Friday afternoon with a bank statement and a job list
Every week someone in the office sits with the card reader payouts, the bank feed in Xero and the week's job sheets. The card payouts arrive as one lump per day, net of fees, from three different readers. Two customers paid by bank transfer with references like "LOCK" and "thanks mate". One engineer has cash from two night jobs in an envelope. One customer said they would pay by transfer in the morning and hasn't.
Matching it all takes hours. Some of it never matches, and ends up as an unexplained balance that the accountant asks about at the year end. And now and then a customer who never paid slips through, because nobody could tell which of the unmatched jobs was actually unpaid.
Payments start on the doorstep, records start in the office
The difficulty is that payment happens at the door, in a hurry, and the records of it are created later by someone who was not there.
- Card readers are not linked to jobs, so payouts do not say what they are for.
- Bank transfers arrive with whatever reference the customer typed.
- Cash is recorded on a paper job sheet, if at all, and banked in batches.
- "Pay tomorrow" promises are not tracked as debts.
- Each engineer uses a slightly different routine, so there is no single process to fix.
Hours of matching and money that quietly goes missing
The weekly matching session is the visible cost. The hidden one is unpaid jobs that nobody chases because they are lost among the unmatched lines, and cash that cannot be tied to a job, which makes the books harder to close and harder to explain. Engineers get dragged into questions about jobs they did weeks ago.
Payment captured from the job, not the other way round
We build payment into the job on the engineer's phone and connect the result to your accounting software, usually Xero or QuickBooks.
- When the engineer finishes, the job shows the amount due from your pricing. They choose how the customer is paying.
- For card, the job opens the reader with the amount and job reference, using a provider whose app and API allow that, such as SumUp or Stripe Terminal, or sends a card payment link by text.
- For bank transfer, the customer gets a text with your bank details and the job reference to use, and a link to pay by card instead if they prefer.
- For cash, the engineer records the amount against the job, and the cash is listed as held by that engineer until it is banked.
- Unpaid jobs, including "pay tomorrow" promises, show on an unpaid list with automatic reminder texts at the intervals you choose.
- Payments are posted to your accounting software against the invoice for that job, and card payouts are split back into their individual jobs and fees, so the bank feed reconciles line by line.
| Payment type | Today | After |
|---|---|---|
| Card on the doorstep | Daily payout lump, no job link | Each payment carries the job reference |
| Bank transfer | Customer's own reference | Job reference sent by text |
| Cash | Envelope and paper note | Recorded against the job, tracked until banked |
| Promised later | Often forgotten | Unpaid list with reminders |
The Friday session becomes a check, not a hunt
Most payments match themselves. The office looks only at the few that do not. Unpaid jobs are chased automatically and politely. Cash held by each engineer is visible, which protects the engineer as much as the business. The accountant gets books where each job, payment and fee lines up.
Engineers benefit too. At the end of a long night they no longer have to remember which customer paid how, or keep a crumpled envelope of cash with scribbled job numbers. The job app holds the record, and the question "did the customer at number 12 pay?" has an answer anyone in the office can find in seconds.
Are your payments like this?
- Matching payments to jobs takes hours every week.
- Card payouts arrive as daily lumps you have to split by hand.
- Customers pay by transfer with references you cannot use.
- You are not sure which jobs from last month are still unpaid.
- Cash is recorded on paper and banked in batches.