How to get invoices out the same day the job is done
The short version. The office cannot bill a job it has to rebuild first. When a call can be marked done with a thin note, no material recorded and no approval attached, somebody has to go collect all of that before an invoice exists at all, and that collecting is the delay. The fix is at the job, not the desk. Make the software require what the invoice is built from before a call can be marked complete: what was found, what was done, material used, photos, the customer’s approval, and on commercial work the number the invoice has to carry.
Why does it take days to invoice a one hour service call?
The invoice is assembled out of the job record. The original complaint, what was found, what was done, the material that came off the truck, any permit or equipment charge, the approval, and whether the customer already paid. When all of that is on the job before the electrician pulls away, writing the invoice takes a few minutes.
When half of it is missing, the office has to go get it first. Going and getting it means a call to a man who is already on the next job, a text thread about which breaker it was, and a guess about the material. The job note says “replaced breaker.” The box he typed it into did not ask for anything else.
What the office is actually waiting on
It is rarely one big thing. It is small and specific.
Which device failed, and what was tested afterward. Whether the two GFCI receptacles came off the truck or the counter, because one of those has to be restocked and both have to be billed. Whether the approval got captured anywhere, since a verbal go ahead is not something the office can put on an invoice. On a commercial call, the work order number the property manager requires, without which the invoice gets rejected and comes back around later.
None of that lives anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to live. There is one box called notes, and a free text box does not ask for anything.
The job closes whether the information is there or not
If a call can be marked complete with the note empty, then nothing in the shop is waiting on the billing information. The power is back on, the customer is satisfied, the truck is loaded, and the day has already moved on. The invoice is the only thing left that still needs something, and it needs it from a man who is now standing in somebody else’s crawlspace. So the billing information turns into something to sort out later.
Make the job impossible to close without what the invoice needs
The fix is a gate, not a reminder. Not a checklist taped to the dash, which is one more thing to remember on a Tuesday with four calls on the board. Fields on the job in your software, required before that job can be marked complete:
- What the customer called about, and what was actually found.
- What was done, and what was tested afterward.
- Material used, picked off a truck stock list instead of typed from memory.
- Before and after photos, attached to the job and not sitting on a personal phone.
- The approval, signed at the price the customer agreed to.
- On commercial work, the work order or purchase order number, and the not-to-exceed amount if there is one.
Then order those fields the way the work actually happens, so filling them in is the end of the call rather than a second job at the end of the day.
When a required field asks for the commercial work order number at the job, somebody is still standing in the building who can go find it. When that number first comes up at billing, the invoice goes out without it, comes back rejected, and somebody has to call the property manager to ask for something anyone on site could have handed over while the crew was there.
Doesn’t that slow my guys down?
Somebody has to enter that information either way.
Right now it gets entered twice. Once thin, in a notes box at the job. Then again by the office, out of a phone call, a text, and a receipt that turned up in a truck.
The version where the electrician fills in the fields while he is still looking at the panel is the least total work anybody does on that job. It only becomes extra if the new fields get added next to the old notes box instead of replacing it.
Common questions
What has to be on a service call before it can be invoiced?
The complaint the customer called about, what was found, what was done, what was tested, the material used, photos, and a signed approval at the agreed price. Commercial work usually also needs a work order or purchase order number and a not-to-exceed amount. If any of those are missing, the office is reconstructing the job instead of billing it.
Should the electrician build the invoice in the field, or should the office do it?
The field should finish the record. The office can still review and send. The problem is not who presses send, it is that the office is being asked to write an invoice out of information it does not have and was never given a way to receive.
We already have field service software. Why are invoices still slow?
Software does what it has been set up to do. If a job can be closed without the material, the photos, and the approval, it will get closed without them, and the office goes back to chasing. Find out whether your system can make those fields required at close-out, and if it can, turn it on.
Why do commercial invoices take longer than residential?
They carry more required information: a work order or purchase order number, a not-to-exceed amount, sometimes a location number, and usually more documentation. The person who requested the work is often not the person paying for it. Any one of those missing gets the invoice rejected instead of paid, and the second trip through takes longer than the first.
How do we get truck stock onto the invoice?
Give the electrician a pick list of what actually rides on the truck and make it a required field at close-out, rather than a blank line to type into. Material chosen off a list gets billed and gets restocked. Material remembered later gets neither.
