TrashCanBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Billing Property Managers for Bin Cleaning: Many Addresses, One Account

Property managers are a bin cleaning company's quiet growth engine. One relationship can bring ten, twenty or fifty addresses. But a manager's properties are spread across town, change hands, and come and go as owners sign on or leave. The billing has to keep up with that without becoming a mess.

Like an HOA, but Spread Out

The basic setup is the same as in One Monthly Statement for an HOA: Billing Every Address on a Single Bill: one client, many addresses, one Monthly statement. The differences are in the details. An HOA is one neighborhood with one trash day. A property manager might have single-family rentals in five zip codes, a couple of small apartment buildings and a duplex, each with its own trash day.

Setting Up the Account

In TrashCanBossPro, create the property management company as the client. Then add each property as an address under it. For each address, record:

• The number of trash, recycling and yard waste cans
• The city trash pickup day for that address
• Can location notes: side of the garage, behind the gate, gate code, which enclosure at an apartment building
• The plan: weekly, every other week or monthly

Use the same address naming the manager uses. If they refer to a property as "Elm Street duplex" or by an internal property number, put that in the address details. When the statement shows up, the manager can match it to their own records at a glance.

One Statement, Every Address

Set the account to Monthly. The manager gets one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled with its address. That is exactly what a property manager needs. Many of them split costs back to individual property owners, and a statement labeled by address lets them do that without asking you for a breakdown.

Every cleaning is still completed by the tech at the curb with before and after photos. If an owner asks the manager whether their rental's cans were really cleaned, the manager can ask you, and you can answer with a date and a photo.

Adding and Dropping Properties

Property managers gain and lose properties all the time. Agree on how they will tell you. A simple rule works: the manager texts or emails the office with the address and the start or stop date, and the office updates the account the same day.

When a property is added, add the address under the client with its cans and trash day, and it will come due on the Waiting List like any other plan. When a property is dropped, remove it from the plan so it stops coming due. Its past cleanings stay in the history for the statement.

The mistake to avoid is cleaning a property for two months after the manager lost it. That is two months of work you will probably never be paid for. Confirm changes in writing.

Routing Spread-Out Addresses

A manager's properties will not all be on one day. Each address has its own trash day, and the cleaning should be scheduled right after the city empties the cans. On the dispatch board, those addresses get mixed into your regular residential routes for each day, and auto-route places them in order with everything else.

That is fine. Billing is grouped by client; routing is grouped by day and location. The two do not have to match.

Tenants and Notifications

Decide with the manager who gets the alerts. The tenant is the one who needs the night-before reminder to leave cans out. The manager is the one who pays. In some cases, the manager wants tenants to get alerts; in others, they want no contact with tenants at all. Ask, write it in the client's notes, and set alerts to match.

Getting Paid

Managers usually pay on a set schedule, often after reviewing all their vendor bills. Ask when they pay and how, and follow up based on that rather than on your residential rules. Monthly statements can be paid online in the customer app. For more on payment follow-up, see Past-Due Follow-Up for Trash Can Cleaning Invoices Without the Awkward Calls.

Treat the first few statements as a test. Ask the manager whether the address labels match their records and whether the format works for splitting costs to owners. Small changes in how you name addresses early on can save them hours every month, and a manager who finds your statements easy to work with is far more likely to send you their next property.

The Short Version

Set up the management company as one client, add each property as an address with its own cans and trash day, send one Monthly statement labeled by address, and confirm adds and drops in writing. For more billing guides, return to the trash can cleaning billing software page.