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	Subject - payment upon completion? Greg Hello guys, When doing service work, how do most you doing billing when the job is complete? Do you give them 10 days or 30 days or request payment right away? John A. Peters If your definition of service work is service calls, I.E. small trouble shoot jobs and hang a fixture jobs etc. that take an hour or two, I think that you will find that we are most all get paid COD. They make a check out at the end of the job. Some times we send a bill if the home owner had to leave for work and we lock the door when we are done. John A. Peters Greg Thanks John, I'm an industrial electrical with 16 years of experience , but I plan on starting my own business this summer and I don't have a lot of experience in residential work. If , for example I get a new house to wire, at what point do you expect payment ? Thanks sammyg I have found in my years of experience, get the money as soon as possible. Dont leave without it if possible. The contractor I work for started doing this recently, due to the fact he has thousands of dollars of unpaid bills from people. Usually, not always, it seems if they dont have the money now, why will they have it later. There is always an excuse. Watch out for insurance work. The insurance companies sometimes send the check to the customer, when it should be paid to the contractor. The last one denied getting the check time and time again, and finally admitted to using it to pay her car bill. Be Careful! sammyg In any larger jobs, we sometimes want half to begin and the rest upon completion. John A. Peters Here is what we use on larger jobs. Signature Agreement This summary is superseded by details in "THE SHOPPING LIST", including the two pages of "Job Management and Conventions". PROVIDE AND INSTALL: Various electrical outlets & other items listed on printout. City fees, appointment, inspection & certificate if a line item. TOTAL-ESTIMATE 3,585.68 Changes are itemized, suggestions appreciated. (Cross off items) Please be present 2-nd hr of work -OR- provide answers and keys. Progress payments COD-by-section, percent completed or as below. PAID____DEPOSIT___PROGRESS___PROGRESS___CONTINGENCY__INSPECTED 0.00____358.56____1,500.00_____500.29______1,000.00______226.83 Underscores added ___ to maintain spacing here on the BBS It is important to have a payment schedule. A.Q. Mike Delaney Greg Just don't try to wire the house in GRC. The way we bill our houses is 70% of total after rough-in (net 30), and 30% on the trim (net 30). Service net 30, unless we issue them a bill on the spot to be paid upon completion of the job. wilkie Greg, We collect at the conclusion of every call. We also do not get involved in new construction, so that helps allow us to get out of billing people. ecarbine Greg, Avoid account receivable at all costs, General contractors are not real quick to let go of the money and you will find that you are spending a huge amount of time collecting. My suggestion is do only service work and get a signature first, and make it clear that you expect payment as soon as the job is done, don't leave the house without it. CooCooMike I usually find that when you do resi. work is that you have to pry the money out of peoples hands. When you do comm. work they are expecting to pay to have work done. They are in the business of charging for a service to be performed. stedder I ask for 30% up front and clearly state a payment schedule with final payment due upon completion of E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C-A-L portion of job. If it's a small one day thing it's cod and I am still suprised to find that most people actually ask how much they owe at the end of the day whether resi or comm (most of them are usually feeling you out half way through the job anyway) nfsus We get 60% after rough in unless it is a new customer and then it is up front. it pays for my labor and material just incase they dont call to trim for a long time. when the last outlet is installed that is when i get the rest of my money ecarbine CooCooMike, I would have to respectfully disagree with you. In the 10 years I have been doing service work I have found that when I go to someones house, we agree upon the scope of work and a price, the vast majority of people expect to pay you upon completion of the job and as long as you make it clear that payment is due at completion, they have no problem at all. Commercial service work on the other hand it is almost universally expected that you allow them time to process the invoice through their in house systems before you can get paid, amd depending on the company that may be months. I do a lot of work for a commercial real estate maagement company that at times take 60 days to get me a check, whereas; when I leave someones house after completing a job, 99% of the time I have a check in my hand. John A. Peters Right. Being a contractor is a bunch more than just doing the work. It starts with the person answering the phone. That is when the customer is told that the technician expects to be paid when he finishes. When you are starting out you have no person in the office to do this for you, but usually a home owner expects to pay you when you are the owner of a company and also doing the work. The second place to take care of this is when you walk in the door. You should hand them a clip board and say "Please sign my invoice so I can get started with my work. Of course the invoice should state your payment terms. "Please pay when done" (right?) If you are using a contract form the terms must be on there (right?) Also, it has to do with projecting a feeling. Do you dress neatly and look professional? If you internally expect that of course you will be paid, it will happen. Keep up the questions and we will help.