DumpsterBossPro Blog — Running a Dumpster Business

Billing Contractors Monthly Without Losing Track of a Single Haul

Contractors hate paying a separate bill for every haul, and your office hates processing them. Monthly billing solves both problems, but only if every haul actually makes it onto the invoice. The risk is simple: a swap on the 9th gets missed, an overage on the 17th never lands, and the contractor is happy to pay the smaller bill.

This guide follows Building Contractor Accounts That Keep Your Dumpster Business Busy. Here is how to bill contractors monthly and get every haul right.

Why Monthly Billing Works

For a contractor running several jobs, a stack of small invoices is a nuisance. Someone in his office has to match each one to a project and pay it. One monthly invoice with every haul listed is far easier to approve, and easier invoices get paid faster.

For you, monthly billing means fewer payments to process, fewer small card charges and a clearer picture of each account. It also makes the relationship feel more professional, which matters when you are competing for bigger contractors.

Every Haul Has to Be a Job

Monthly billing only works if every haul is recorded as a job when it happens. A swap that only lived in a text message will not be on the invoice. Make the rule simple: every delivery, pickup, swap, Dump & Return and Relocate for a contractor is a job in the system, assigned and completed in the driver app.

When the driver completes the job, it is ready to bill. At the end of the month, the contractor's monthly invoice pulls every completed job for the account, so nothing depends on someone collecting tickets.

Watch the jobs that are easy to forget. A Relocate, where the driver moves a can from one spot on a site to another, is real work with a real truck and should be billed like it. A quick Dump & Return late on a Friday is still a full trip to the disposal site. If those only get mentioned in a passing phone call, they never become jobs, and they never get billed.

Include Extra Days and Overage

Contractor jobs are the ones most likely to run long and come back heavy. A can on a remodel can sit for weeks, and a demolition load can be far over the included weight. Both need to be on the monthly invoice.

In DumpsterBossPro, extra rental days are invoiced automatically based on the days included and the daily rate after, and overage is billed per ton from the scale-ticket weight entered on the job. On the monthly invoice, the contractor sees each haul with its extra days and overage, which also makes questions easy to answer.

Make the Invoice Easy to Read

A good monthly invoice lets a contractor's office match every line to a project. Put the site address on each haul so they can see which job it belongs to. Include the can size and the date. If the contractor asks for a job name or purchase order, put it in the job notes so it shows up where his office looks for it.

Sales tax should be calculated correctly on every line, according to the rules where you operate. Check with your accountant on how tax applies to your services locally.

Keep the format the same every month. When a contractor's bookkeeper knows exactly where to find the site address, the dates and the extra charges, she approves the invoice quickly. A layout that changes from month to month gets set aside for later.

Set Clear Terms and Use Auto-Billing

Agree on payment terms when you set up the account, and put them in writing. When is the invoice due? What happens if it is late? For steady accounts, ask for a card on file and turn on auto-billing so the monthly invoice is charged automatically. Many contractors prefer it once they trust the invoices.

For accounts that pay by check or online, payment follow-ups remind them when an invoice is overdue. That keeps the uncomfortable conversation to a minimum.

Be consistent about the billing date. If invoices go out on the first business day of every month, contractors learn to expect them and plan for them. Invoices that go out whenever the office gets around to it get paid whenever the contractor gets around to it. Consistency on your side is what earns consistency on theirs.

Check Before You Send

Before the monthly invoices go out, take a few minutes per major account. Do the jobs match what you know happened? Are there swaps with no weight? Any can that should be on rent but has no extra days? Fixing a missing weight before the invoice goes out is much easier than asking for more money later.

The next guide covers getting paid faster across the whole business with card on file, online payments and auto-billing. For an overview of contractor billing and invoicing, see the dumpster rental business software page.