Implementing a new POS pool and spa software system can help reduce or eliminate stressors that are currently inhibiting business development or your companyâs ability to handle another big summer.
Implementing new POS software can improve efficiency, accuracy, and save company expenses in the long run. In particular, pool service billing software helps automate the work done by your service department to automate your billing and maximize the profits on each and every one of your service contracts and renovation projects.
Progress Billing
Busy summer seasons make pool service billing software even more valuable by ensuring progress billing is completed in a timely fashion for optimal cash flow. This is particularly important for service departments doing bigger service jobs, such as changing out pool liners, painting pools, renovating decks, adding new heaters, filters, salt chlorine generators and automatic pool covers. When looking at service billing software features, be sure managers can calculate âprogress-billingâ payments based on the projectâs state of completion and then be able to send the totals directly to the accounts receivable department so they can bill clients.
Mobile Service Billing
Mobile technology has had a profound effect on a pool service companyâs ability to fluidly adapt to their clientâs needs and expectations by giving them instant access to customer contact info, equipment history, purchase history and more. In a world that is becoming increasingly more âdataâ mobile, consumers have the expectation that companies, regardless of size, are able to access their records more quickly and communicate even quicker.
This is where mobile service features are essential within any pool service billing. Mobile service modules help pool service companies provide a high level of service by ensuring techs can instantaneously send detailed information back to the office and directly into the customerâs service order. This includes information such as job status, job materials, chemical readings before and after, time spent and any special notes for the customer. And most importantly, service techs can initiate the steps necessary to ensure fast, efficient and accurate service billing.
Saving time means saving money. Using mobile service eliminates paper and duplicate entry back at the office. Field techs can look up their schedule, access customer profile information to save on a return trip, add items directly to the order and generate the AR so office staff wonât have to add items back at the office.
Lastly, one should not forget about new mobile technology options that allow in-field personnel to take payments on the jobsite. By using a mobile device, the project team can accept payments that will immediately be listed in the payment screen. This allows payments to be made but only up to the amount of the main job minus any outstanding costs and previous billings.
Online Bill Pay
To ensure the most optimal cash flow, having an online bill pay feature is a key component necessary in todayâs pool service billing software. With an online bill pay feature, service invoices become a part of a reliable billing process to make it easier and more convenient for customers to pay for their pool services. Pool and spa service companies are investing in online bill pay systems that allow them to send invoices via email and eliminate the cost of envelopes, stamps, labels, paper, and printer ink. It can also reduce labor costs by eliminating the time it takes for billing and collecting payments. Additionally, by providing an âelectronic payment option,â you provide your clients with the convenience of paying online or from mobile devices â perfect for streamlined, touch-free business transactions.
Service Contracts & Revolving Service
As with many technology trends, service pros can now obtain industry-specific software designed specifically to help service professionals manage their service contracts for additional profitability. This component saves service professionals hours of valuable time by allowing them to set up tasks JUST ONCE! The program creates service orders and schedules tasks for the duration of the maintenance contract. This eliminates the need to create a service order for each weekly, bi-weekly or monthly visit. The program also allows you to run a report to show when contracts are expiring so you can quickly renew a contract. Save time by mass invoicing weekly, bi-weekly or monthly â simply highlight multiple invoices to quickly print or email hundreds of invoices simultaneously. The system even allows service professionals to determine the profitability of a job by displaying revenue earned to date, percentage completed, total completed tasks, balance due and overdue balance.
Setting up revolving service will populate on the schedule and send invoices to AR saving hours of billing work. By having an integrated pool service billing software system, users can point and click to create picking tickets for the merchandise and supplies to be taken
to the jobsite and to deduct them from inventory within your business software. Additionally, you can enter your expenses and subcontractors as you use them and send the invoices to your QuickBooksÂŽ accounts payable. Being able to track the labor and labor expenses for each stage of the job is also critical to the success of any service job, especially for regular contracts and bigger service and renovation projects.
Itâs also important that pool industry software include a service job contract option that allows you to instantly create a professional contract for the job that can be provided easily to your client. These are especially important on larger pool renovation service jobs as the job contract becomes the primary document that allows you to automatically set up and manage the progress of the job and track the job costs. Additionally, the pool service billing software allows you to add âhidden itemsâ to the contract that will not appear on the customerâs sales order â for things like special order items used for creating purchase orders. Though hidden from your client, these special orders can be tracked as they are completely integrated with the RB Pool & Spa business management software.
Automated Billing
Stop spending countless hours sifting through paperwork and setting manual billing reminders. In todayâs fast paced pool and spa industry, itâs imperative to use an integrated business software that brings every process of the business, including your pool service billing, together into a single system so all relevant data is in one place.
Features like real-time data syncs and fully automated billing workflows will keep your team organized, improving efficiency on the back-end while enhancing your customerâs experience. They also prevent costly billing errors, like missed contract renewals and incorrectly calculated invoices â all of which have a huge effect on your companyâs bottom line. Additionally, real time reporting allows managers to instantly obtain service billing on all open or completed service jobs and projects to ensure against errors and oversights. This feature allows service department managers to keep informed as to what the status of all service jobs with a record of who, what, where, and when for each one.
Reduce Operating Inefficiencies to Enhance the Bottom Line
If you think you donât have any operating or billing inefficiencies? Think again. By automating even just a single billing process could save a few minutes on every service job resulting in thousands of dollars of savings over a busy summer season. By automating your pool service billing your pool and spa business will improve its cash flow and enhance your business profitability with the added bonus of reducing in-season stress. Donât wait! Automate your pool service billing for the 2025 season!
About the author:
Rachael Pritz is the vice-president of RB Retail & Service Solutions. She has been active in the pool industry for more than 20 years, which has provided her with an all-encompassing expertise in the trade. Pritz worked at a local pool store while pursuing a masterâs degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Pa. With her technical skills and industry knowledge, she joined the launch of RB Retail & Service Solutions in Pittsburgh in 2003. She can be reached via email at [email protected].