Get paid faster.
Without chasing a single invoice.
83 days. That’s the trades industry average to collect payment after finishing a job. 56% of small businesses are owed an average of $17,500 in unpaid invoices at any given time, and 9% of invoices are eventually written off as uncollectible losses. Slow payments cost the U.S. trades industry an estimated $280 billion per year and leave 43% of contractors without enough working capital to cover unexpected expenses. With digital invoicing, one-click payment links, and automated reminders, most residential jobs pay in under 7 days. For high-ticket jobs, offer financing directly from your invoice so customers can say yes without budget being the reason they don’t. One number makes the switch hard to ignore: only 6% of manual invoices are paid within 30 days, compared to 33% of invoices processed through automated systems. The gap is not in the quality of the work. It is in whether the contractor has a system.
You finished the job. Now comes the hard part.
Getting the work done is your expertise. Getting paid? The trades industry averages 83 days to collect after a completed job. That gap funds your competitors, not your business.
Professional invoicing in three taps.
Create, send, and track invoices from the same dashboard where you manage everything else.
Send branded invoices
Create invoices in your dashboard with your logo, line items, and terms. Send before you leave the job site while the scope is fresh: an on-site invoice reduces disputes because the customer can review and approve what they're paying for in the moment rather than weeks later when job details blur and memory shifts. For multi-day or multi-week jobs like HVAC installs or remodels, invoice by milestone so cash flows throughout the project instead of 83 days after you finish. Send via email or SMS in seconds.
Collect deposits & payments
Require a 25 to 50% deposit at booking before work begins, or collect full payment on-site before you leave. Leaving without payment increases the probability of a delayed collection by 40% within the first 24 hours. Customers pay with a single tap via credit card, debit card, ACH transfer, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. For high-ticket jobs over $1,000, offer Buy Now, Pay Later financing directly from the invoice: the financing provider pays your business the full amount upfront, and the homeowner pays in installments. Giving customers three or more payment options is one of the highest-leverage changes a service business can make: 81% of contractors who do report measurably faster collection.
Track everything
See what’s been paid, what’s outstanding, and who needs a nudge. Track average time-to-payment, outstanding balances, and month-over-month collection trends from a single dashboard. Automated payment reminders do the chasing for you.
Payments built for the field.
Every feature designed for how home service businesses actually work.
Stripe-powered payments
Accept credit cards, debit cards, ACH transfers, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Flat-rate processing at 2.9% plus 30 cents per card transaction, or interchange-plus pricing for established businesses with higher card volumes. Interchange-plus separates your cost into the actual interchange rate set by Visa and Mastercard plus a fixed processor markup, saving most businesses 20 to 30% over flat-rate. The break-even point is roughly $10,000 per month in card volume: above that, interchange-plus almost always wins. At $500,000 in annual card revenue, the difference between pricing models often exceeds $7,000 per year.
Branded invoices
Professional invoices with your logo, itemized services, and custom payment terms.
Deposit collection
Require a deposit at booking to protect your schedule and reduce no-shows.
Automated payment reminders
Overdue invoices trigger automatic reminders via SMS and email. You never have to ask awkwardly.
Mobile payment links
Text a payment link from the job site. Customers pay from their phone before you’ve packed up the truck.
Revenue tracking
See total revenue, outstanding invoices, and average time-to-payment in your dashboard.
Customer financing
Offer Buy Now, Pay Later financing on jobs from $500 to $25,000 directly from your invoice. Homeowners apply and approve in minutes at the job site. The financing provider pays your business the full job amount upfront minus a processing fee, so you collect immediately while the customer pays over time. Contractors with a financing option close 35 to 55% more high-ticket jobs and see 42% higher average ticket sizes than those without one. Second-look financing is also available for customers who don’t qualify for primary financing: secondary lenders serve credit-challenged applicants and can capture 15 to 20% of the jobs that standard BNPL declines, turning a lost opportunity into a booked one.
Tap to Pay in the field
Use your iPhone or Android as a card reader. Customers tap their card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay on your phone and the payment processes instantly. No dedicated hardware required.
