Anyone else realize they were breaking even or losing money after expenses?
I had a phase where we looked “busy” on paper, fully booked, money coming in, but when I actually broke down the numbers, some jobs were barely breaking even. Once I factored in true payroll burden (taxes, workers comp), supplies, insurance, and transaction fees, it was a wake-up call. There were jobs we were doing that felt productive day-to-day but weren’t contributing to profit at all. For us, it came down to tightening up pricing, being more intentional about which jobs we accepted, and really understanding our numbers on a per-job basis (not just overall revenue). Curious if anyone else has gone through this and what changes made the biggest impact for you?You Don’t Have a Lead Problem You Have a Follow-Up System Problem
You’re not losing jobs to competitors you’re losing them in your follow-up. Most HVAC businesses I’ve seen don’t have a lead problem… they have a system problem: missed calls, no follow-ups, and zero tracking. The ones scaling consistently are doing 3 things right: Capturing every lead in a CRM Automating follow-ups (SMS/email) Running simple local campaigns that bring repeat jobs Curious what system are you currently using to track and convert your leads? If you’re open, I can share a simple setup that’s working for other contractors.How can service businesses automatically add late fees or interest to overdue invoices?
Does anyone know how to add auto interest or late fees to invoices? Considering the scope of my work this would be real handy when my average invoice payment time is around 50 days. Because of this I have to finance my own payroll and if I could recoup some of these interest charges automatically. Too many invoices to manually add feesWhen is it time to hire an accountant?
I am wondering at what point some of you guys have hired an accountant? Did you hire one to grow? To maintain what you have? Or are you simply using one to file taxes at the end of the year? I am thinking about hiring an accountant to manage my finances for me and see where things go, but wondering when is the right time.How can I create an invoice for the deposit?
When doing certain commercial work the client will ask us to send them an invoice for the deposit. This isn't typically how Jobber works as the invoice isn't created until the job is closed usually. What is the best way to send a customer an invoice before having the quote signed, deposit paid, or the job completed? Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance!How Much Should You Really Be Charging?
The number one question I receive is tied directly to the fact, most contractors are still guessing when it comes to pricing. Overhead. Profit. Labor rate. Trip fees. They think just because they throw a number they hear their competitors use, thats all that they need. It may work, but how and what do you divide these funds is just as important for your business health. If you don’t know how to do the math, you’re not building a business. You’re surviving check to check and think you need more work, when you do not. So here’s the plan: This Tuesday & Thursday on IG, I’m walking you through our Contractor Price Builder Worksheet FREE on instagram live. We will cover: - How to calculate your real hourly rate - The difference between markup and margin - Why profit is a non-negotiable - And how to price with confidence Join the session. Bring your numbers.How do I record payment when a customer has already given me a deposit?
I am charging a customer $120/month for exterior rodent control and they paid me in full for the year. I applied that payment to the account but when I try to record each months service off of the credit, I can't seem to be able to. Jobber is telling me that the invoice must exceed $0.50. The balance is showing on the account but I can't figure out how to make the monthly charge come off of the balance. HELP!
Financial Dashboarding
Hello! Thought I would share a useful tool our landscaping irrigation company started using recently. I am one of the co-owners of our business and handle all the accounting. Being in the industry for a while, I have found that many small companies struggle making financially-informed business decisions. I think the cause is that business owners may feel lost when looking at their books/margins/KPIs. I recently stumbled upon a tool called Reach Reporting which does financial dashboarding. You can connect it to Quickbooks or other major accounting softwares. It pulls all relevant financial data from your books and then gives you the ability to create your own financial dashboard or even has templates already made. It has been incredibly helpful for us to see our financials beyond a Balance Sheet and P&L. It slices, dices, graphs, and plots anything you want it to. This has helped other owners or managers in our company who do not have a financial background to understand our financials more clearly than ever before. This is just one of many examples. Hope you find it useful!
