[derek west]

how should i itemise the invoice.

got a call this morning at 11 oclock, my accountants had been flooded saturday night.

was there within half an hour. was there 1 and half to 2 hours and extracted around 80 gallons of water, (low profiles through out) advised on dehumidifiers and did one.

history

my accountants last year tried to charge me a grande for my books, (1 and a half years worth) told them they either drop the price considerably or i'm off. they reduced it eventually after a lot of haggling to £600 and promised not to charge more than £400 pa.

so, what do i charge and how do i itemise the invoice, over to you guys.

[Colin Day]

Charge them a Grand

[jasonl]

Emergency call out to  attend water damage incident   95

2hours to extract excess water                                   240


If you were trained in this it could be  the above PLUS

Apply sanitizer to wet areas                                     120

Hire of 4x dehumidifiers      x   21days@15/day       1260

Hire of 4x  airmovers    x 21days@8/day                 672

4x revisits @ 80                                                       320

Drying of documents            upto 5k or more

Cleaning of carpets/floors   furniture   up to 2k

Disposal of debris         up  to 2k

Big opportunities in water damage Derek.
                 

[Carpet Dawg]

he'll know your charges if he does your books.....

plus you want to keep him sweet ifs its going to be a long term relationship.

[Mike Halliday]

you did 2hrs work, how much do you charge an hour?


or are you really asking how much can you over charge him because he tried to over charge you

[derek west]

nope, not gonna over charge, if anything i'd get more pleasure in giving them a good price, i think  £150 is a fair price.
its not like it was hard work, allthough i did walk away from a big fry up with just a bacon butty.

might bill it as

call out (unsociable hours) £75

2 hrs work @ £75 per hour

good will discount -£75

total £150.

i think thats fair considering ive just saved there carpet and rainbow would be in the region of what jason said.

plus like tony said, will keep them sweet and they were impressed when i got my big wand out, ooo errrrr misses

pretty sure they'll have me do the carpets when they need it, plus they are heavily into networking and hopefully this will be a talking point at the next BNA or whatever its called.

[Mike Halliday]

I would'nt itemise it, just put ......' call out plus flood extraction £175'

 and leave it at that.

[Steve. Taylor]

Mikes right on this one derek just give him your invoice job done. You cant really put unsociable hours what if they want the carpets cleaning in 6 months and ask if you could do it at the weekend as they open all week?

Less said the better imo

[derek west]

yep, good shout.

call out plus flood extractrion £225

good will discount -£75

total £150

need the discount on there to show them gratitude for bringing my bill down, that way they can't say "how about a discount seeing as we gave you one"

[wynne jones]

Why not discuss bartering services, that way there is no tax to pay, or is they?

[Mike Halliday]

sorry to disagree again with you Derek but since when did professional companies give a 'goodwill discount' I know I've never been given one.

that is unless you have done something wrong,  if they ask for a discount tell them the price you've charged is a fair price for the work done, perhaps mention that a big franchise would have added a grand on the price and not attended so quick.

[Jon Tabbener]

Why not get them to do your books this year foc  - job for a job if you like

he will know better than me he may want an invoice off you for say £400 &then invoice you £400 for your books but i'm sure you know what i mean

[jasonl]

£150 for 2 hours flood clean up on a sunday , is like cleaning a suite for £20 .

[derek west]

mike
did you not read the original post? they gave me a good will discount after a moan.

jason

don't understand mate, took roughly the same time as a suite minus the chems. yeah okay it was a sunday but so what.

how can £150 be the same as £20? just cos its called flood work. to me its just called work, and a lot easier than cleaning suites. trust me, i'll get alot of referals off this.

anyway done the invoice now and thanks for helping with the itemisation, (is that even a word). ive billed it as emergency flood work.

[jasonl]

Where was the water from? what type of water was it? did you check electricity, IT ,and other equipment was not affected?  Did you ventilate to avoid secondary damage to the building fabric?
These are some of the things that can have a big effect on the outcome of the job.  Far more involved than suite cleaning, and worth a lot more to carry out. 

I am not knocking you personally , just pointing out that some training may raise your perception  , and income in this area.

[Colin Day]

To be fair, you did ask in the original thread how much should you charge. Take notice of what people like Jason are saying.... If the accountants aren't happy with the price and give you any grief, change accountants.... They're ten a penny anyway and they sound hellish expensive.... Or so my father in law reckon's, and he's an accountant

[derek west]

totally agree jason, if i'd had the training i'd of done and charged more. but all i did was suck the water out and give some logical advice on post drying treatment, hence £150.

not sure theres enough work out there to warrant a 5 day training course. allthough i would love to do one and may do in the future but i'm all trained out for this year.

your right col, i did ask but i always ask so i can make my own mind up. the forums are about getting as much info as possible so you can make a better judgement for your self.
and i did use some good advice from mike and steve by not trying to itemise every detail. so it was worth the post. cheers guys

[Colin Day]

Ultimately, if you're happy and your clients happy, top result.... happy days!!!!

[Mr Dvae]

whole job inc drying is abou 20 to 25 pounds per yard sq. all in

Dave

regards

[robert meldrum]

Our annual returns usually cost around a grande, but we regularly get free advice on the phone . If I did a similar job to the one mentioned I'd probably have charged much the same as Derek.

That's why he will grow his business on referrals and recommendations over the years while others will struggle. NOT because he's that NICE CHEAP GUY but because he's someone who will TURN UP AND DO THE JOB without making a fuss or overcharging.

People at all levels of society appreciate .....reliability / honesty / value for money in a service.

£25 per sq yd.......................for what...............extracting water and leaving a drier overnight.