Pest control invoicing software turns every completed job into an invoice, lets the customer pay by card from a link, and shows you which finished work nobody has billed yet. Billing software goes one step further for your recurring book: it bills service plans on a schedule and charges a saved card automatically, with the customer's agreement. For a company with one to ten trucks, the right tool does both in the same place as the schedule, so a job cannot be finished and forgotten.
I run PestShift, which does this. Below is what to look for in any pest control invoicing or billing software, then how PestShift handles it and what it leaves out.
What is the difference between invoicing and billing software?
The words get used interchangeably, but for a pest control company they cover two different jobs.
Invoicing is per job. A one-off bed bug treatment, a termite inspection or an initial service gets an invoice when it is done, and the customer pays it.
Billing is per plan. A quarterly general pest customer should not need a fresh decision to pay four times a year. Recurring billing charges them on a schedule, monthly, quarterly or yearly, ideally from a card they saved once.
Most small companies need both. One-off jobs bring in new customers; plans pay the bills in February. If you are still setting plan frequency, see monthly vs quarterly pest control plans.
What should pest control invoicing software do?
Check these during any trial, using your own jobs:
- An invoice for every completed visit, numbered automatically, without retyping.
- A list of completed work not yet invoiced. This is where money quietly goes missing.
- Card payments from a link, on any phone, with no customer login.
- Deposits for bookings where a no-show costs you.
- Cash and check marked paid by the office or the technician.
- Sales tax by service and by customer.
- Recurring plan billing and autopay, with the customer's agreement.
- Exports your accountant can use.
If you want to see what a good invoice contains line by line, read the pest control invoice template.
How does PestShift handle invoicing?
An invoice for every completed visit
Every completed visit gets a numbered invoice. The Invoicing page splits your money three ways: completed work not yet invoiced, invoices sent and awaiting payment, and what has been collected, by card or in person. From the list you can send an invoice or mark a job paid in one tap.
Each invoice can include sales tax (set your rate, mark which services are taxable and which customers are exempt), a warranty line, your payment terms and how-to-pay instructions, photos from the job, and the chemicals applied. Customers get it by email with a link to view it, save it as a PDF and pay. Unpaid invoices can be edited before or after sending; paid ones are locked.
Card payments to your own bank
Card payments run through Stripe. You connect your own Stripe account in a few minutes, and the money goes straight to your bank, not through PestShift. When Stripe confirms a payment, the invoice is marked paid. Stripe charges its usual card fees, and PestShift adds a platform fee on card payments. If a customer pays cash or check on the spot, the technician can mark it paid from their phone.
Deposits
Set a default deposit on a service and your online booking page collects it when the customer books. For phone bookings, email the customer a deposit request from the visit, or note a deposit you took yourself. The final invoice subtracts a deposit only once it has actually been collected.
How does recurring billing and autopay work in PestShift?
On any service plan you choose how it bills: per visit (the default), or monthly, quarterly or yearly. Set the amount each period and when billing starts, and add an initial service fee or a discount for paying a year up front if you use them. Billing and visits have their own schedules, so a quarterly plan can bill every month.
At the start of each period PestShift issues one plan invoice, with sales tax when the service is taxable. The plan's visits are covered, so they do not get invoices of their own, and extra work added to a visit is invoiced as usual.
Customers get a link to save a card and agree to autopay for that plan, at that amount. After that each period is charged automatically, and they get the invoice by email. If a charge fails, PestShift tries again and emails the customer; if it keeps failing, it shows on your Home screen under Needs attention. A price change needs the customer's approval before autopay charges the new amount. Pausing a plan stops charges, and cancelling it removes the saved card.
How do I stop chasing unpaid invoices?
Most of the fix is a routine: invoice the day of service, follow up on a fixed schedule, and make paying take thirty seconds. Software helps in three ways.
- See it. The Invoicing page shows what is awaiting payment and which finished jobs were never invoiced.
- Ask it. The owner can type "who owes me money?" into Ask PestShift and get a table of unpaid invoices with amounts and how long they have been open. Ask it to draft a friendly reminder email, read it, change a line, and press Send yourself. It drafts; it never sends on its own.
- Remove the step. Customers on autopay do not need chasing at all.
How to reduce pest control cancellations covers the other side: customers who stop paying because they stopped seeing the value.