PlumbingBossPro Blog — Plumbing Software

Monthly Statements for Property Managers and Restaurants: One Plumbing Bill for Every Address

A property manager with forty rentals does not want forty separate plumbing invoices in a month. Neither does a restaurant group with five kitchens getting their grease lines jetted. They want one bill they can check and pay, with enough detail to charge each property or location correctly. A plumbing shop that can give them that is a lot easier to keep working with.

Why Commercial Clients Want One Bill

Homeowners usually pay per job, as covered in Invoicing and Card on File: Getting Paid When the Plumbing Job Is Done. Multi-address clients work differently.

Property managers run their books by property. Every repair has to be charged to the right owner or the right building. Restaurant groups do the same by location. When a plumbing company sends a stack of separate invoices, someone in their office has to sort them, match them, and pay each one. That is extra work for them, and it often means slower payment for you.

One monthly statement that lists every job by address is easier on their accounts payable, and easier on yours.

One Client, Many Addresses

Monthly billing builds on the way PlumbingBossPro handles clients. One client can have many addresses. A property manager is one client with each rental as its own address. A restaurant group is one client with each location as its own address.

Each address keeps its own equipment, its own access notes and its own job history. The water heater at 412 Elm is not confused with the one at 418 Elm. The grease-line schedule for the downtown location can be every 14 days while the suburban one is every 30.

How the Monthly Statement Works

Set a client's billing to Monthly, and instead of an invoice per job, they get one statement each month covering every address. Each line on the statement is labeled with the address where the work was done.

A property manager's statement might read:

• 412 Elm St — Service call, toilet repair
• 418 Elm St — Water heater flush
• 27 Oak Ct, Unit B — Kitchen drain cleaning
• 27 Oak Ct, Unit D — Faucet replacement

The manager can see at a glance what happened at each property and charge each owner. Your office sends one bill instead of a dozen.

On your side, the work does not change. Techs still work each job on its own card, with that address's equipment and access notes, and still tap Complete when they are done. The difference is only in how the money is collected. Your office does not need to remember which clients are monthly, because the setting lives on the client and the statement collects the month's work by itself.

Restaurants and Recurring Commercial Work

Restaurants are a natural fit for monthly billing because much of their plumbing work is recurring. Grease-line jetting every 14 or 30 days comes due on the Waiting List on its own, based on the minimum days between visits. The tech does the work, taps Complete, and the job goes onto that month's statement.

Add the occasional service call, like a clogged prep sink or a leaking dish area supply line, and it lands on the same statement with the right location on the line. The restaurant's owner or manager sees everything for the month in one place.

For more on how commercial work differs from residential, see Residential vs. Light Commercial: What Plumbing Software Has to Handle for Each.

Keeping Commercial Accounts Happy

A few practices make monthly accounts run smoothly:

• Get address names right. Use unit numbers and location names the client uses, so the lines match their books.
• Write clear job notes. A manager reading “Unit D, replaced kitchen faucet, old one leaking at base” does not need to call.
• Use photos. Before-and-after photos help a manager explain a charge to an owner.
• Use the inspection report for rentals. A Plumbing Inspection Report on a unit between tenants is useful to a landlord.
• Set access notes per address. Lockbox codes, tenant contact rules and which door the kitchen staff use belong on each address.

Is Monthly Billing Right for Every Client?

No. Most homeowners should stay on per-job billing with a card on file, so they pay when the work is done. Monthly billing makes sense for clients who:

• Have several addresses or locations
• Run their own accounts payable process
• Send you steady work through the month
• Would rather pay one bill than many

Since the setting is on the client, you can have both kinds side by side. The homeowner down the street pays on completion, and the property manager down the street gets one statement for the month. For the full platform, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing software page.