Included in your plan.
See which plans include Payments & Invoicing.
Invoicing & payments are included in Growth and Scale plans. Standard Stripe processing fees apply.
Common questions.
What payment methods can customers use?
Credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers via Stripe. ACH is significantly cheaper: 0.8% per transaction capped at $5, compared to 2.9% + 30 cents for card processing. For jobs over $500, giving customers an ACH option saves you real money at scale.
Can I require deposits at booking?
Yes. You can set a required deposit amount or percentage for any service. Customers pay online when they book. A 25 to 50% deposit at booking eliminates most no-shows, filters out window-shoppers, funds your material costs before the job starts, and gives you a documented payment record if a dispute arises.
Are there extra fees beyond Stripe’s rates?
No. Standard Stripe processing fees apply: 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction for cards, 0.8% capped at $5 for ACH bank transfers. 73 Labs does not add any additional fees on top of Stripe’s rates.
Can I send invoices from my phone?
Yes. Create and send invoices from the mobile dashboard, or text a payment link to the customer directly from the job site. Customers pay from their phone before you’ve packed up the truck.
How much faster do contractors get paid with online invoicing?
Significantly faster, and the data is specific. Contractors who require online payment collect in an average of 4 days. Contractors who only accept checks wait an average of 21 days. That’s a 17-day gap created entirely by payment method, not work quality. The trades industry averages 83 days to collect when all payment methods are blended in, including checks, paper invoices, and late follow-ups. Contractors who send digital invoices with embedded one-click payment links and automated reminders collect most residential jobs in under 7 days. The combination of instant delivery, a frictionless payment link, and an automated follow-up on day 3 is the fastest collection cycle available without a collections agency. A second timing lever compounds the effect: contractors who send invoices within 0 to 10 days of job completion average 52 days to collect. Those who wait more than 20 days to invoice average 85 days. Switching to same-day digital invoicing and online-only payment typically cuts DSO from 60 to 83 days down to 4 to 7 days for most residential trades.
How do automated payment reminders work?
When an invoice goes unpaid past your payment terms, the system sends an automated reminder via SMS and email with a direct payment link. You control the timing and wording. The reminder goes out automatically. You never have to track unpaid invoices manually or make an awkward call asking for money you’re already owed.
What payment terms should I use for residential jobs?
For most residential home service jobs, due upon completion or net 3 to net 7 is the right call. Only 36% of U.S. invoices are paid on time, and invoices with longer terms drag the hardest. Net 30 belongs on commercial accounts, not homeowners. When an invoice says Net 30, it goes in a pile. When it says Net 14 or due upon completion with a one-click payment link, it gets attention and gets paid. Send the invoice on-site before you leave: the customer can review the scope while it's fresh, and there's no gap for details to blur or for them to mentally move on. The longer the gap between completion and invoice, the more payment drags. For invoices over $670, offer ACH as a payment option. At 0.8% capped at $5, it saves you significantly versus card processing: on a $5,000 HVAC invoice, ACH costs $5 versus $145 via credit card.
Should I charge a late payment fee on overdue invoices?
Yes. A late fee clause is one of the most effective tools for reducing average collection time in the trades. A 1.5% monthly fee (18% annually) is standard and widely accepted by residential customers when disclosed upfront. It does two things: creates urgency to pay before the due date, and compensates you for the real cost of carrying unpaid receivables. Carrying $100,000 in outstanding invoices for 60 days costs roughly $1,600 in interest on a standard business line of credit, before you count opportunity cost. State your late fee terms on the estimate, in your contract, and in the invoice header so it is never a surprise. Most disputes over late fees happen when the customer didn't see the terms until the invoice arrived. When customers know from the start that overdue balances accrue a monthly fee, they prioritize you over other bills that don't.
Does the invoicing system integrate with QuickBooks or other accounting software?
