What's your go-to method for handling late-paying commercial clients?
Commercial accounts are great for volume, but waiting 30 to 60 days on payments can put a real dent in cash flow. We’ve tried everything from upfront deposits to offering small discounts for early payment, but some property managers still drag their feet. How do you handle past-due commercial invoices without burning the bridge or losing the contract?Roll call! Meet & introduce yourself to other Green & Exterior Service pros
If you’ve ever thought, “How are other businesses like mine handling this?” you’re in the right place! This space is for Green & Exterior Service pros to connect, compare notes, and talk shop with others who understand the day-to-day realities of running your type of business. 👋 Introduce Yourself Drop a comment and tell us: Your name Business name Industry Years in business Location (City/State/Province) Let us know if you’re joining us for LIVE networking on March 17 (more details below) The more context you share, the better connections you’ll make. 🙌 Pro tip: Search your city or state in the forum to easily find other pros in your area. 📅 Want to connect LIVE? We’re running a pilot to host virtual weekly LIVE Industry Networking starting on March 17, running until April 7. If you’d be interested in joining for the first or following sessions (don’t need to commit to all but you're welcome to join!), make sure to let us know in the comments. 🤝 Culture of this space Think of this forum board like a room full of peers who understand your world. Share what’s working. Ask real questions. Talk through challenges. The goal is to power your success and raise the standard of home service industries together. 💬 Looking for conversation starters? This space works best when conversations are industry-specific and experience-based. You might jump in with something like: “How are other [industry] pros pricing this service right now?” “Is anyone else seeing this shift in their market?” “What’s been working for you when it comes to ____?" 🤔 Why are industries grouped together? We’ve intentionally clustered similar industries to keep conversations active and relevant. These groupings reflect shared business models, operational challenges, and pricing conversations so you can learn from peers who “get it,” even if they’re not in your exact trade. If your question applies to all home service businesses, feel free to post in our broader forum boards. Pro tip: Check out the industry tags to get even more specific Looking forward to seeing this space come to life. 🚀
Electrical flat rate VS assemblies VS t&m
I’ve been using AccuPrice Lists for my material pricing since it syncs right into Jobber and saves me from having to constantly update material prices manually. I saw they’re adding flat-rate pricing and assemblies, and I’m curious which direction you guys have found works best for electrical service work. Do you prefer a true flat-rate price book, assemblies that build out the labor and materials, or some combination of both? For those of you already pricing this way, what’s been the easiest for your guys to use in the field and the most profitable? Trying to figure out which direction makes the most sense before I change up my current setupShould You Let Your Employees Take Their Work Vehicles Home?
I'd love everyone's input on this and their why behind it! My coworkers usually use their own vehicles but I have a couple that use company vehicles. It started because my first real employee had his truck repo-ed and I needed him to stay working so I let him use my burner car. Then my mom blessed me with her old vehicle so I could let him use an actual work truck. Then I got another Van that I was using until another employee had an issue with his wife's car now he uses the Van so his family can use his truck for their personal stuff. He never uses it for personal stuff but it lives at home. Now the set up is we have a big Van that's used but always gets left at the shop. But the small van is being taken home by an employee. Seemed fine until it got broken in to and then of course I'm footing the bill to get it fixed. Especially when your vehicles are wrapped, you become a target. BUT the drawbacks are - when someone parks at the shop, that means as soon as they get to the shop every day, they have to clock in (california law). So every day, you are paying for up to an hour of lost time from them going to te shop to get their vehicle, then going to the job instead of going straight to the job site. Now my employees use their own tools so if the car gets broken in to, it's their stuff being stolen so the cost is damage to your property/ potential lost income if you have to decommission the vehicle for a few days. What is your opinion on this?What’s the single biggest software headache driving you crazy right now?
We’ve all been there—you're trying to streamline dispatching, job costing, or customer billing, and the software you rely on either puts essential tools behind a paywall or makes simple setups way harder than they need to be. What’s the number one operational task or software quirk that makes you want to throw your phone across the truck? How are you dealing with it?Are You Building a Business or Just Creating Yourself Another Job?
It’s easy as a small business owner to get caught up doing everything yourself. At what point do you start delegating, hiring, or putting systems in place so the business can operate without you being involved in every job? I’d love to hear how other owners are making that transition while still keeping quality and customer service high.How do you handle customer call-backs without losing your shirt?
We’ve all been there. You wrap up a job, step back, everything looks solid, and then two days later the client calls about a spot that got missed or a detail they aren't totally happy with. In my own business, I try to handle touch-ups fast to keep the client relationship solid, but balancing quick response times with protecting your day's schedule and your profit margins gets tricky real fast during peak season. I’m curious how you guys handle fitting non-urgent call-backs back onto the schedule. Do you drop everything and fit them into the very next available slot, batch them all together for a specific day of the week, or handle them a different way? Also, where do you draw the line between a quick complimentary fix and something that needs a whole new quote? I'd love to hear how you guys run this in your day-to-day routine to keep clients happy without constantly derailing your entire day.
💡FEATURE REQUEST: Price Increases in Products & Services List
Do you increase prices for ongoing customers? Do you know how long it takes me to increase my prices for 700 ongoing clients in my cleaning business? Whether you increase your prices on an annual basis or just as needed in these unpredictable times, it would be easier to make these changes en masse in the Products and Services tab! How would it work? When editing a product or service line item in the Products & Services List, there should be an option to carry that modification over to any existing Jobs that have that line item on it. Currently, this would only update for new jobs created, but I'd love to see a little pop-up that says, "Would you like to change the price for existing Jobs with this line item? Yes/No" Use Case Example: Because I am in the cleaning industry, it will be my primary use case. Let's say you have a minimum price that every client's rate will be at or above. When you create a new job for a recurring customer, you add a line item titled "Minimum Rate + current year," like for 2020: "Minimum Rate 2020," which is $150. You also add another line item based on how your pricing model is set up - in this case, I will use a simple one: "Small House" for $10 "Medium House" for $30 "Large House" for $50 When it's time for your prices to increase, consider the following options: you could decide to raise prices only for people with large houses and keep your minimum rate the same, or you may want to increase the cost for clients who have been with you for more than 5 years. Instead of making this change one client at a time and trying to sort through who the change applies to, I could go to the Products and Services List and find the specific line item I want to modify. Then, I could edit the price in there! Ta Da! You've raised your prices! Why should Jobber care? This would be huge for any business industry that has recurring clients. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and other competitors already have this feature. I have found other threads that mention something like this or frustrations with how to go about raising prices. This would allow businesses that only see customers once or twice a year to set up their customers as recurring with one Job, saving them a lot of time and effort as well. You'd have at least one very loyal customer in me! I've spoken to two support agents who thought this was a simple but fantastic idea! My next price increase is in June, and I'd love you guys if you saved me weeks worth of work in a single click 🤞🙏 QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, FEEDBACK, AND MORE USE CASES WELCOME!!
