invoice

[John Dirks Jr]

How many of you use an invoice or receipt for the inspection fee? I have the price listed on the inspection agreement. Twice in the past week I have had loan officers contact me asking for an invoice on a job.

I contact the client and get their permission before sending a copy of the agreement over. Is doing this risky in any way? If so, how should I change to adapt these type of requests?

[Mark P]

HI John

At the very bottom of my inspection agreement I have an area I sign once they pay me that reads “Receipt of payment in full at time of inspectionâ€

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by John Dirks Jr

How many of you use an invoice or receipt for the inspection fee? I have the price listed on the inspection agreement. Twice in the past week I have had loan officers contact me asking for an invoice on a job.

I contact the client and get their permission before sending a copy of the agreement over. Is doing this risky in any way? If so, how should I change to adapt these type of requests?

Just make up an invoice template for the times when someone wants an invoice. I think that MS Word and Wordperfect have invoice templates built right in.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[SonOfSwamp]

I made invoices in QuickBooks. I emailed them to the customers. As I've mentioned before, customers handed me checks and contracts as soon as they drove up to the house.

I wouldn't send a copy of an invoice to a third party. Maybe it's just me, but I don't do clerical work for free, and I don't copy documents to third parties. If a third party wants a copy of an invoice, let 'em get a copy from the customer.

WJ

[davidlord]

I include an invoice with the report marked paid.

[Scottpat]

I get similar request from closing agents, loan officers and the likes from time to time. Most often it is because my client wants it to be shown on the closing statement so they can be reimbursed by their employer. Not a big deal to whip one out in Quickbooks.

I don't understand why it should be a big deal to help out your client, a little goodwill goes a long way.

[Erby]

While I do it in HomeGauge now, before that Excel had a template that would create a quick invoice AND add the data to a spreadsheet for tracking of each inspection, so I did one for each inspection.

It was just a couple of minutes to add the client data, select the services and prices, print to PDF and include with the report.

As the customer already had one everytime, when I got third party requests, I just referred them to the customer to get it. Like Walter, clerical work didn't come free.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Erby

As the customer already had one everytime, when I got third party requests, I just referred them to the customer to get it. Like Walter, clerical work didn't come free.

My thought was, if a customer asked me to forward something to a third party, I'd forward it. But that only happened about once every two or three years.

If/when some cubicle dweller who's strange to me picked up the phone and asked me to start emailing or faxing him things, I'd decline. Fifteen-minute minimum costs fifty bucks.

What really griped me was insurance guys calling and asking me to produce documents for free. And "certify" things.

WJ

[resqman]

I use Quickbooks and email reciept to customer only if requested. As mentioned, some clients like to submit at closing for reimbursement since someone else is paying closing costs.

Otherwise no receipt.