Yes. The platform connects with QuickBooks Online, Xero, and other accounting tools via API and Zapier integrations, syncing invoice data directly to your books without manual re-entry. When a job closes and an invoice is sent, line items, payment status, and client records update in QuickBooks automatically, no CSV exports, no duplicate entry, no reconciliation surprises at tax time. For service businesses already using Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, or Builder Prime for scheduling and dispatch, those platforms connect to the invoicing and payment layer through the same integrations. We configure the integration during onboarding so everything flows from the first job.
What is DSO and why does it matter for my cash flow?
DSO stands for Days Sales Outstanding: the average number of days between completing a job and receiving payment. The trades industry average DSO is 83 days. That gap means you’re fronting labor, materials, overhead, and payroll for nearly three months on money you’ve already earned. The real danger beyond slow DSO is uncollectible debt: 9% of U.S. invoices are eventually written off entirely, meaning roughly 1 in 11 jobs generates a loss you absorb in full after completing the work. 17% of U.S. small businesses have nearly missed payroll because of cash flow shortfalls caused by late-paying customers. DSO is not an abstract accounting metric. It is the difference between making payroll and not. Digital invoicing with online payment, required deposits, and automated reminders is how residential service businesses bring DSO under 7 days and break the feast-or-famine cash flow cycle that stalls profitable businesses.
Should I offer financing to customers?
Yes, especially for high-ticket jobs. 29% of homeowners expect to find financing information on a contractor’s website before they call. For jobs over $3,000, whether it’s a new HVAC system, a roof replacement, or a kitchen remodel, budget is often the reason a homeowner doesn’t book on the spot. The ACCA reports that contractor close rates increase from 38% to 49% when financing is offered at the point of estimate. HVAC contractors offering financing close 35 to 55% more system replacements and see 42% higher average ticket sizes. A Synchrony Major Purchase Journey Study found that 91% of customers said promotional financing made large purchases more affordable, and those customers spent an average of $1,631 more on major home-related purchases. The most practical option in 2026 is Buy Now, Pay Later: providers like Wisetack cover job amounts from $500 to $25,000, approve homeowners in minutes without a hard credit check, and pay your business the full amount upfront minus a processing fee of roughly 3 to 4%. You don’t wait for the customer’s installments. The homeowner pays over time. You collect the day the job closes. For customers who don’t qualify for primary financing, second-look financing options serve credit-challenged applicants and can recover 15 to 20% of the jobs that standard BNPL declines. Financing is no longer a premium add-on. It’s a standard competitive expectation in 2026. Homeowners who say they need to think about it are often saying they need a payment path, not more time.
What is Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and how does it work for contractor jobs?
Buy Now, Pay Later is a financing model where a third-party provider pays your business the full job amount upfront, then collects installment payments from the customer directly. For contractors, this means you get paid the day the job closes, without waiting for the customer to arrange financing through their bank or credit card. Providers like Wisetack offer BNPL for home service jobs from $500 to $25,000. The homeowner applies on their phone at the job site, gets an instant decision without a hard credit check, and selects a monthly payment plan. Your business receives the full amount minus a processing fee of roughly 3 to 4%, which is comparable to a credit card transaction. You don’t carry any financing risk and you don’t wait for installments. For high-ticket trades like HVAC replacement, roofing, and bathroom remodels, BNPL removes the single most common reason homeowners delay: the upfront cost. Offering a monthly payment option at the time of the estimate, before the customer even leaves, closes jobs that would otherwise result in a week of follow-up calls and a lost customer.
What is milestone billing and when should I use it?
Milestone billing means sending invoices at defined project stages rather than waiting until the entire job is complete. For a residential job done in a day or two, invoicing at completion is standard. For larger jobs, a multi-week HVAC install, a bathroom remodel, or a roofing replacement that spans several days, milestone billing keeps cash flowing instead of waiting 30, 60, or 83 days after the project wraps. A typical milestone structure is 25 to 30% at signing, 40 to 50% at midpoint when major materials are in or rough work is done, and the remainder at completion. Businesses using milestone invoicing on larger projects typically reduce their average collection window by 30 to 50 days compared to invoicing at completion.
Can I accept in-person card payments without a dedicated card reader?
