House accounts: how to bill corporate clients

A house account is a customer you bill on a schedule, usually monthly, instead of collecting payment on each ride. Typical account holders are companies, hotels, medical facilities, schools and law firms.

Account work has three different people in it. The booker is an assistant, travel desk or front desk who calls in the ride. The passenger is the person in the car. The payer is the accounts payable department that pays your invoice. Most billing problems come from mixing these three up.

Put these in writing, even if it is a one-page email the client replies to with “agreed”:

• The rates: specific routes, hourly rates and any discount from your standard prices.
• Which extras apply: waiting time, tolls, parking, extra stops, gratuity.
• The billing cycle, for example monthly, and when invoices are sent.
• Payment terms, such as due within 30 days, and how they pay: card, check or bank transfer.
• A credit limit: how much unbilled or unpaid work you will carry before stopping.
• Who is allowed to book on the account, and what a booking must include.
• Your cancellation and no-show policy.

An invoice can only contain what was recorded at booking. If the client needs a cost center, a reference number or the passenger’s name to approve a charge, make those required fields for that account. Don’t try to chase them at the end of the month.

Record the booker and the passenger separately. When an executive’s assistant books a ride for a visitor, the invoice should show the visitor as the passenger and the assistant as the person who booked it.

Accounts payable departments pay what they can match and hold what they can’t. A single total for the month gets queried. An itemized list gets paid. Each line should show:

• The date and pickup time.
• The passenger’s name, and the reference or cost center if they use one.
• The pickup and drop-off.
• The base fare, with each extra shown separately: waiting time, tolls, parking, stops.
• The total for that ride.

End with the invoice total, the due date, and exactly how to pay. Send one invoice per billing cycle, on the same day each cycle. If the client issues purchase orders, put the PO number on every invoice.

Late payment is usually a process problem rather than a bad customer. A few habits fix most of it:

• Invoice promptly. An invoice sent three weeks after the month closed is paid three weeks later.
• Offer card payment, or keep a card on file for smaller accounts.
• Follow up on a fixed schedule: a reminder when the invoice is due, then again a week later.
• Watch credit limits, and talk to the client before an unpaid balance becomes a problem.

Once a quarter, look at each account’s revenue against the work it takes. An account with a deep discount, frequent waiting time that never gets billed, and regular no-shows can cost you more than it brings in. That is worth knowing before you renew their rates.