“Let’s get hammered!” or “No job is too small, We fix them all.”- These are often heard catchy slogans by the handyman, who comes and gets the work done in just no time. From repairs, maintenance to other fixing jobs for interior or exterior portions of residential or commercial space, a handyman is there for all.
Running a handyman business is similar to any other business. You need to keep a track of your expenses, send estimates, invoices, etc. For the sake of business growth, you need to create a great handyman invoice to prove your professional credibility. Moreover, an effective and well-designed invoice can get you paid faster as well and would help you update your financial sheets in a proper way.
Here we will discuss how to create a handyman invoice and other details related to this. Let’s dive in!
What is a handyman?
A handyman is a skilled professional who is competent in performing various repair and maintenance work typically around the home. The services provided by a handyman include plumbing jobs, electrical fishing, construction jobs around the home, fixing broken windows, appliances, and many others.
One need not have specific educational qualifications to start a handyman business. Years and years of practice and experience can get them a good bid. Morber, they use their own tools and fix their own hours for a particular job. Handymen available outside traditional business hours could probably charge more than usual handyman services.
As per statistics, the revenue of handyman services has raised up to nearly $4 billion dollars and is expected to expand over the next five years.
The invoice is both a formal record of work and a request for payment. It is the same for all businesses. Let’s check out what it is used for by a handyman!
What is a handyman invoice used for?
Running a handyman service involves managing a lot of clients, tracking numerous bills and invoices, labor payments, and whatnot. Your service could be at multiple places- offices or houses, therefore you need to travel a lot. And, amidst such a hectic schedule, it is difficult to keep track of all the moving parts of your business.
As your business demands dealing with multiple clients, handwritten invoices would consume a lot of your productive hours. This will also divert your attention from your customers as you will be busy tracking unpaid invoices or correcting mistakes of your handwritten invoices. To make your work simple, try out Billbooks free invoice template. Learn how it benefits your business and what is its main purpose:
- Help to track your past-due balances
- Help to get you paid in just a few minutes
- Helps to organize account information of the clients
- You can bill your clients in just no time
- Keeps all the information handy during tax time
Though handyman may be jack-of-all-trade, it may be critical to maintaining records. Therefore, check out the below section to learn how to create a handyman invoice!
Steps to create Handyman invoice
If you want to add professionalism to your business, then it is essential to implement a high-quality invoice in your financial transaction. Such an invoice gives a better impression to your clients about you. Here are the steps of creating a handyman invoice:
- Get a free handyman invoice from any online software.
- Add company or brand logo and set the font and color accordingly to maintain parity.
- Add your business name, address, and other contact information
- Itemize the service description and include the prices of each service.
- Next, add the client’s details like the client’s name and address.
- Make a separate column for adding the total amount after adding up all the services.
- Specify the preferred payment mode.
- Keep a ‘note’ section to mention your policies like privacy policy, refund policy, late fee policy, etc.
This is how you organize all the vital information in your invoice. Generate the PDF format of the invoice and send it immediately to your client as soon as it is complete.
Looking for handyman invoice software? Get Billbooks to create handyman invoices and ease up your accounting process. Moreover, you get to customize your invoices as per your business needs.
From small repair and junk removal to electrical works and plumbing services, besides deciding your niche, also learn about the various types of handyman invoices.
Various forms of Handyman invoice
By now, you know how to create a professional handyman invoice. Use software that is more easy and comfortable for you. You can send the invoice at your convenience through mail or regular postal mail.
Let’s consider you are specialized in providing HVAC maintenance, but you are planning to add a few more services. Therefore, you need to be thorough with the various types of handyman invoices. Here are some of the forms:
- HVAC
- Electrician
- Plumbers
- Roofers
- Locksmith
- Home inspector
- Construction
- Contract labor
Fixing other people’s problems is your business. Learn some pro-tips to create professional handyman invoices in minutes. Take a look!
Invoicing tips for handyman services
Well creating a handyman invoice is as simple as creating any other invoice. Outline the required details to create a well-designed professional invoice. Here we have listed a few more additional invoicing tips for handyman services.
Let’s discuss more on this!
