SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

One Monthly Statement: Quoting Multi-Site Solar Cleaning Accounts

A property owner with eight buildings does not want eight invoices arriving on eight different days. Their bookkeeper wants one statement, once a month, that shows exactly which buildings were cleaned and what each one cost. Offering that up front, as part of the quote, makes your company far easier to hire than one that bills job by job.

Billing Is Part of the Quote

Quoting a Property Owner With Many Buildings covered setting the owner up as one client with many addresses and pricing each building. For multi-site accounts, how you bill is part of the offer. Settle it during quoting, not after the first month of invoices goes out.

How Monthly Account Billing Works

In SolarCleaningBossPro, a property owner or business set to Monthly gets one statement each month covering every building or site cleaned that month. Each line on the statement is labeled with the address, so the owner and their bookkeeper can see exactly which building each charge belongs to.

Compare that to job-by-job invoicing on a quarterly commercial account with several buildings. Without monthly billing, the owner gets an invoice every time a truck finishes a roof. With it, they get one statement and pay it once.

Who Monthly Billing Suits

• Landlords and property managers with several rental homes.
• Businesses with multiple locations, such as a chain of shops or offices.
• Commercial owners with several buildings on one campus.
• Churches, schools and nonprofits with a board or bookkeeper approving payments.
• Farms with ground mounts and barn roofs across a property.

For a single homeowner, card on file with a charge at completion is usually simpler. Monthly billing is for accounts where the paperwork matters as much as the cleaning.

Presenting It on the Quote

Mention monthly billing in your estimate or cover note, in plain words:

“All buildings are billed together on one monthly statement, with each cleaning listed by address. Statements go out at the start of each month for the previous month's work.”

A few things to settle with the owner before approval:

• Who receives the statement. Often a bookkeeper or accounts payable, not the person who approved the bid.
• How they pay. Card on file, online payment or their usual method.
• What the address labels should say. Some owners call buildings by name, like “North Warehouse.” Matching their names makes statements easier to check.
• Sales tax, if it applies where the buildings are.

Pricing for Monthly Accounts

Monthly billing does not change how you price each building. Use the same service list: per-panel cleaning, minimums, add-ons, extras. What it does change is the shape of the relationship. These accounts tend to be long-term and predictable, so it is reasonable to:

• Offer a modest saving when buildings are close enough to clean the same day.
• Price quarterly commercial cleanings per visit, with the frequency spelled out.
• Include inspection on each visit if the owner values the photos and notes.

Think about how the cleanings spread across the year, too. If every building is cleaned in the same month, that month's statement will be large and the others empty. Some owners prefer that. Others would rather you stagger the buildings so each month's statement is similar. Ask which they want while you are quoting, then schedule accordingly.

Keep the pricing the same across months so the statement is easy to predict. Owners who can predict the bill rarely question it.

Setting It Up After Approval

Once approved, each building's estimate becomes a scheduled job under the one client. Enter the panel details on each job once, set each building's plan by minimum days between visits, and set the client to Monthly. As techs complete jobs through the month, the work collects for the statement, and at month's end the owner gets one statement with every building listed by address.

Past-due follow-up helps if a statement slips through the cracks at a busy office, and the owner can see invoices and pay online in the customer app.

Why It Wins Accounts

Multi-site owners often choose a vendor as much for how easy they are to deal with as for price. A clean, labeled monthly statement is something a bookkeeper notices and appreciates. Offer it in your bid and you are solving a problem the owner may not have mentioned yet. For more on making estimates easy to read, see Writing Solar Cleaning Estimates Customers Actually Understand. To see how monthly accounts fit with quoting and scheduling, visit the solar cleaning estimate software page.