Hey Folks,
We've been adding more and more recurring customers on service contracts, some are residential clients paying monthly for anti virus, these are done on a credit card each month and isn't too big of a deal. However the larger clients that typically pay by check are what I'm looking into now. I'm just wondering how you guys deal with getting paid for these type of contracts? Do you invoice monthly and wait for a check? get ACH information to automatically debit a checking account when the bill is due? set up recurring payment on a credit card (not a fan of this for large clients as that 3% fee really adds up)
Right now We typically have larger clients pay by check as it saves us on credit card fees. The issue is they are billed monthly, so we send out a statement of charges (the recurring monthly fees plus any parts or software they needed that month, if anything) and wait for a check. I'm find more and more that checks are taking longer to come in. Usually having to do with the person cutting the checks only paying bills once or twice a month.
Do you have all your clients, regardless of size on automatic payment with a credit card? Do you use ACH transfers from bank accounts at all? (I've thought about this, but I can see a business being weary of letting anyone have access to their bank account).
On a semi related note, I've been looking to move away from my current M$ CRM system thats long over due for being replaced. One of the biggest features I'd like is a system that can handle these recurring payments, and more importantly, tell me if they aren't paid before I create a ticket. (nothing is worse then doing a job for a client, and finding out that they still owe from a previous job, this doesn't happen often, but its happened before.).
I've looked at Repair Shopr and mhelpdesk in the past, and while they seem to have the ability to do recurring payments using authorize.net, It didn't seem to have an easy way to track service contracts or let you know if the contract wasn't paid up before doing a job for that client. Although I know both of these get updated frequently and add new features, so its possible this has changed?
As it stand now, we have a CRM system, a payment system and quickbooks for invoicing. The more of these contracts we add, the more difficult its getting to manage these 3 separate systems.
Any suggestions?
We've been adding more and more recurring customers on service contracts, some are residential clients paying monthly for anti virus, these are done on a credit card each month and isn't too big of a deal. However the larger clients that typically pay by check are what I'm looking into now. I'm just wondering how you guys deal with getting paid for these type of contracts? Do you invoice monthly and wait for a check? get ACH information to automatically debit a checking account when the bill is due? set up recurring payment on a credit card (not a fan of this for large clients as that 3% fee really adds up)
Right now We typically have larger clients pay by check as it saves us on credit card fees. The issue is they are billed monthly, so we send out a statement of charges (the recurring monthly fees plus any parts or software they needed that month, if anything) and wait for a check. I'm find more and more that checks are taking longer to come in. Usually having to do with the person cutting the checks only paying bills once or twice a month.
Do you have all your clients, regardless of size on automatic payment with a credit card? Do you use ACH transfers from bank accounts at all? (I've thought about this, but I can see a business being weary of letting anyone have access to their bank account).
On a semi related note, I've been looking to move away from my current M$ CRM system thats long over due for being replaced. One of the biggest features I'd like is a system that can handle these recurring payments, and more importantly, tell me if they aren't paid before I create a ticket. (nothing is worse then doing a job for a client, and finding out that they still owe from a previous job, this doesn't happen often, but its happened before.).
I've looked at Repair Shopr and mhelpdesk in the past, and while they seem to have the ability to do recurring payments using authorize.net, It didn't seem to have an easy way to track service contracts or let you know if the contract wasn't paid up before doing a job for that client. Although I know both of these get updated frequently and add new features, so its possible this has changed?
As it stand now, we have a CRM system, a payment system and quickbooks for invoicing. The more of these contracts we add, the more difficult its getting to manage these 3 separate systems.
Any suggestions?
