Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Lee Pryor on February 19, 2009, 04:37:22 pm
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we are on the brink of offering this, cant waite to have that outstanding money where it belongs, in my pocket.
Anyone else do dd with their customers?
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Lee when you hook it up mate let us know all the ins and outs please? if its viable its something i would seriously look at
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it is viable, ive been on the phone to the company that does it all afternoon, im going live within the next 4 weeks.
Steve check this out and give them a call, when you realise how easy it is you will wonder why everyone isnt doing it
http://www.cashbacs.com/
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ok mate i'll have a gander
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The first thing I noticed was... Free Trial!
Is it just me?
nothing for nothing these days, nothing new! >:(
I'm not that worried about late payments, can you tell? ::)
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we are on the brink of offering this, cant waite to have that outstanding money where it belongs, in my pocket.
Anyone else do dd with their customers?
Lee is this a different option to the one we talked about the other week ?
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Why are you going through a company???
All you have to do is give your customer your sort code and account number and they just set their internet banking to transfer £10 or whatever into your account every month!
Some of my customers do this but to be honest I dont encourage it because it can get a bit confusing if you fall behind due to holidays, Xmas, snow etc and then your customers will end up paying you before you clean the windows.
Instead, I clean the windows, pop a 'I came today' form through their door and they then transfer payment.
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Why are you going through a company???
All you have to do is give your customer your sort code and account number and they just set their internet banking to transfer £10 or whatever into your account every month!
Some of my customers do this but to be honest I dont encourage it because it can get a bit confusing if you fall behind due to holidays, Xmas, snow etc and then your customers will end up paying you before you clean the windows.
Instead, I clean the windows, pop a 'I came today' form through their door and they then transfer payment.
Because if you have a lot of these payments it becomes a nightmare, and also if you have a lot of debt again not good, I would love to set up direct debit, they pay same time each month, if we are late they are still cleaned and the following time they revert because to normal shedule so this makes DD I very positive business move imo
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Why are you going through a company???
All you have to do is give your customer your sort code and account number and they just set their internet banking to transfer £10 or whatever into your account every month!
Some of my customers do this but to be honest I dont encourage it because it can get a bit confusing if you fall behind due to holidays, Xmas, snow etc and then your customers will end up paying you before you clean the windows.
Instead, I clean the windows, pop a 'I came today' form through their door and they then transfer payment.
one simple fact. you can control your cash flow as you have a direct line into their account
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
With a direct debit you could for example take £100 out of a customers account instead of the normal payment of £10 for the cost of their window cleaning; you have control over the amount you deduct; so there's a lot of scope for fraud.
However, Standing Orders is a different matter altogether, and I have a few customers who pay me in this manner.
It's easy to set up and advertise, but that's another post, and it's simple if you clean on a calander monthly basis (as I do; mostly), because the customer can easily set up a monthly payment for a monthly clean. But it will get complicated if you have a different cleaning frequency.
Also, what I do when I'm late, so I've received two payments and have only cleaned the once (which has happened), I end up cleaning the windows and then posting the money for the extra payment I've received through their letter box with a letter of explanation.
That feels weird though; cleaning someone's windows and PAYING THEM.
One of my customers was in when I paid them and he said he was putting the price up for next month! ;D
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
wrong i'm afraid you can use a third party on your behalf
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
wrong i'm afraid you can use a third party on your behalf
Show us! Oh and show us the charges for it too.
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
wrong i'm afraid you can use a third party on your behalf
Show us! Oh and show us the charges for it too.
Tosh, everyone charges for everything, if it means I get my debts list down and keep it down month in month out thats all good imo growing day in day out the debts rise the same, this is a way I see forward to less debt for my comapany and more cash flow as Steve from clear magnet said ;D
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I agree, but I didn't realise we actually could do Direct Debits; from what I read it was only companies of a 'certain standing' that could do them; from a legal point of view.
I'd be interested to find out how this works.
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i got advised by my bank that you need to turn over in excess of 1 million for your company to be eligible for direct debits. if i can find the details on the company i found i'll post the link up. the charges wern't excessive but they did want to see 1000 transactions a month. Lee on the other hand seems to have found another solution with the link he posted up
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clear magnet said ;D
i wondered why all the customers come to me! :D
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clear magnet said ;D
i wondered why all the customers come to me! :D
lol, i have just given you an idea ;D
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
wrong i'm afraid you can use a third party on your behalf
No you can't; you're very wrong and Lee's link was about BACs.
Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. ;D
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None of you guys can do the Direct Debit thing; you have to be a MAJOR company to qualify to be able to do DD.
wrong i'm afraid you can use a third party on your behalf
No you can't; you're very wrong and Lee's link was about BACs.
Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. ;D
ok the geordie is right and were wrong. back to the drawing board chaps! ::)
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http://www.ukdirectdebit.com/faq.html
that is one i have just picked out of the sky from a google search. i think that shows it can be done ;)
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http://www.ukdirectdebit.com/faq.html
that is one i have just picked out of the sky from a google search. i think that shows it can be done ;)
No you can't dimwit; read through the site!
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i must be dim. why can't you then?
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Who controls your business or, more to the point,
who controls your businesses' CASHFLOW?
If you are paid for the Goods and/or Services you supply by:
Cash, Cheque, any form of Bank Transfer or Standing Order
then your business is, in effect, CONTROLLED by your CUSTOMERS!
UK Direct Debit can help you take back control from your customers and put it
back into the business where it belongs!
How? We are UNIQUE in the UK - we can provide access to Direct Debit collection to almost any business - including New Start Ups!
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i think that answers my question and yours
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Steve,
I didn't bother looking at your link; why should I do your research for you?
But what do you think? Is DD feasible via this company? What's the charges?
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charges are irrelevant, you said it can't be done! it can!!
point proven i believe
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charges are irrelevant, you said it can't be done! it can!!
point proven i believe
The proof is in the pudding. Show me a window cleaner this works for? I bet you can't, because it doesn't work.
Are you friends with Ronnie?
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charges are irrelevant, you said it can't be done! it can!!
point proven i believe
The proof is in the pudding. Show me a window cleaner this works for? I bet you can't, because it doesn't work.
Are you friends with Ronnie?
your trying to get a rise and it won't happen my friend ;) your just showing what your made of again ;) its lovely really thank you ;D
i've proven my point! wether it works for you is irrelevant.
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Steve, you've proven nothing apart from that you're daft enough to believe in some marketting material;
have a look here www.directdebitsareforbigcompanies.com and that'll show you that you can't do DDs unless you're PLC registered.
So you're wrong, wrong, wrong, my little friend.
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nice link brain box ;)
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Slightly off subject
(http://www.guzer.com/pictures/funny_granny.jpg)
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nice link brain box ;)
;D
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Wow i love a heated discussion. fun to read through this now im home.
So i will try to clear things up.
Q. Why use direct debit and not internet banking from the customer.
A. because i have loads of customers and i dont want to look through to see who has and hasnt paid thats why. same thing with standing order. the direct debit system will tell me when a payment didnt go through.
Q. do you have to be a large company to use direct debit?
A. Hell no, sole trader doesnt matter, turnover doesnt matter. cashbacs is a company that will handle it for you.
Q. there must be a charge for this
A. of course and its 13pence per transaction regardless of the amount being transfered. in my opinion a small price to pay given the added benefits. in fact a lot less than paypal charge
Q. scope for fraud as you can adjust the amount being taken.
A. thats true. you can change the amount each month which is why cashbacs also take a further 10% of the transaction value to cover themselves if you decided to pull a fast one. this is a rolling amount and is returned to you each month when the next lot go through and so on and so on.
You know Tosh you do express some strong opinions on here, now is it more likely that your right or is it more likely that someone else has done months of research, spent many hours on the phone to the business bank manager and casbacs and really learnt all the FACTS about these things?
I think its important to remember that knowone knows it all and its better to keep an open mind than a closed one. so many opinions a based in hear say rather than quality research and fact.
I will be pleased to let you all know when i recieve my first direct debit payment for window cleaning, which i would say will be within the next 8 weeks.
Oh one more thing BACS is the name of the international system through which direct debit paymens travel.
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good post lee. A man that chats sense. ;) let us know how you get on and i'll have a look at this company if all is well. 8)
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Another advantage is you could guarantee they pay for at least 3, or 6 or 12 months depending on what you want, as if you had a signed dd mandate and contract they cant cancel on you, or if they did you can claim your money back through debt collection agency etc :)
Good idea on dd i might look into it for commercial and some residential :)
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would it not be cheaper to pay someone to do your collecting for you .
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Gary were way too big for that. besides i want every payment at the same time each month.