Yes. Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android lets you accept contactless card payments using your smartphone. No separate card reader required. The customer taps their card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay on your phone and the payment processes instantly. This is built for field service work: finish the job, pull out your phone, and collect payment before you pack up the truck. Processing rates for tap-to-pay transactions are lower than for online invoice payments: approximately 2.7% plus 5 cents per in-person transaction versus 2.9% plus 30 cents for invoiced card payments. On a $300 service call, that difference is about 26 cents saved per job. For a business running hundreds of jobs per month, it adds up.
How do change orders affect payment collection?
Change orders are one of the most common causes of invoice disputes and non-payment in contracting. When scope changes are agreed to verbally and not documented, the customer disputes the final invoice amount: they remember a different conversation, you remember a different number, and neither side has anything in writing. The fix is a written change order for every scope change, signed by the customer before the additional work begins. A change order documents the original scope, what changed, the new price, and the customer's approval. Contractors who use digital change orders signed at the time of scope change collect on those additions significantly faster than those who handle changes verbally and invoice for them later. Digital change orders also create a paper trail that resolves disputes before they escalate: the customer approved the work, the document proves it, and the invoice matches. Change orders are generated directly from your job file, sent to the customer for digital signature by SMS or email, and attached to the final invoice so every scope change is approved, documented, and priced before the bill arrives.
How much do payment processing fees cost my business per year?
More than most contractors realize. Payment processing at 2.9% plus 30 cents per card transaction on $500,000 in annual revenue costs roughly $14,500 per year in fees alone. At $1M in revenue, that is $29,000. At $3M, it is $87,000. At higher revenue, processing costs consume 15 to 25% of actual net profit on a typical 15 to 20% margin business. The solution is routing large-ticket jobs to ACH whenever possible. ACH via Stripe costs 0.8% capped at $5 per transaction. On a $5,000 HVAC system invoice, card processing costs $145. ACH costs $5. On a $15,000 repiping job, card processing costs $435. ACH costs $5. On a $25,000 kitchen remodel, card processing costs $725. ACH costs $5. If you run 10 large-ticket jobs per month and route them to ACH, you save $1,400 to $7,200 per month in processing fees at zero cost to the customer experience. The platform lets you set an invoice threshold above which ACH becomes the default payment option, so customers on large jobs are guided toward the lower-cost method automatically during onboarding.
What is a cash discount program and should my contracting business offer one?
A cash discount program lists a higher base price and gives customers a discount when they pay with cash, check, or debit card, instead of charging a surcharge on top for credit card use. The result is that credit card processing fees are shifted back to customers who choose to pay by card, while customers who pay with cash or check get the lower price. Cash discount programs are legal in all 50 states. Surcharging, which adds a fee directly on top of the stated price for card payments, is also legal in most states but prohibited in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and requires registering with Visa and Mastercard at least 30 days before implementation with a maximum fee capped at 3% or your actual cost of acceptance, whichever is lower. For contractors processing large-ticket jobs, the math on a cash discount program is straightforward: a $10,000 HVAC replacement paid by credit card costs $290 in processing fees. Under a cash discount program, the card-paying customer pays $10,290 and your effective processing cost is zero. Most homeowners paying for a large job with a rewards credit card expect a processing fee to be in play, particularly in 2026, and compliance-structured programs are now standard practice in the trades. The practical setup requires updating your invoices and estimates to display the cash price, disclosing the program clearly at the point of estimate, and configuring your payment processing platform to apply the pricing logic automatically. We configure compliant dual-pricing during onboarding for clients who want to reduce their processing cost to zero.
What is an accounts receivable aging report and how does it help my contracting business?
