The Job's Done: Send the Invoice Before You Leave the Driveway

If the money hasn't arrived, reminders go out on the schedule you choose.

The work is done, but you still have to send the bill. When invoicing waits until evening, payment can wait too.

• The invoice goes out late. It waits for a quiet evening, and every day it waits is a day longer until you're paid.
• The job gets typed in again. Line items, extras and HST are rebuilt from the quote by hand, and mistakes start disputes.
• Nobody tracks who owes what. Deposits, progress payments and cash end up in different places, and nobody's sure what's still owed.
• Chasing payment is awkward. Asking a homeowner for money feels uncomfortable, so the reminder doesn't get sent.
• Paying is harder than it should be. A cheque or an email address to type in gives the homeowner a reason to wait.

The Growth Engine sends every reminder, so you never have to ask a customer for money yourself. A schedule you can start from:

You choose the timing during setup. The reminders stop once you confirm the payment, and the customer can turn them off from any reminder.

Your customer pays your business directly by Interac e-Transfer. Strategic Mind never holds the money.

Your bank determines which payment-request options are available. I check that during setup.

Your bank tells you when a payment arrives, and you confirm it from your phone.

1. You mark the job "Complete" from your phone, at the job site.
2. The Growth Engine builds the invoice from the signed quote, with the same line items, each change order, any deposit already paid, and Ontario HST on its own line. Nobody retypes it.
3. The Growth Engine sends the invoice PDF by email and text, with your company name, logo and colours, your terms, how to pay you by Interac e-Transfer, and a link and QR code to leave you a Google review.
4. The homeowner pays from their own online banking, and the money goes from their bank to your business bank account.
5. The Growth Engine sends reminders while a balance is owed, on the schedule you choose, and the customer can turn them off from any reminder.
6. Your bank tells you the money arrived, and you confirm the payment from your phone. The invoice balance updates on the customer record.
7. At a $0 balance, the reminders stop, and the thank-you and review request go out.

Sending the invoice and the reminders is automatic. Collecting the money runs through the banks, and a payment counts once you confirm it.

You still answer billing questions and settle disputes. See how contractor follow-up automation works.

Banks offer different e-Transfer services to business accounts, so the invoice matches what your bank offers. Your bank sets its own fees for receiving e-Transfers.

• Your bank offers Interac e-Transfer Business Request Money: the invoice carries a money request from your business, with the amount filled in. Interac lists the banks that offer it, and only some banks offer it to business accounts.
• Your bank offers e-Transfer to your business email: the invoice gives the homeowner your business e-Transfer email and the invoice number to put in the message. With Autodeposit turned on, each transfer goes into your account with no security question.

1. Open the invoice email or text.
2. Sign in to their own online or mobile banking, the same way they pay a bill.
3. Accept your money request after checking your business name and the amount, or send an e-Transfer to your business email with the invoice number in the message.

The homeowner never enters a card number, creates an account or installs anything. They need online or mobile banking at a Canadian bank or credit union that offers Interac e-Transfer, as every major bank does.

Each homeowner's bank sets how much they can send in a day, and the limit varies by bank and account. A balance over that limit is paid in more than one e-Transfer, sometimes over more than one day, and each payment counts against the same invoice. Most banks let the homeowner raise their limit from the banking app.

The homeowner signs a specific version of your final quote, and you record the signature in the Growth Engine app. The invoice starts from that version, so the price, scope and terms they agreed to are what they're billed. If a question comes up, the invoice points back to the quote they approved.

A discount, credit or refund after signing is a change order on the quote, and every invoice updates to the new balance. See revisions and change orders on the quote.

Not every job is paid in one go. Invoices follow the payment stages in your contract terms, set up for how your trade works:

• Deposit invoice: goes out when you record the quote as signed.
• Progress invoices: go out at the stages you set, such as materials delivered or rough-in complete.
• Final invoice: goes out when you mark the job "Complete", for the balance after everything already paid.

Invoices include the details the Canada Revenue Agency asks for on an HST invoice, so business and property-manager customers can claim their input tax credits. The warranty date also sets when the warranty check goes out before the warranty ends.

Your bank emails or texts you when an e-Transfer arrives. You confirm it against the invoice from your phone, and the balance updates for everyone on your team.

A customer who pays cash at the end of the job works the same way. You record the cash from your phone, and your office sees the customer has paid without asking who collected the money.

Each payment you confirm updates every place that depends on it:

• The invoice balance: reminders stop at $0, and the customer moves to customer campaigns.
• The customer record: your office and crew see what each customer was invoiced, paid, and still owes. See the customer record.
• The paid-job report: each payment with an identifiable source is credited to the ad, search, or referral that brings the customer in. See paid-job reporting.
• The Pay When Paid Plan fee: on that plan, the monthly bill lists the 8% fee on each payment on a website job. See which jobs carry a fee.

The Growth Engine keeps the invoice and payment history for each job. Bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, HST returns, payroll and job costing stay in your accounting software, where your bookkeeper records each payment.

• An invoice PDF built from the signed quote, with each change order
• Deposit, progress and final invoices on your payment stages
• Ontario HST on its own line, with your HST registration number
• Interac e-Transfer payment details matched to your bank
• Reminders on your schedule while a balance is owed
• Each payment confirmed from your phone, on the customer record

A paid invoice hands the customer to customer campaigns, starting with the review request. The payment also shows in your paid-job report against the source that brought the customer in.

Book a one-hour review. I review how you invoice today, which bank your business uses, and how your customers pay you.

See how the complete Growth Engine works.

Review pricing.