SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

The Month-End Billing Review: A Short Checklist for Solar Cleaning Owners

Even when billing mostly runs itself, someone needs to look at it once a month. Not for hours. Half an hour with a coffee, going down a short list, is enough to catch the jobs that slipped through, the cards that failed and the statements that never reached the right person. Small problems found at month end stay small.

Part of Managing Cash

The habits in Cash Flow in Slow Months: Billing Habits That Carry a Solar Cleaning Company Through Winter work best when someone checks on them regularly. The month-end review is that check. Do it on the same day every month, ideally the first working day after the month closes.

1. Every Completed Job Has an Invoice

Start here, because unbilled work is pure lost money. In SolarCleaningBossPro, invoices are created when the tech taps Complete, so most jobs take care of themselves. But jobs completed by the office, one-time extras, and re-cleans added by hand can slip through. Compare the completed jobs on the Scheduled List for the month with the invoices created. Any job without an invoice gets one today.

Also check for jobs that were actually done but never marked Complete. A tech who forgot to tap the button at the last stop of a long day leaves a job looking unfinished, with no invoice and no charge.

2. Open and Past-Due Invoices

Look at every invoice that is still open. For each one, ask:

• Is it past due? Has the follow-up by text and email gone out?
• Has the customer replied with a question that nobody answered?
• Is this customer due for another cleaning soon? If so, the open invoice needs settling before they are scheduled.

Anything older than two reminders deserves a personal text from the office. Before sending it, look at the job's photos and notes. If something went wrong on the visit, the text should start with that, not with the amount owed. An unpaid invoice is sometimes a complaint the customer has not said out loud yet.

3. Declined Cards

List the customers whose card on file was declined this month. Most will have updated their card in the customer app already. For the ones who have not, send a friendly text with the link. A declined card fixed now is one less failed charge at their next visit.

4. Monthly Statements

For property owners and businesses set to Monthly, check that this month's statements went out, that every site cleaned appears with its address label, and that no skipped site was included by mistake. Confirm that last month's statements were paid. Commercial accounts that slip a month often slip two.

5. Prices and Lines

Scan a sample of invoices for anything unusual:

• A recurring customer whose total changed from last visit with no reason.
• Bird proofing or other one-time extras billed again on a routine cleaning.
• A minimum charge on a system big enough that it should not apply.
• Missing story or pitch add-ons on roofs that clearly need them.

Each one you find points at a job whose panel details need fixing, so the same mistake does not repeat every visit.

6. Sales Tax

Glance at the tax collected for the month. Does it look right for the amount billed? Did any invoice go out without tax that should have had it, or with tax on a customer who is exempt? Your accountant will thank you for catching these monthly instead of at filing time. The setup side is covered in Sales Tax on Solar Cleaning Invoices: Set It Once and Let Every Invoice Carry It.

7. The Big Picture

Finish with three numbers: what was invoiced, what was collected, and what is still out. Compare them with last month and the same month last year if you have it. You are not looking for precision, just direction. Is more going out than coming in? Is the past-due pile growing? Are more customers on card on file than before?

The reports in SolarCleaningBossPro give you those numbers without adding up paper tickets. The next guide, Billing Reports for a Solar Cleaning Company: The Questions Worth Asking Every Month, looks at what to ask of them.

Write Down What You Fixed

Keep a short running note of what the review found each month: three jobs not invoiced, two declined cards, one wrong add-on. Over a few months, patterns show up. Maybe one tech forgets to tap Complete on the last stop, or one service list item keeps confusing customers. Fixing the cause is worth more than fixing the invoices. For the full billing system, visit the solar cleaning billing software page.