An accounts receivable aging report lists every unpaid invoice grouped by how long it has been outstanding, typically in 30-day buckets: 0 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days, and 90-plus days. It tells you exactly who owes you money and how overdue each balance is, so you know where to direct your collection effort before invoices become uncollectable. The aging buckets matter because collection probability drops sharply over time. An invoice in the 0 to 30-day bucket is almost always collectible with a simple automated reminder. An invoice at 31 to 60 days needs a direct follow-up. An invoice past 90 days has roughly a 50% chance of never being paid at all. Most contractors miss this because they track outstanding invoices as a list sorted by customer name rather than by age, so a 75-day-old invoice sits alongside a 5-day-old one with no urgency signal. The most disciplined contractors review their AR aging every Monday: they see what crossed into the 31-day bucket last week and act before it crosses 60. For seasonal businesses like HVAC and lawn care, weekly AR review during peak months is the difference between a strong cash reserve heading into the slow season and a cash crunch. Your payments dashboard surfaces this aging data automatically and flags invoices that need attention before they become losses.
Should I offer early payment discounts to get invoices paid faster?
Yes, particularly on larger commercial or multi-phase jobs where payment terms are negotiated in advance. The standard format is 2/10 Net 30: the customer gets a 2% discount if they pay within 10 days, and the full amount is due within 30 days. For a $10,000 invoice, the customer saves $200 by paying early. From your side, 2% is significantly cheaper than the carrying cost of waiting 30 days and far cheaper than the cost of the invoice crossing 60 days unpaid. For residential jobs where you invoice on completion and collect before leaving the job site, early payment discounts are less relevant because you are already collecting at the moment of highest motivation. For commercial accounts, multi-day jobs, or remodels where payment terms are structured in the contract, a 1 to 2% early discount consistently accelerates collection. The businesses that benefit most are those carrying $50,000 or more in regular receivables: at that volume, even a modest shift in average payment speed from 30 days to 10 days recovers meaningful cash and reduces the cost of financing ongoing operations out of your own pocket.
What is job costing and how does it connect to my invoicing?
Job costing is tracking every cost tied to a specific job, including labor hours, materials, drive time, and overhead, and comparing that cost to what the invoice collected. Without job costing, a contractor knows total revenue and total expenses but has no idea which jobs are profitable and which ones are eroding margin. The result is common in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical: a full schedule that produces a revenue number that looks healthy but margins that disappoint at the end of the month. Healthy HVAC gross margins run 35 to 45%, with maintenance calls at the high end and equipment installs at the lower end due to material cost. Plumbing gross margins run slightly higher, often 5 to 10 points above HVAC, because service calls carry lower material cost and emergency calls command real pricing power. Electrical service call margins typically run 40 to 50% on well-priced work. If your actual numbers are below those benchmarks, job costing usually reveals the cause: callbacks absorbed at no charge, unbilled drive time, supply house runs that were never invoiced, or flat-rate pricing that was set years ago and hasn’t kept pace with labor and material cost increases. Connecting your invoicing data to job-level cost tracking closes the loop. When each invoice is tied to a specific job record with costs logged, you can see margin by job type, by technician, by service line, and by season. Contractors who grow profitably are the ones who know their numbers at the job level, not just the month-end total.
Should my home service business use flat-rate pricing or time-and-materials billing?
Flat-rate pricing for most residential service work, time-and-materials for jobs where the full scope is genuinely unknown at the start. Here is why the distinction matters for collection speed, not just pricing philosophy. Flat-rate pricing presents the homeowner with a defined price before work begins. The customer agrees to a number, you do the work, and the invoice matches exactly what they approved. Disputes over invoice amounts fall sharply because there is nothing to dispute: the price was settled at the start. Time-and-materials billing gives the homeowner an estimate and a final number that may be higher. Even when the overage is justified, it creates a gap between what the customer expected and what the invoice says. That gap generates payment friction, questions, and delays. 92% of homeowners prefer flat-rate pricing. They do not want to watch the clock, wonder about the hourly rate, or debate whether a two-hour job really took two and a half. Yet only 20 to 30% of home service contractors use it consistently. That gap is a direct competitive advantage available to any contractor willing to build a flat-rate price book. For HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service calls where the repair type is predictable, flat-rate pricing also enables tiered options: presenting a good, better, and best package on every job increases average ticket size by 15 to 25% because customers choose their level rather than simply accepting or rejecting a single number. Contractors presenting tiered options collect more revenue per visit without requiring any additional lead volume. The practical requirement for flat-rate pricing is a pricebook with defined rates built from your actual labor cost, material cost, overhead, and target margin. Without that foundation, flat-rate pricing either erodes your margin or prices you out of the market. We help clients build the pricing structure that supports flat-rate billing before any changes show up on the invoice.
