PlumbingBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Online Payment From the Customer App: Letting Plumbing Customers Pay From Their Phone

Card on file and auto-charge cover a lot of plumbing customers, but not all of them. Some people want to look at the invoice first. Some do not want a card stored anywhere. Some had an emergency call before they had a card on file. For all of them, the easiest way to pay is from their own phone, whenever they get to it.

Where Online Payment Fits

The articles leading up to this one, including Emergency and After-Hours Charges as Plumbing Invoice Line Items, cover what goes on the bill. This one covers the customer's side of paying it when the card is not charged automatically.

What the Customer Sees

Every PlumbingBossPro client can use the customer app. For billing, it shows:

• Their invoices, with each line and the total
• Which invoices are paid and which are open
• A way to pay an open invoice online
• Their card on file, which they can add or update

The same app shows the live route on service day, lets them request service, sign up for services like a yearly flush plan, rate the visit and refer a friend, and choose their alerts. Billing lives alongside everything else they do with you, so they do not need a separate login for paying.

Who Online Payment Suits Best

• Customers who want to review first. They read the invoice, see the lines, and pay when they are satisfied.
• Customers who will not store a card. They pay each invoice themselves.
• Emergency first-timers. A customer who called at night and has no card on file can pay the next morning from the app.
• Declined cards. After a charge fails, the customer can update the card and pay the open invoice in one visit to the app.
• Deposits. A water heater or repipe deposit invoice can be paid online before the job.

Telling Customers Where to Pay

A customer who does not know the app exists cannot pay through it. Mention it at every point of contact:

• When booking: “You'll be able to see your invoice and pay in our customer app.”
• At the end of the visit: the tech can show a customer where to find it.
• In past-due reminders: PlumbingBossPro's past-due follow-up by text and email points customers to pay online.

Once a customer has paid through the app once, they usually keep doing it. Many go on to add a card on file because it is easier still.

What the Office Sees

When a customer pays online, the invoice shows as paid on the client in PlumbingBossPro. It drops off the past-due list, and the billing reports count it. The office does not have to enter a payment, match a check or wonder whether the customer paid.

That saves real time. An office that used to spend part of every morning opening mail and recording checks now just glances at what came in.

Online Payment and Monthly Accounts

Property managers, landlords and restaurant groups on a monthly statement get one bill covering every address, each line labeled. Account contacts who like to pay online can use the customer app like anyone else. Others will have their own accounts-payable process, and that is fine — the statement still gives them everything in one place to review.

Currency and Location

PlumbingBossPro works in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and bills customers in their own currency. A plumbing company near a border or serving customers abroad can bill each one in the currency they expect, and those customers pay in the customer app the same way.

Make it easy to find, too. Put a “Pay your invoice” link on your website that sends customers to the customer app, and include it in the signature of office emails. The fewer steps between a customer and the pay button, the faster invoices close. Customers who find it on their own once tend to come back to it every time.

One More Way to Get Paid Sooner

Online payment is not a replacement for card on file. It is the option for everyone who is not on auto-charge. Together they cover nearly every residential customer: cards charged at completion for most, online payment for the rest, and past-due follow-up for anyone who forgets.

Many invoices paid online are for drain work, which is covered next in Invoicing Drain Cleaning, Main Lines and Hydro-Jetting So the Customer Sees the Difference. For the full billing picture, see the PlumbingBossPro plumbing invoicing software page.