1. Creating Customer Management System
Running a handyman industry may bring forth repeat business from your clients if you have a great professional and performance record. Whether repeated tasks from the same customer or enlarging your business keeping your specialization the same, you need a customer management system to track your customer details. This will help you keep every detail of all your clients in place. This way, you can send your invoices easily to them and track the status. Go for any simple yet smart online software that comes with a CMS system to keep a track of the customer details.
2. Flexible payment mode
Well, if you are focused and your luck permits, then you can enlarge your handyman business. A professional invoice and customer management system would be an added advantage to it. But this is not just enough. You need to focus on your payment modes as well. Try to keep multiple and flexible payment modes so that your clients can take care of the invoices immediately.
- Accept credit or debit cards for better and faster payment processing.
- Keep a card swipe machine as well for those who prefer an instant card payment.
- You can even use online payment modes like bank transfers or payment apps to speed up the entire process.
Besides your job performance, multiple payment options will allow your clients to keep coming back.
3. On-time payment system
One of the common problems in the handyman business is to receive on-time payments. Here are few steps which would help you to avoid the issue of delayed payments:
- Accept all payment forms for instant clearance of invoices.
- Mention the payment due date clearly to avoid any delay.
- Notify your clients after the due date, so that the invoice does not get lost in the mail.
- Make the payment terms very clear. Implement a late fee policy so that you don’t have to chase your clients when it’s time to receive payment.
- Do add early payment incentives so that customers settle all the dues to avail special rebates on early payments.
- Lastly, make sure every point is very mentioned clearly and specifically in the invoice to avoid any confusion.
4. Provide an estimate with accuracy
To prove your credibility as a business owner, you must provide an accurate estimate. As you visit your client’s property they would expect you to provide an estimate which should be as close to accurate as possible. This is not as difficult as you may think and need no pen-and-paper work. Get an online invoicing tool that enables you to take notes, add photos, and help create estimates. Arrange all the details and send the estimate immediately to your clients through the software so that you don’t miss the contract.
5. Send a proforma invoice for large jobs
You may come across projects that might extend for longer hours and would need additional expenses. Such additional costs would spike the total cost which may confuse the clients and create unnecessary misunderstanding. To avoid such a situation, send a proforma invoice for large jobs before you start. This gives the clients an idea about the overall expenses before the project starts so that they can arrange their finances accordingly.
6. Quoting rates for customer
Are you worried about how to charge your clients? Well, overcharging and undercharging is a common problem that most business owners face and especially beginners. You must rate intelligently to get more customers without running into losses. There are few factors that may influence the charges for your handyman services and those are:
- Your experience
- Size of the work
- Time required
- Types of machinery involved, etc
Types of jobs and average pricing:
- Small job: It includes toilet repairing, fixing water spouts in the bathroom, etc.
- Time needed: 1-2 hours
- Price: $80-$150
- Medium jobs: It includes installing a new mailbox at the entrance of your house or commercial space.
- Time needed: 2-4 hours
- Pricing: $160-$300
- Large jobs: It includes adding new doors in your house, or new stairs, or transforming a closet into a shoe shelf.
- Time needed: A couple of days
- Pricing: $300+, prices may vary depending upon the heavy machinery used.
7. Pricing method
You know how much to charge, but it is also important to implement the correct pricing technique for the respective task to avoid complex calculators and error-free invoices. Here are two main pricing techniques:
Hourly rate:
The average per hour rate for handyman services varies between $60 to $65.The amount may go up to $125 depending upon your professional experience and the difficulty of the job. Hourly rate is advantageous for those kinds of jobs that run for longer hours than expected. But this could turn down the customers as the amount may vary from the estimated figure.
Per project rate:
Project rates are generally best for clients as they get a flat rate on a per-project basis. This method helps them in budgeting their project expenses. While this may not be an impressive technique for business owners, as they may not be able to compensate if the project runs more than the estimated timeframe.
Bottom line
Get paid properly and promptly for your hard work. Your level of expertise, experience, and hard work deserve to be paid on time and the correct amount. Therefore, it is essential to create a professional handyman invoice. Send the invoices immediately as soon as you are done with your job. Follow the above guide for additional invoicing tips for better business finances management.