What is a price book and how does it help my invoicing and cash flow?
A price book is a master list of every service you offer, with a defined price for each one, calculated from your actual cost of labor, materials, overhead, and target gross margin. It is the operational foundation that makes flat-rate pricing possible and consistent. Without a price book, technicians quote from memory or judgment. Prices vary between technicians, between jobs, and between months. Customers who compare quotes from two of your own techs and get different numbers lose confidence in your business. Customers who receive an invoice higher than the verbal estimate they heard on the job delay payment while they process the surprise. A price book removes all of that friction because every price is predetermined, every tech quotes the same number, and every invoice matches what the customer heard before work started. Disputes over invoice amounts are the single most common cause of delayed payment outside of slow follow-up. A contractor with a well-built price book generates significantly fewer invoice questions and collects faster because the customer already agreed to the amount. For field execution, a digital price book visible in your invoicing app lets technicians build an invoice during the job by selecting the services performed. The invoice is accurate, itemized, and branded before you leave the driveway. Leading platforms including ServiceTitan Pricebook Pro and Housecall Pro have pre-built flat-rate libraries for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical that populate directly into estimates and invoices. The most common reason contractors avoid building a price book is the upfront time required. The business case is straightforward: price books that eliminate verbal quoting variability typically improve gross margin by 5 to 10 points within the first year because pricing becomes intentional rather than instinctive. Connecting your price book to your invoicing platform ensures every completed job flows to an accurate invoice with no manual re-entry, no rounding, and no missing line items.
What is a mechanics lien and should I use one when a customer won’t pay?
A mechanics lien is a legal claim filed against a property that prevents the owner from selling or refinancing until the debt is resolved. For home service contractors, it is the single most effective non-court tool for recovering payment from a residential customer who refuses to pay after the work is done. Mechanics lien filings resolve over 70% of payment disputes without requiring any court action because the lien encumbers the homeowner’s title: they cannot close a sale, refinance, or take out a home equity loan until your lien is satisfied or released. The critical requirement is deadline compliance, and the deadlines are absolute. In 34 states, you must send a preliminary notice within 20 to 45 days of starting work or you permanently forfeit your right to lien. Missing the deadline by even one day invalidates the entire claim. State rules vary significantly: California requires a preliminary notice within 20 days of first furnishing work or materials. Florida requires 45 days. Texas has 15th-of-month rules that are among the most complex in the country. A Texas HVAC subcontractor who sent his preliminary notice on day 48 instead of 45 lost a $120,000 lien claim entirely when the general contractor defaulted, because the court ruled the notice untimely regardless of the work performed. The paperwork trail determines your ability to lien successfully: a signed estimate or contract showing agreed scope and price, signed change orders for any additions, dated invoices the customer received, photos of completed work with timestamps, and any written customer acknowledgment of the job. Digital invoicing creates this trail automatically because every invoice is timestamped, signed estimates generate a record of customer agreement, and change orders require digital sign-off before work proceeds. For residential jobs under $2,000 to $3,000, the filing cost and timeline may not justify a lien. For any job over $3,000 where a homeowner is actively refusing to pay, filing a mechanics lien is the right move: most states allow contractors to file without an attorney using state-provided forms, and homeowners almost always pay once the lien is on record against their property. One important caution: signing an unconditional final waiver in exchange for a check that later bounces releases your lien rights permanently. Never sign an unconditional waiver until the payment has cleared.
What should I do if a customer disputes a credit card charge after the job is done?
