WindowBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Auto-Charging Each Recurring Window Cleaning Visit to the Card on File

Plans are supposed to be easy for the customer and steady for you. Nothing ruins that faster than chasing payment four times a year from a quarterly customer, or twelve times a year from a storefront. If every visit means an invoice in the mail and a reminder call two weeks later, the plan is costing you more office time than it is worth. A card on file, charged automatically, fixes that.

Why Plans and Auto-Charge Go Together

Reminders get the customer ready for the visit, as described in Reminders Before Every Recurring Window Cleaning Visit. Auto-charge takes care of what comes after.

A recurring customer has already agreed to the work and the price. Sending them a bill for every visit just adds a step that can go wrong: a lost envelope, a forgotten payment, a check in the wrong amount. Charging the card on file makes the whole plan hands-off for both sides. The customer gets clean windows and a receipt. You get paid the day the work is done.

Charge on Completion or on a Schedule

WindowBossPro can auto-charge a card on file two ways:

• On completion. When the tech taps Complete in the tech app, the invoice is created and the card can be charged right then. This is the most common choice for plan visits, because the charge always matches work that actually happened.
• On a schedule. For customers billed on a regular cycle, cards can be charged on a schedule instead of at the moment of completion.

Charging on completion has a nice side effect for recurring work. If a visit gets skipped for rain or a locked gate, nothing is charged, because nothing was completed. The cleaning stays due on the Waiting List and the charge happens when the work does.

Getting the Card in the First Place

Auto-charge only works if you have a card on file. The easiest times to capture one:

• The sign-up form. Your website sign-up form captures the card when the customer signs up for services and pricing. The sign-up lands in Form Responses and converts into a client with one click.
• The customer app. Customers can add or update their card themselves, any time.
• The first job. When a one-time customer agrees to a plan, get the card at the same time so the next visit is already covered.

Make the card part of the plan offer: “You won't get a bill. We charge the card when we finish and text you a receipt.” Most plan customers like that better than paper invoices anyway.

Clear Invoices Every Time

Even with auto-charge, every visit has a proper invoice with line items and sales tax. A quarterly visit might list the inside and outside cleaning, screens if this is the visit that includes them, and hard-water removal if it was added. Customers can see their invoices in the customer app whenever they want, which saves the office a lot of “what was this charge?” calls.

If a customer asks about a charge, the invoice, the tech's notes and the before-and-after photos from the job are all in one place.

When a Card Fails

Cards expire, get replaced after fraud and hit their limits. On a recurring route, a few will fail every month. The fix is to catch them quickly:

• Past-due follow-up in WindowBossPro handles invoices that did not get paid.
• Customers can update their card in the customer app and pay the open invoice online.
• A short text through two-way texting usually clears it up: “Your card on file didn't go through for Tuesday's cleaning. You can update it in the app.”

Do not let a failed card turn into a cancelled plan. Most of these customers want to keep paying; they just need a nudge. Check open invoices once a week so a failed charge from a quarterly visit does not sit unnoticed until the next one comes due three months later.

Businesses With Several Locations

For a property manager or business with several locations, charging each visit separately can be more noise than help. Those accounts can be set to Monthly and get one statement each month covering every location instead. More on that in Monthly Statements for Recurring Window Cleaning Accounts.

Paid the Day the Glass Is Clean

Auto-charge is what lets a recurring plan run without the office. The cleaning comes due, the van does the work, the card is charged and the plan starts counting again. For the full picture of recurring plans in WindowBossPro, return to the recurring window cleaning software page.