WindowBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Sales Tax on Window Cleaning Invoices: Set It Up Once and Stop Doing Math

Sales tax is the part of billing most window cleaners would rather not think about. It is also the part that causes the most trouble when it is done by hand: a rate typed wrong, a job taxed that should not have been, a quarter of filing based on a shoebox of invoices. The answer is not to become a tax expert. It is to find out the rules once, set them up once, and let your invoices do the arithmetic.

Tax Comes After the Follow-Up Habits

Getting invoices paid was covered in Past-Due Window Cleaning Invoices: A Follow-Up Routine That Gets Them Paid. Getting the amount right in the first place, including tax, means fewer of those follow-ups. An invoice with a tax error is an invoice that gets questioned instead of paid.

Find Out What Applies to You

Whether window cleaning is taxable, and at what rate, depends on where you work. In the US it varies by state and sometimes by city or county. In Canada it depends on the province. Australia, New Zealand and the UK each have their own rules and thresholds. Some places tax cleaning services, some do not, and some tax commercial work differently from residential.

This is a question for your accountant or your tax authority, not for a blog. Ask specifically:

• Is window cleaning taxable where I work?
• Is residential treated differently from commercial?
• Are extras like screens, tracks or hard-water removal treated the same as the cleaning?
• If I work in more than one city or county, which rate applies to each job?
• How often do I need to file?

Write down the answers. They are the setup instructions for your billing.

Set It Up Once

Once you know the rules, put them into your billing software instead of your head. In WindowBossPro, invoices include sales tax. Set your tax up, and invoices add it where it belongs. The tech taps Complete, the invoice is created with the line items and the tax, and the card on file can be charged for the correct total.

The point is that nobody does tax math on a phone calculator in the van, and nobody forgets to add it on a busy Friday.

Show It Clearly

Sales tax belongs on its own line, below the services and above the total. Customers expect to see it. Business customers need to see it, because their accounting office records it separately.

A clear invoice looks like this:

• Window cleaning, inside and outside — 22 windows
• Second-story add-on
• Screens — removed, washed and reinstalled
• Subtotal
• Sales tax
• Total

For the rest of the lines, see Window Cleaning Invoice Line Items Customers Actually Understand.

Quote With Tax in Mind

Customers hate a total that is higher than they expected. If your area taxes window cleaning, say so on the estimate. “Plus sales tax” under the total is enough. Estimates in WindowBossPro are built from the same service list as invoices, and when the customer approves the estimate online it becomes scheduled services, so the work billed matches the work quoted. The tax line is the only difference, and the customer was told about it.

Monthly Statements and Tax

Property managers and businesses set to Monthly get one statement covering every location, each line labeled with the address. Sales tax goes on the statement too. If your accountant tells you different locations carry different rates, ask how to handle that before the first statement goes out, because a business customer will check.

Keep Records for Filing

Filing sales tax is far easier when every invoice was created the same way and lives in one place. Reports in WindowBossPro show what was billed and paid, which gives you and your accountant a starting point at filing time instead of a box of carbon copies.

A few habits that help:

• Review tax totals at month end, as part of your billing review.
• Keep notes on any job you treated differently and why.
• If a rate changes, update it once and note the date.
• Hand your accountant clean numbers, not a pile of paper.

The month-end routine is in The Month-End Billing Review for a Window Cleaning Company.

Outside the US

WindowBossPro works in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and bills customers in their own currency. The same rule applies everywhere: find out what your local tax rules require from a qualified advisor, set it up once, and let the invoices handle it from there.

Tax Without the Headache

Find out the rules once, set them up once, show the tax on its own line, and keep your records in one place. That is all sales tax needs to be for a window cleaning company. To see how WindowBossPro handles invoices and tax, visit the window cleaning billing software page.