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would it not be cheaper to pay someone to do your collecting for you .
it would be a huge task to under take each month. probably good if your a tax dodger ;D i've just started paying someone to chase money in for me over the phone taking creditcard payments
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It looks good.
When I saw that photo above, I thought it was a leg pull.
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It looks good.
When I saw that photo above, I thought it was a leg pull.
Dai, your showing your age if you thought that looked good!
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Why not just put sort code/account number on back of all slips and when someone owes enough to require a payment,then they can send cheque OR make a one off payment into your account as and when you ask them to. No D/D No falling behind or getting ahead with payments. This is what i do and it keeps everything simple. ;)
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your missing the point! DD puts you in control not the customer!
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Way too much aggro in my opinion. How does DD put you in control when all the the customer has to do at ANY time is cancel the DD. If they don't wanna pay ya,they wont.
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Doesnt a direct debit come out on a certain date each month, surely this would work if you worked on a Monthly rota but majority of us work on a 4 weekly, so 4 Months time youll be 10 days out, and also will only get paid 12 times over the year rather then 13. How differcult is it to recieve a cheque, custys details on back goto wcp or what ever programme you got and mark paid, look at debt lists etc.
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you guys really are missing the point completely. Cash flow is the most important thing in any business. the idear is that the cust doesnt have to actually do anything in order to pay. now try to imagine you have a couple of thousand customers, imagine if say 500 people are always late or you always have £15000 outstanding. are you getting it yet????????
When you reach a certain size certain payment methods stop working for you. I could almost justify employing someone part time just to chase outstanding money
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I could almost justify employing someone part time just to chase outstanding money
i've started to do it already lee. it costs me a hundred pound a week for someone to keep my cash flow coming in. i haven't got a couple of thousand customers yet but i turn over a good bit each month and for the sake of 400 quid its worth it. i think its all relative to the size and how you run your business. if your a sole trader with a good established round that you've had for years and not building then you probably have defined your round so much that your customers are trained. because i'm building at about 20-25 customers a week it soon can get out of hand with people not paying. ie sorting out the bad customers. the debt can soon rack up. i think my worst i had about 15k owed to me at one stage now after chasing them down and staying on top of it its under my monthly turnover and coming down all the time. and for me thats good. but if you keep building you need to stay on top of the debt, especially in the current financial climate
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How is it working out for you guys?
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this is on the back burner at the moment steve as we are concentrating on getting new business in at the moment. i think we will get it in place later in the year when i can give it my full attention, but as i said earlier in the thread it is completely possible to do, but like alot of new things takes alot of time to get rolling. I had planned to do it before april as this is when we start to build up each year.
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I think this would suite some, but not the majority. I have a couple of large jobs that pay by bank tranfer but I tell my smaller residentials to pay by cheque if they are not in allot and write there name, address and booking its for on the back. I dont think I would easily control allot of bank tranfers easily.
Again it depends how much of a problem you have with late payments, I only have a small number of jobs that owe me money and always get it. Anyone that becomes problem payers get dropped.
Another thought would be my customer base. Allot of my customers are in the latter stages on there lives and dont think they would be happy with this method.
I suppose it would be ok if you just used it for any problem customers if you dont think it would be too much hassle managing it. But if a customer is always in, pays ontime no probs why ask them to start paying by DD and reduce you profit no matter how small without reason.
For me the cost of this and the pottential hassell of tracking it would outweight the benefit of getting payed on time bt them few problem custies.
Again bigger companies might feel differently.
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I was thinking that it would save time collecting from the customer or posting invoices.
If you are making say £24 per hour doing resi work. (And I'm not saying that is what I make)
That's 40p per minute. If you save 3 mins or so on each job this would soon add up.
Some resi window cleaners on here are doing 40 houses in a day.
Could save a tidy amount. Course some guys like the chat with the custie. Good for customer relations etc
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I guess so, but in truth it doesn't work like that, you dont save the money you just save the couple of minutes to take you to knock there door and say that x amount please. Bt the time saved could be ofset by the time you spend checking that payments have went through, and if one cancles there, you are still going to have to send out invoices.
I dont know how it would work but, if they do pay by dirrect debit does it come up there name, I mean how do you know what customer it is for, and even if it comes up mr dochery tranfered x amount, I have about 20 docherty's how do you know which one it is.
Also as someone mentioned, I work 4 weekly not monthly and dd come of a certain day of the month.