty rental software overview.