The tenant let you in. The landlord pays.
A running toilet in unit 3B is a twenty-minute fix and a billing headache. The person at the door isn't paying, the manager wants a work order number, and accounts payable pays on its own schedule. Redline puts the unit, the tenant and the work order on the invoice and tells you which manager is late.
Billing rental work the way managers pay
One contact per manager or landlord
The management company is the customer. Each building or unit is a job under it, with the tenant's name and access notes on the job, not as the payer.
Note the work order and the limit
Most managers send a work order number and a not-to-exceed amount. Put both in the job notes so whoever goes knows when to call before doing more.
Invoice from the job
Say what failed and what you did. Redline drafts the invoice as one amount, with the address, unit, tenant and work order in its description, ready for accounts payable.
Email it to their billing inbox
Approve, have Redline draft the email, and paste in the pay link from the invoice. It goes from your own Gmail when you approve it. Managers who pay by check still have the invoice to match.
Know who's slow
"Who owes me?" lists unpaid invoices by customer, and the overdue alerts at day 3, 7 and 14 push you the name to call. On Solo and up.
Unit 3B, running toilet
Draft for Brightline Property Management: $223 ($185 labor, $38 parts), due in 14 days.
"WO-22817, 14 Prospect St unit 3B (tenant Maria Ortiz): toilet repair, new fill valve and flapper, reset on new wax ring."
Approve, and want an email to their billing address drafted from your Gmail? You paste the pay link in from the invoice.
Brightline has 4 open, $1,086 in all. Two are flagged overdue: 22 Elm St water heater flush $210, and 9 Ward St unit 1 kitchen drain $195.
Invoices, pay links and overdue alerts are on Solo ($29 a month) and up. Emails go from your Gmail after you approve them.
What a rental plumbing invoice needs
- Address and unit, so it matches their property list
- Tenant name, as the contact on site, not the payer
- Work order or PO number from the manager
- What failed and what you replaced, in plain words
- Parts named, with your markup in the price if you charge one
- After-hours or emergency surcharge, when the call came in at night
- Photo of the failed part kept on the job in case they ask
Why rental work goes unpaid
It isn't that managers won't pay. It's that the invoice lands in a shared inbox without the unit number, accounts payable can't match it to a work order, and it sits. Two months later you're calling a front desk that has never heard of the job.
Getting it right the first time fixes most of that: the right customer (the company, not the tenant), the work order on the invoice, and an email to the address they told you to use. Put that address on the company's contact once and every invoice goes there. After that, the overdue alerts tell you when to pick up the phone.
Straight answers for plumbers billing rentals
Redline does
- Keep each manager as one customer with a job per unit
- Put the unit, tenant and work order on the invoice
- Email invoices to the billing inbox from your Gmail
- Show what each manager owes in one answer
- Flag unpaid invoices at day 3, 7 and 14
Redline doesn't
- Connect to property manager work order portals
- Take checks or bank transfers on the pay link (card only)
- Send statements or reminders to managers on its own
- Keep a flat-rate price book
- Text the invoice to anyone
Questions contractors ask
The manager pays by check. Is the pay link pointless?
Not really. The invoice is still the record they match the check to, and some managers will pay small ones by card. When a check comes in, log the payment on their file. The invoice itself stays open in Money, because Redline marks an invoice paid only when a card payment comes through its link.
What about homeowners who pay on the spot?
Same invoice, different customer. Bill the homeowner directly and hand them the pay link before you leave. They pay by card on their phone.
Can I add an after-hours charge?
Say it in the message ("after hours, $150 surcharge") and it goes into the amount, named in the description. Mention your surcharge once and Redline remembers it.
More for plumbers
Send the next work order invoice before you leave the building.
Start free, then turn on Solo to invoice. It comes with a 7-day trial on the web.
Keep reading
- Plumbing softwareFit emergencies into a full day, quote water heaters on the spot and get paid before you leave.
- Plumbing dispatch softwareBurst pipe at 10am? Reshuffle the day and send a truck in one message.
- Plumbing estimate appSewer, repipe and water heater quotes with code items, options and a deposit.
- Handyman invoice appHours, minimum, trip charge, materials and add-on tasks, billed before you leave.