A credit card chargeback is a forced reversal of a transaction initiated by the customer’s bank. When a homeowner calls their card issuer and claims the work was not completed or not as described, the bank typically reverses the charge within 30 to 90 days and requires you to dispute it with documentation. More than 30% of small businesses have dealt with chargebacks, and home service contractors are particularly exposed because the work is intangible: there is no product to return, only a service performed. Your defense in a chargeback dispute rests entirely on documentation. Five items resolve most chargebacks in the contractor’s favor: a signed estimate or contract showing the customer agreed to the scope and price before work began, a digital invoice with a timestamp showing it was sent and received, before-and-after photos of the completed work taken on the job date, any text or email communication showing customer approval or satisfaction after the job, and a signed change order for any scope additions. When you have all five, the bank typically sides with you. When you have none, you typically lose. A digital invoicing platform creates this paper trail automatically: the invoice is timestamped, the customer receives it via email or SMS before payment, and their payment or digital signature creates a record of acknowledgment. Three additional protections reduce chargeback exposure. First, collect payment before you leave the job site: a customer who has already paid is far less likely to dispute than one invoiced days later when the emotional context of the job has faded. Second, send a follow-up SMS the day after the job asking if everything looks good: a positive reply is documented satisfaction that directly counters a later dispute claim. Third, use a signed change order for every scope addition agreed to during the job, because most chargebacks cite work the customer claims they never authorized. One more important point: a customer who files a chargeback does not eliminate your right to file a mechanics lien. If the chargeback resolves in the customer’s favor and the job value justifies it, a lien filed against the property remains a valid legal remedy independent of the credit card dispute.
Should I store customer payment methods on file for maintenance agreements and repeat bookings?
Yes, and it is one of the highest-retention decisions you can make for maintenance agreement customers. Card-on-file storage lets you tokenize a customer's payment method after their first transaction, then charge it automatically at each renewal without asking again. The homeowner who enrolled in your twice-yearly HVAC tune-up plan should not have to give you their card number every spring. Contractors using card-on-file automated billing for service agreements retain 20% more maintenance agreement customers than those relying on manual renewal collection. The friction of being asked to re-submit payment information at each renewal is enough to push a percentage of otherwise-satisfied customers to cancel or simply not respond. Card-on-file removes that friction entirely. The technical standard for stored payment methods is tokenization: your platform stores a token that represents the card with the payment network, not the raw card number, so no card data ever touches your system. This is PCI DSS-compliant storage that eliminates your scope for cardholder data. Platforms like ServiceTitan and Jobber support saved payment methods in their membership and recurring service agreement modules, connecting stored cards to automatic billing cycles without manual intervention. If a stored card fails at renewal, the system retries with the next card on file and sends an automated payment update request to the customer before the membership lapses. The result is a maintenance agreement base that renews on autopilot, with only the failed-payment edge cases requiring human follow-up.
What is interchange-plus pricing and should I switch from flat-rate processing?
Interchange-plus pricing separates your payment processing cost into two transparent components: the interchange fee set by Visa and Mastercard, which varies by card type, and the processor's fixed markup on top. Flat-rate pricing bundles both into a single percentage regardless of the actual interchange cost of each transaction. The flat-rate model is simple but expensive for contractors with a mix of card types. The interchange fee for a basic consumer debit card runs roughly 0.05% to 0.22%. On flat-rate at 2.9%, the processor keeps the difference. For residential service contractors where customers commonly pay with debit cards, this gap adds up fast. Interchange-plus saves most businesses 20 to 30% on processing compared to flat-rate. At $500,000 in annual card revenue, the difference between pricing models often exceeds $7,000 per year. At $1,000,000 in card revenue, it can exceed $14,000. The practical threshold is roughly $10,000 per month in card volume: below that, the simplicity of flat-rate outweighs the savings; above it, interchange-plus is almost always worth the switch. One caveat: ACH remains the lowest-cost option for large-ticket jobs regardless of pricing model. A $5,000 HVAC invoice costs $5 on ACH at Stripe's 0.8% capped rate, versus roughly $50 to $75 on interchange-plus, versus $145 on flat-rate card processing. For jobs over $1,000, routing customers to ACH first captures the largest savings regardless of your card pricing model. For smaller service calls where ACH is less practical, interchange-plus on card transactions captures the next level of savings. We review each client's transaction mix during onboarding and configure the pricing model that minimizes total processing cost.