GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Choosing Garage Door Invoicing Software: What to Check Before You Switch

Switching billing software is a decision most garage door owners only want to make once. Your customers, your prices and your cash flow all run through it. A system that looks good in a sales video but does not fit how garage door work is billed will cost more in workarounds than it saves. Here is what to check before you switch.

Start With How You Actually Bill

Growing from one van to two, covered in Adding a Second Van Without Doubling the Billing Work at a Garage Door Company, is often when owners start looking for new software. Before comparing options, write down how your company really bills today.

Most garage door companies bill at least four ways: repair calls paid on the day, installs with a deposit and a balance, tune-up plans that recur yearly, and property managers, HOAs or commercial accounts that want one monthly bill. Any software you choose has to handle all four without forcing you into spreadsheets on the side.

The Invoicing Checklist

Ask these questions of any garage door invoicing software, including ours:

• Does the invoice come from the job? If someone has to retype work into an invoice, lines will get missed.
• Does it use your own service list and prices? Service call, springs, cables, rollers, openers, new doors, tune-ups and after-hours charges should all be your services.
• Can parts and labor be separate lines? Or bundled, if you prefer. Your choice, not the software's.
• Is sales tax added on every invoice? Set once, applied the same way every time.
• Does the approved estimate become the job, and the job become the invoice? The quote and the bill should never disagree.

The Payment Checklist

• Can customers save a card themselves? Through a website sign-up form and a customer app, so nobody in your office handles card numbers.
• Can the tech charge at completion? From their phone, without a separate card reader.
• Is there auto-charge? On completion or on a schedule.
• Can customers pay online? And see every invoice in one place.
• Can customers update an expired card? Without calling you.
• Is there past-due follow-up? By text and email, so you are not making collection calls at night.

The Garage Door Checklist

Then check the things specific to garage door work:

• Deposits on new doors. Is there a clean way to bill a deposit and a balance? In GarageDoorBossPro there is no separate deposit feature; the deposit is billed as its own invoice or line item, as covered in Deposits on New Garage Door Installs: Billing the Deposit as Its Own Invoice or Line Item.
• After-hours charges. Can emergency and after-hours charges be their own lines?
• Tune-up plans. Do visits come due on their own, and get billed when completed?
• Monthly statements. Can one client with many addresses get one statement each month, with each line labeled with the address?
• Equipment records. Does each house keep its doors, openers and springs, so invoices are backed by a real record?

Check the Tech Side Too

Billing starts in the field. If techs find the app hard to use, jobs will not get completed properly and invoices will not get created. Look for a tech app that runs on the phones your crew already has, shows the day's calls in route order with equipment and access notes on each card, and has simple Start, Skip and Complete buttons. GarageDoorBossPro runs in the browser on iPhone and Android, installs to the home screen and needs no app store.

Check the Price Honestly

Some software looks cheap until you add the features you need. Ask whether invoicing, card on file, online payment and monthly statements are included or extra. GarageDoorBossPro plans are Start at $59, Pro at $89 and Crew at $199 per month, with invoicing on every plan and a monthly text allowance included.

Try It With Your Own Work

The best test is your own jobs. The live demo is a fully stocked sample garage door company you can click around with no signup. Then start the 14-day free trial, with no credit card, add a few real customers by hand or by CSV import, set up your service list and run a few jobs through to the invoice. If it fits how you bill, you will know within a week. To see everything billing covers in one place, visit the garage door invoicing software page.