[jo5hm4n]

This isn't a thread where im looking for you guys to tell me to switch go GoCardless and eliminate my problem.  I want you guys to be honest and just tell me roughly what your debtlist is as a % compared to your monthly turnover.

My debtlist seems to be floating around 20-35% of my monthly turnover at any one time.  Even when i chase payments the lowest i get down to is about 15% debtlist in comparison to my monthly turnover.

Is this normal??

What is you guys debtlists like?

Once again this isn't a thread where im looking for advice as such i just want to know what the average window cleaner on here is experiencing with outstanding payments.  I'm not interested in the guys on here who have 90% of customers on GoCardless because clearly you are running your business way better than i am and that is good, but not where i am at yet!

FYI my business is 95% Domestic.  I have recently been expanding so my debt list is much higher as it used to be, i need to refine things for sure.

 

[Shrek]

Usually by the end of the month I maybe owed from 1 or 2 houses.
I txt everyone on the last Friday of the month and most pay, I used to txt the week after I’d done them but I can’t b arsed anymore, I’m slowly removing the late payers if they can’t b arsed paying when I txt them.

[james peters]

 mine is the same as above ... rarely anything outstanding
I dont use go cardless, but I do collect around 20% on local work. the rest are ones that leave the money, or pay via bacs online, or they are always home and pay cash.

I am pretty rutheless with getting paid. If I have to send a reminder text in 2 consecutive times , they are gone , as I believe they will never change  (unless they ask why i have stopped ) once I have told them what I expect , they can change and pay within 1 week , which is my terms.

Its very frustrating , especially when expanding to have cull new customers that are bad payers, but it has to be done.
chasing payments  is time and effort that I dont need .

[Splash & dash]

Always have 2-4K outstanding

[John Mart]

Usually about 30% outstanding.

[Phil J]

Yes, probably the  most frustrating aspect to window cleaning is chasing money. Customers think we are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to payment. "It's only £8 they won't miss that" Guess what, when you have 20/30 people with that attitude it really holds you back. Would love to expand, but cash flow is always an issue so I think I'll stay as a two man team and forget the stress of chasing my tail. How many of these people would turn up for work on a Monday if they hadn't been paid for the previous week? The ones that really p**s me off are the people who work for themselves and still mess you around, surely they should know better! 

[John Mart]

Yes, probably the  most frustrating aspect to window cleaning is chasing money. Customers think we are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to payment. "It's only £8 they won't miss that" Guess what, when you have 20/30 people with that attitude it really holds you back. Would love to expand, but cash flow is always an issue so I think I'll stay as a two man team and forget the stress of chasing my tail. How many of these people would turn up for work on a Monday if they hadn't been paid for the previous week? The ones that really p**s me off are the people who work for themselves and still mess you around, surely they should know better!

I can't understand how cashflow can be an issue if you expand organically. Ok, if you go down the Lee Pryor route and new customers don't come in quick enough it may be, but as long as you don't take people on until you have the work it shouldn't be.

[Phil J]

Trust me John, there is a marked difference between finding enough money for one wage plus your own expenses and finding enough for an extra employee. I'm snowed under with work, we're pushed back to a six weekly schedule. With 3 people you fly through the work and the money still comes in at a trickle. Don't fancy knocking on doors every night or texting people  to remind them to pay. To me the only way is to get people to sign up to a direct debit or go cardless. I personally don't want to go down that route as I prefer the freedom to work on my own terms and not become a slave to a rigid schedule. All depends on what you want out of life really. Me personally I don't want or need the hassle, still make good money and have a great lifestyle. That's the right work, life balance for me.

[Stoots]

My rolling debt is usually around 10-20% of turnover.


Usually at anytime I can expect to have between 400-800 outstanding.

[p1w1]

Trust me John, there is a marked difference between finding enough money for one wage plus your own expenses and finding enough for an extra employee. I'm snowed under with work, we're pushed back to a six weekly schedule. With 3 people you fly through the work and the money still comes in at a trickle. Don't fancy knocking on doors every night or texting people  to remind them to pay. To me the only way is to get people to sign up to a direct debit or go cardless. I personally don't want to go down that route as I prefer the freedom to work on my own terms and not become a slave to a rigid schedule. All depends on what you want out of life really. Me personally I don't want or need the hassle, still make good money and have a great lifestyle. That's the right work, life balance for me.

using gocardless doesn't mean you have to stick to a rigid schedule  you just start the payment collection whenever you have done the job there is no set date when payment is taken.

[paul alan]

Usually between 10 and 20%.

If it drifts up towards the 20% I get meithering and it starts to come in, it really doesn't bother me too much as I know I'll get paid when I want to.

I probably only have 40 customers on  Gocardless max, a lot transfer for me as they dont trust Gocardless. If they are late I start asking for Gocardless again and it gets them going quicker with transfers, as they would rather not Gocardless.

I dont mind being owed, its better than going collecting.

[Slacky]

50%

[jo5hm4n]

Usually between 10 and 20%.

If it drifts up towards the 20% I get meithering and it starts to come in, it really doesn't bother me too much as I know I'll get paid when I want to.

I probably only have 40 customers on  Gocardless max, a lot transfer for me as they dont trust Gocardless. If they are late I start asking for Gocardless again and it gets them going quicker with transfers, as they would rather not Gocardless.

I dont mind being owed, its better than going collecting.

Glad to see it's not just me that is owed money then.  I used to go collecting and i was owed alot less, but can't be dealing with collecting these days, would definitely rather be owed the money, but i could do with lowering my % a little bit if possible.  Think im going to start sending out more regular payment reminders, i dont want to p customers off, but at the same time, some of them just need a push to get it done when they forget.

