Hello Everyone!

Our VA firm now has a couple of clients and we are struggling to find a way that doesn't leave us billing clients all during the month.

Some will be on hourly, some who purchase retainer packages which are pre-paid, and some special projects. Any advice on how we can keep our billing down to 2-3 times per month for everyone?

Thanks!

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Lauren & Melanie - VaVa Virtual Assistants www.VaVaVirtual.com

I bill monthly, bill is sent over on the 25th and due by the end of the month. Most send over payment same day. This works for me because I only handle billing once a month and it doesn't eat up my time throughout the month.

The exceptions to these are of course smaller one time or occasional projects that come up, those are billed as they happen, but I've not had much of that.

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Stacey Harris
On Demand Virtual Assistant

I also bill monthly. The bill is sent on the 5th and due on the 20th for the prior month. This has worked well for me since I just set aside a day to do billing and don't worry about it the rest of the month (other than checking past due receivables on the 21st).

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Thank you Stacey! What happens if they are doing a retainer package and sign up on the 20th of the month? Do you pro-rate or just charge them however many hours they use up until the 25th? This is where we run into the problem of what schedule to use and why if that makes sense.

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Lauren & Melanie - VaVa Virtual Assistants www.VaVaVirtual.com

I have two billing schedules:

Hourly and Project: Invoiced at end of each month
Retainer: Invoiced on the 15th of each month

The reason for me invoicing retainers on the 15th is because they prepay for the following month, so if they need to send a check they have plenty of time to do so, before the next month rolls around.

For a new retainer client signing up half way through the month, I would offer the same reduced rate but on an hourly agreement that ends at the close of the month. Thereafter, I would put them on the retainer agreement and have them prepay.

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Linda
Clockwise Virtual Assistance

Thanks for your input Linda. It makes a lot of sense and will simplify the process. I am just starting out and very interested in how it works in the VA industry.

I would just offer them a smaller amount of hours to finish out the month, at the rate, then start the full retainer amount at the start of the next month.

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Stacey Harris
On Demand Virtual Assistant

I bill hourly clients on the 1st and 15th of the month. Monthly Retainers are billed on the 1st of the month. This way I only bill twice a month.

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Karen Heinrich, CPS
www.secretarystat.com

Thank you all for your advice! This is very helpful. Good luck Camilla. We just started as well, but this community is very welcoming.

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Lauren & Melanie - VaVa Virtual Assistants www.VaVaVirtual.com

Hello Stacy , I have a question and it may be stupid.. but it seem i get so far is smal basic projects that last a week maybe two. should I go ahead and just them invoice them at the end of the week? How do i go about and getting sample of invoices here on this website..