Maybe you’ve acquired your first set of customers and are well on your way to running a successful cleaning business, but then comes the paperwork. You might be wondering how to invoice for cleaning services. Don’t worry! Invoicing doesn’t have to be complicated or tedious. Creating a process to invoice for cleaning services is a critical part of running a successful cleaning business, and properly structured invoices ensure you get paid on time and maintain professional relationships with your clients. Project 2 Payment offers a streamlined invoicing system tailored to meet the needs of service-based businesses. Our mission is to make estimating, invoicing, and getting paid a snap for your cleaning business!
3 Tips for Effective Invoicing
Clarity and professionalism: When your invoices are clear, concise, and professional, it’s comforting to your clients. It shows that you take your business seriously and that you appreciate their business because you take the extra steps to ensure that everything is communicated properly. Although your customer may think you invested a lot of time in the invoice, Project 2 Payment makes invoicing so easy that setup takes minutes, not hours.
Timely invoicing: Sending clear and concise invoices promptly will ensure timely payments. It’s all about communication. For those weekly or monthly cleaning jobs, you can have Project 2 Payment set up a recurring project that automates invoices to be sent as soon as the job is complete.
Follow-up: Following up on unpaid invoices can feel overwhelming, and there is always the concern about damaging a client relationship. Unpaid invoices can be the thing that keeps you awake at night, but rest assured, Project 2 Payment has you covered. Within settings, you can set it up so that your client receives gentle reminders to pay their outstanding invoices automatically. The settings even allow the reminders to continue until the client pays the invoice – one less thing for you to worry about.
The Benefits of Using Project 2 Payment
Project 2 Payment is a comprehensive payment processing and invoicing platform designed for service-oriented businesses such as cleaning services. We provide features that help small businesses operate smoothly and stay organized like customizable invoice templates, recurring billing, payment tracking, and client management. With everything in one easy-to-use software solution, invoicing woes quickly become a thing of the past.
Setting Up Your Project 2 Payment Account
It’s easy to sign up for Project 2 Payment. First you provide your email address and create a password. Here is the information you’ll need during the sign-up process, which should take less than five minutes:
- Business information. This includes your name, the name of your business, and the business phone number.
- Credit Card Information. The first 30 days are free, but after that, the software costs $20 per month.
Once you are signed up, you have access to Project 2 Payment, but will need to fill out the in-app merchant account application to start processing payments. On our support page, there is an excellent Quick Start Checklist to help walk you through the most important first steps to customize your account so you start building projects and sending out invoices with ease.
Creating Your First Invoice
The first step is choosing your invoice settings. Decide which payment terms you would like to set for your business. This will automatically create the due date on each invoice and help automate invoice communication with your clients.
Within Project 2 Payment, there are a few ways to create an invoice. You can create an invoice from a customer profile or a project profile, or you can create an instant invoice in the Invoice Dashboard.
- From a customer profile: Within the customer profile, navigate to the “Invoices” tab in the top menu bar. From there, you can send a current invoice for payment, or you can click on the “Instant Invoice” tile at the top of the right corner of the listing to create a new invoice.
- From a project profile: From the Project dashboard, choose the project you would like to invoice for. Scroll down to the “Invoices” header and click on “Create Invoice.”
- Creating an Instant Invoice: When you just need to quickly send an itemized invoice and collect payment without creating a project first, the Instant Invoice button is the solution for you! You can find this powerful button in two key locations: Customers and Invoices. Just choose the customer (or add a new one), add the list items, and click send for payment. It’s that quick and easy!
Sending the Invoice
Prior to sending the invoice, you can do an “invoice preview” just to double check how it looks for your client and make sure all the relevant information is there. This gives you the opportunity to make any changes before it hits your client’s inbox.
Sending invoices with Project 2 Payment is as easy clicking a button. Once the email is sent, Project 2 Payment will automatically send reminder emails to your clients. Depending on the payment terms you set, automated invoice reminder emails will be sent to your client 15 days before the due date, seven days before the due date, and on the due date.
Managing Payments
Now that the invoice is in your client’s hands, you can sit back and watch the payments come in. Project 2 Payment makes payment tracking easy!
When you click on the Payment Activity tile in the left menu bar, you’ll see all the payments you have received. The payments can be sorted by date, customer name, payment type, amount, and status. All payment types can be tracked, even good ol’ fashioned cash!
When you click on the “Reporting” tab on the top of your screen, you can see the sum of all the payments received for the year, the week, the month, or a custom range. You can even narrow your report down to a specific payment method. Then when you have the information you need, you can export the report into a CSV file or download it into a PDF.
If payments are past due, you can set Project 2 Payment to send automatic emails reminding your clients that their payments are overdue. Decide the frequency on which you would like the emails to be sent and the number of resends you would like your clients to receive.
Project 2 Payment makes it so easy to invoice your clients and get paid faster! Creating professional-looking invoices with your branding and detailed descriptions of work, plus a link for your clients to click and pay their bill, helps keep your cash flow growing and your cleaning business thriving. You spend a lot of time cleaning and organizing your clients’ homes; let us help organize your administrative tasks today. Sign up for Project 2 Payment and get your first 30 days free.