I always know i will get the money, sometimes it just takes a little longer.  This wasn't a problem, but having to employ etc...  Cashflow becomes a bit more of an issue at times than it used to be.

[dazmond]

My debt list is usually between £500-£1200 at any one time.currently it's just under £900.....

I don't worry about it as it's not needed straight away as I have plenty to live on and pay bills etc with....plus money in the bank....it all comes in eventually......I'm not going to spend it all now so why worry?

[RPCCS]

I was owed a total of £200 from the week before last, I have had 60 of it paid, that leaves 1 commercial at 80, 1 comm at 45,2 domestic at 10 each.For all commercial work, I send invoices too, I state at the bottom of each  , payment required within 14 days. Never mind the common 30 day grace, I'm a one man outfit, and can't wait for that long to be paid, I still have ads going out each week. I find its usually the companies with huge turnover are the ones you wait for. bet they wouldn't like to wait 30 days for their wages .

[Lee Pryor]

You answered the cure to your problem in your first sentance. Only your mind set is preventing you from seeing that.

[Slacky]

bet they wouldn't like to wait 30 days for their wages .

I think you’ll find most people who work in this country have to wait 30 days for their wages. It’s called working a month in hand.

[Splash & dash]

I was owed a total of £200 from the week before last, I have had 60 of it paid, that leaves 1 commercial at 80, 1 comm at 45,2 domestic at 10 each.For all commercial work, I send invoices too, I state at the bottom of each  , payment required within 14 days. Never mind the common 30 day grace, I'm a one man outfit, and can't wait for that long to be paid, I still have ads going out each week. I find its usually the companies with huge turnover are the ones you wait for. bet they wouldn't like to wait 30 days for their wages .

Most commercial jobs will not pay before 28 days I don’t see that is a problem none of mine would pay in 14 days that’s not an accepted payment period , if you are that desperate to get paid beacause you are struggling for money I think you need to be looking at your prices or your buisness model , I started off small but managed ok with 28 day payment some are evan longer but it’s not a problem as money is always coming in every week or so from other jobs so you have constant cash flow don’t understand why you have a problem
Most people are now paid monthly in arrears so if you are employed you will be paid after 30 days just the same as self employed people invoicing a company there is no difference

[dazmond]

Get in front with your bills,and tuck some money away in the bank. some of you it might take you a few years(I know it did for me)to get right on top of  your finances but it's well worth it....

Sounds like some of you are living 'hand to mouth' and that's why your getting stressed over your debtlist  because your relying on that money to come in fast......

[dazmond]

This isn't a thread where im looking for you guys to tell me to switch go GoCardless and eliminate my problem.  I want you guys to be honest and just tell me roughly what your debtlist is as a % compared to your monthly turnover.

My debtlist seems to be floating around 20-35% of my monthly turnover at any one time.  Even when i chase payments the lowest i get down to is about 15% debtlist in comparison to my monthly turnover.

Is this normal??

What is you guys debtlists like?

Once again this isn't a thread where im looking for advice as such i just want to know what the average window cleaner on here is experiencing with outstanding payments.  I'm not interested in the guys on here who have 90% of customers on GoCardless because clearly you are running your business way better than i am and that is good, but not where i am at yet!

FYI my business is 95% Domestic.  I have recently been expanding so my debt list is much higher as it used to be, i need to refine things for sure.

 

its normal....the better and more profitable your round gets the higher the debtlist.....

[Walter Mitty]

It hit about 75/80% of monthly turnover recently, but that was mainly down to three jobs being very slow to pay.  That is now beginning to trickle in. Normally it's floating around between 10% and 25%.

[dazmond]

I was owed a total of £200 from the week before last, I have had 60 of it paid, that leaves 1 commercial at 80, 1 comm at 45,2 domestic at 10 each.For all commercial work, I send invoices too, I state at the bottom of each  , payment required within 14 days. Never mind the common 30 day grace, I'm a one man outfit, and can't wait for that long to be paid, I still have ads going out each week. I find its usually the companies with huge turnover are the ones you wait for. bet they wouldn't like to wait 30 days for their wages .

some work i dont get paid for 3 months but its only smallish domestic work(i let it roll to 3 cleans for some 4 weekly work),i send text reminders for some higher paying jobs if ive not received payment within 14 days and that normally does the trick,i do a bit of collecting,get a few cheques in the post still.....it varies.....i also have some commercial that usually pay within 28 days...

ive also got BACS payments trickling into my account virtually every day of the year,cash and cheques on the day of clean when im out and about,standing order payments too.its a constant stream of payments from various different sources....

even when im on holiday im still getting payments trickling into my account from work cleaned a few weeks ago etc.....

once you ve got your finances sorted and money behind you,debt just becomes part and parcel of running a window cleaning business...

[jo5hm4n]

Thanks for all comments, just glad it wasn't me as the only one who is outstanding from customers.  I will try to improve my debt list but right at this moment i dont want to threaten GoCardless or GoHome to my customers!  Rather have slow payers than no payers.

[dazmond]

my current debt list stands at £1045-00........

[P @ F]

My debt list is currently at .....£220 commercial (done today)
                                                                 £64 domestic .

The £64 are those same old offenders every month , not bothered as its so low , and it will come in at some point 

[deeege]

Being mainly commercial my debt list can get quite large. Some accounts are 60 days so it soon adds up. £10k+ isn’t unusual, currrently stands around £7200.

Domestics I rarely get above £300 owed.

[dazmond]

down to £782-00 now....£263 paid this morning....

[AuRavelling79]

42%  of my current average monthly turnover at the moment.

A third of the "debt" is made up of commercials that pay on 30 days. Some of it is will have been domestic work done in the last two or three days.