TreeBossPro Blog — Plant Health Care

Billing PHC Programs: Card on File, Auto-Billing and Prepayments

Nothing undercuts a PHC program like chasing payments. You treated the trees four times, sent four invoices, and two of them are still open when the fall round comes due. The customer is not refusing to pay; they just never got around to it. Billing that matches the program, with payments taken automatically or up front, fixes most of that.

Match Billing to the Program

Writing PHC Program Estimates Customers Approve Online covered getting the program approved. The next question is how the money arrives. There are three common approaches: bill each round as it is completed, collect a prepayment for the season, or charge a card on file automatically after each round. Each has its place.

TreeBossPro supports all three, plus online payments and sales tax where applicable. The point is to pick an approach that matches how your customers like to pay and stick to it.

Whatever you choose, explain it on the estimate. A customer who approved a program knowing they would be charged after each round is not surprised by the charge. A customer who expected an invoice and got a card charge may be.

Card on File and Auto-Billing

For most residential PHC customers, card on file with auto-billing is the smoothest option. The customer authorizes a card once. After each round is completed, the invoice is created from the job and the card is charged. The customer gets a receipt, the instruction email and nothing to chase.

Collect the card at signup, when the customer approves the estimate. Asking later is always harder.

Auto-billing also helps the customer. They do not have to remember to pay, look for invoices or write checks. For a service that happens several times a year when they are often not home, that convenience is part of the value.

Prepayments

Some customers prefer to pay for the season up front, and some companies offer a discount for it. Prepayments in TreeBossPro let you take payment ahead of the work and apply it as rounds are completed. That gives you cash early in the season, when you are buying product and staffing up.

Keep prepayment terms clear: what is covered, what happens if a round cannot be completed, and how changes to the program are handled.

Prepayment works especially well when combined with renewal. A customer renewing in winter who pays for the season up front is locked in before spring, and you have working capital at the moment you need it most.

Invoicing Each Round

Commercial customers, property managers and HOAs often need an invoice per visit for their own approval process. Invoices built from completed jobs carry the date and the work, and customers can pay online through the portal.

For these accounts, the customer portal is helpful: they see visits and invoices in one place and pay online without calling your office.

Property managers and HOAs often have specific invoice requirements, like a purchase order number or a particular contact. Note those on the client record so every invoice goes out right the first time.

Sales Tax and Records

Whether PHC services are taxable depends on where you work. TreeBossPro supports sales tax on invoices; your accountant should tell you how to apply it. Billing records combined with application records give you a complete history of each property: what was done, what was applied and what was paid.

Reports on unpaid invoices and revenue by category keep the PHC division's finances visible.

Keep billing and application records consistent with each other. If a round was invoiced, there should be an application record for it, and vice versa. Running both reports side by side occasionally is a simple way to catch gaps.

Making Payment Invisible

The best PHC billing is billing the customer barely notices. They see healthy trees, get clear communication and pay automatically. That is what turns a one-year program into a five-year customer.

Billing is the last step in plant health care software that runs the program from estimate to payment. Next: using tree counts, DBH and height on property records to price PHC.

If a card is declined, deal with it quickly and politely. Most declines are expired cards, and a short message with a link to update the card through the portal resolves them without awkwardness.

Track how many PHC customers are on each payment method. Moving even a portion of per-round customers to auto-billing each season steadily reduces the time your office spends on collections.