PestBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Choosing Pest Control Billing Software: What to Check Before You Switch

There is no shortage of software that can send an invoice. The question for a pest control company is whether it can send the right invoice, at the right time, to the right person, for the way pest control actually bills. Generic invoicing tools and generic field-service software often handle the simple case and leave the pest-specific parts to the office.

Start With How You Bill Today

If you are still on paper, the switch itself is covered in Moving Pest Control Billing Off Paper Service Tickets. This article is about choosing what to switch to.

Before looking at any software, write down how you bill now. What plans do you sell? How many commercial accounts want one bill? Do you sell prepaid seasons? How do you handle re-services? Who pays for WDI inspections? That list is your test. Every option you look at should handle every item on it without a workaround.

The Billing Checklist

Here is what a small pest control company should check:

• Invoice at completion. Does finishing the job in the field create the invoice, or does someone have to build it in the office later?
• Card on file and auto-charge. Can customers add a card at sign-up, and can it be charged on completion or on a schedule?
• Recurring plans. Do quarterly, bi-monthly and monthly plans come due on their own, and does each visit bill at the plan price?
• Initial services. Can the first visit be priced and invoiced differently from the plan?
• Prepayments. Can a mosquito season or annual plan be paid up front and applied visit by visit?
• No-charge re-services. Can a re-service go on the account and the route without billing the customer?
• Monthly statements. Can a restaurant group or property manager get one statement covering every location?
• Sales tax. Does it put tax on the invoice on its own line?
• Past-due follow-up. Can you see what is unpaid and follow up?

The Customer Side

Billing software is also something your customers use, whether they know it or not. Check what they see:

• Can customers see their invoices and pay online?
• Can they update their own card when it expires?
• Can they sign up for services with your pricing?
• Do they get reminders and on-the-way and arrived texts, so the charge after a visit is no surprise?
• Can you text them about a declined card and get replies in one place?

A customer app that handles these saves the office a phone call every time a customer would otherwise have had to call.

Billing Connected to the Work

The biggest difference between pest control software and a generic invoicing tool is whether billing is connected to everything else. In PestBossPro, the same job that creates the invoice also carries the route, the tech's notes, the photos and the chemical application record. The service list that prices the estimate prices the invoice. Property measurements from the satellite map, like home square feet and perimeter linear feet, price both.

That connection is what makes disputes short, month-end reviews fast and the records many states require easier to keep. When billing lives in one program and service records in another, the office becomes the glue.

Pricing You Can Plan Around

Software pricing should be easy to understand. PestBossPro has three plans: Start at $59/month, Pro at $89/month and Crew at $199/month, with billing on every plan and a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Plans include a monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received. Whatever you choose, know what you will pay as you add techs and customers before you commit, not after.

If you work outside the US, check currency too. PestBossPro works in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK and bills customers in their own currency.

Test It on Your Real Accounts

A free trial is only useful if you test the hard cases. During the trial, set up:

• A quarterly customer with an initial service and a card on file.
• A prepaid mosquito season.
• A re-service at no charge.
• A commercial account with three locations set to Monthly.
• A declined card, and the customer updating it in the app.

Run each one from start to finish, from estimate or sign-up through the tech tapping Complete to the paid invoice. If every case works without a workaround, the software fits. The whole picture is laid out in Pest Control Invoicing: The Complete Guide to Billing, Payments and Cash Flow for Pest Control Companies.

Choose for the Hard Cases

Any software can bill a simple visit. Choose the one that handles your plans, prepayments, re-services, commercial statements and customer self-service without making the office fill the gaps. To see how PestBossPro handles each of these, visit the pest control invoicing software page.