PestBossPro Blog — Quarterly Plans & Recurring Service

Prepaying a Mosquito Package Plan: How Program Prepayments Work

Spring is when mosquito customers sign up, and spring is also when a pest company is spending money on product, equipment and new hires before the busy season pays it back. A prepaid mosquito package helps both sides. The customer locks in the season and stops thinking about it. You get the cash when you need it most.

Package Plans in Brief

The two ways to run mosquito are covered in Running a Mosquito Season Program: Monthly Visits and Package Plans. A package plan is a set number of visits sold as one program, such as six visits from May through October. Prepayment is the natural way to sell it.

Package plans are not just for mosquito. Any multi-visit program with a known number of visits works the same way: a rodent exclusion with follow-up checks, a fall spider and stinging insect program, or a series of follow-ups after a heavy roach cleanout.

How Prepayments Work in PestBossPro

When a customer prepays for a program, the payment is recorded as a prepayment on their account. Each time the technician completes a visit in that program, the visit's invoice is paid from the prepayment instead of charging the card again. When the visits are used up, so is the prepayment.

The office does not have to keep a separate tally of how many visits each customer has left. The prepayment and the completed visits tell the story, and anyone in the office can look at the account and see where it stands.

Pricing a Prepaid Package

A prepaid package is usually priced a little below the cost of the same visits paid one at a time. That gives the customer a reason to prepay and gives you the cash early. An illustrative example:

• Monthly mosquito, paid per visit: $79 × 6 visits = $474.
• Season package, prepaid: $429 for 6 visits.

Use your own numbers. The discount should be enough to matter to the customer but not so much that the season loses money. Base the per-visit price on the mosquito (yard) square feet measured on the property, the same way you would price a monthly visit.

Selling the Package

The best time to sell a prepaid mosquito package is late winter or early spring, before the first warm evening. A few ways to reach customers:

• Last season's mosquito customers. Text or email them with the new season's package. They already know the service works.
• Quarterly plan customers. Offer mosquito as a seasonal add-on. Their card is already on file and your trucks are already nearby.
• Your website. Put the mosquito package on your sign-up form so new customers can buy it online with their card captured.

A sign-up lands in Form Responses and converts into a client with one click. Put the package plan on the address, record the prepayment, and the first visit comes due for routing.

What Happens If the Customer Cancels Mid-Season

Decide your policy before you sell the first package, and write it on your sign-up form or terms. Common approaches:

• Refund the unused visits at the package rate.
• Refund the unused visits at the full per-visit rate, minus the discount already given.
• Credit the unused visits toward other services, such as general pest.

Whatever you choose, apply it the same way to everyone. Customers rarely argue with a clear policy. They argue when the policy seems to change depending on who answers the phone.

When Weather Eats a Visit

Prepaid customers paid for a number of visits, so weather skips should not cost them one. When a technician skips for rain or wind, the stop stays due on the Waiting List until it is completed. The visit is only paid from the prepayment once it is actually done, so a skipped visit never uses up the customer's money.

If the season runs out before all the visits are done, decide in advance whether you extend into the next month, credit the customer or refund the difference. Communicate it before the customer asks.

Adding Visits to a Package

Some customers will want an extra treatment during the season, usually right before an outdoor party or a family visit. Decide whether that comes out of the package or is billed as a one-time job. Many companies bill it separately so the package still covers the full season. Either way, schedule it as its own job so it shows on the route and the technician knows exactly what the visit is for.

Prepayments and Your Books

Prepaid money is not fully earned until the visits are done. Talk to your accountant about how to handle prepayments in your books. In the software, the prepayment ledger and completed visits give you the detail your accountant will ask for.

For how prepaid programs fit alongside auto-charged quarterly plans and other recurring work, see the recurring pest control software overview, and for per-visit charging read Auto-Charging After Every Recurring Pest Service.