TrashCanBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Billing Weekly, Every-Other-Week and Monthly Bin Cleaning Plans

Most bin cleaning companies sell three frequencies: weekly, every other week and monthly. Each one fits a different customer, and each one bills a little differently. Getting the billing right for all three is mostly about being clear on what a plan means before the first invoice goes out.

Start From a Clean Customer List

If you just moved over from a spreadsheet, as described in Moving Trash Can Cleaning Billing Off Paper and Spreadsheets, this is a good time to make sure every customer is on the right plan. A customer marked weekly in the system who has been getting cleaned monthly is a billing problem waiting to happen.

How the Plans Come Due

In TrashCanBossPro, plans are set by minimum days between visits:

• Weekly: 7 days
• Every other week: 14 days
• Monthly: 28 days

When that many days have passed since the last cleaning, the address shows up on the Waiting List as due. The pins on the map are colored by status: not due yet, due now, and overdue past a 7-day grace. The office routes due cleanings around each address's trash day, so the cans are cleaned right after the city empties them.

Because the schedule is based on days between visits rather than calendar dates, a plan stays on rhythm even when a holiday shifts a pickup or a rainy week pushes the route back a day.

Weekly Plans

Weekly plans suit customers with heavy trash: big families, households with pets, restaurants, anyone whose cans smell by day three in summer. They are the most cleanings per customer and the most invoices.

If you bill per visit, a weekly customer gets four or five charges a month. That is fine for most people with a card on file, since each one happens automatically when the tech taps Complete. Some weekly customers prefer one flat monthly charge. If you offer that, decide how you handle five-week months before you advertise the price.

Every-Other-Week Plans

Every other week is the most popular plan for many bin cleaning companies. It is often enough to keep cans fresh without paying for a weekly visit. It also tends to line up nicely with recycling pickups that run every other week in some cities.

Billing per visit, the customer sees two charges most months and three in a few. Billing flat monthly, you collect the same amount whether a month had two or three cleanings. Pick one and say which on your sign-up page. For the trade-offs between the two, read Per Visit or Monthly? Choosing How to Bill Trash Can Cleaning Customers.

Monthly Plans

Monthly plans are for customers who want clean cans without a big commitment, or who just want a refresh. Since the plan runs every 28 days, there will be a month each year with two cleanings. Per-visit billing handles that on its own. If you bill a flat monthly price, decide whether the extra cleaning is free or billed, and be consistent.

Monthly customers are also good candidates for add-ons like deodorizing, since there is more time between cleanings for odors to come back.

Pricing the Three Plans

Most companies charge less per cleaning for more frequent plans, because the cans are less dirty and the stop is faster. A weekly cleaning might cost less per visit than a monthly one, even though the weekly customer pays more per month overall. You set every price on your own service list. Whatever you choose, make the difference easy to see on your website so customers can pick the right plan themselves.

Changing Plans

Customers switch plans with the seasons. A monthly customer might go weekly in July and back to monthly in October. When they switch, update the plan on the client record. The new minimum days between visits takes effect from the last cleaning, and the invoices follow the new plan's line items. Customers can also request changes through the customer app or by texting the office.

When a plan changes, send the customer a short confirmation with the new frequency and price, so the next invoice is no surprise.

Seasonal switches are also a good moment to offer an add-on. A customer moving to weekly in summer is already thinking about smell, which makes a deodorize treatment an easy yes. Add it as a recurring line for the summer and remove it when they switch back in the fall.

The Short Version

Plans come due by days between visits, so they stay on rhythm. Bill each frequency per visit or flat monthly, but decide how odd months are handled. Price more frequent plans lower per visit, and update the plan when customers switch seasonally. For more billing guides, return to the trash can cleaning billing software page.