Blue Collar Trade Manager handles the two billing patterns every cleaning business runs into: recurring invoices for weekly or biweekly clients, and one-off estimates for move-out or deep cleans. Either way, customers get a click-to-pay link and can pay by card or ACH without you following up by phone.
Create an estimate for the cleaning job from scratch or pull line items straight from your cleaning price book, then send it for approval by text or email.
The customer reviews and approves the estimate online or by replying to a text — no printing, no in-person signature required.
Turn the approved estimate into an invoice in one step, so line items, pricing, and job details carry over without retyping anything.
The invoice goes out with a public click-to-pay link so the customer can pay by card or ACH from their phone, without creating an account.
If the invoice sits unpaid, automated payment reminders go out on a schedule you set, instead of you having to remember to chase it.
Paid, unpaid, and overdue invoices roll up into reports so you can see outstanding balances across every customer at a glance.
A biweekly house-cleaning client should get billed the same amount on the same cadence without a manual invoice each time. Recurring invoicing automates that, so revenue from your steady client base keeps flowing even during a busy week when you don't have time to sit down and bill.
Move-out cleans in particular are often booked with short notice and a tight deadline. Quoting from price book items — per-room or per-square-foot rates — lets you send an estimate the same day the customer calls, and convert it straight to an invoice once the job's done.
Chasing payment on every single visit doesn't scale past a handful of clients. Combining recurring invoicing with card + ACH payments via Stripe Connect lets returning clients pay automatically each cycle instead of you sending a new payment request every time.
A referral client might only give you a phone number at first. Flexible customer records support billing and texting a customer using just a phone number, so you're not stuck waiting on an email address before you can send the first invoice.
Set each recurring client up with a recurring invoice tied to their cleaning frequency and rate, and optionally a card on file, so billing happens automatically without a manual invoice every visit.
This is the core use of recurring invoicing for a cleaning business: once configured per client, the invoice generates and sends on schedule, and payment reminders follow up automatically if it goes unpaid.
Build the estimate from price book rates — per room, per square foot, or flat by job type — and send it for approval by text, often within the same call.
Move-out cleans usually come with a deadline tied to a lease or closing date, so speed of quoting matters more than for routine recurring service. A price book with your standard rates lets you respond fast without recalculating pricing from scratch each time.
They reduce the number of invoices you have to personally chase, since the reminder goes out automatically rather than relying on you remembering which client hasn't paid.
For a cleaning business with dozens of small recurring invoices, manually tracking who's paid and who hasn't doesn't scale. Automated reminders on a schedule you set handle that follow-up so you can focus on the actual cleaning work.
Yes — partial and split payments are supported on an invoice, which is useful for large post-construction or estate cleanouts billed in stages.
Most recurring residential cleaning doesn't need this, but a large one-time job — like a post-construction clean — sometimes gets split into a deposit and a final payment. Both can be tracked against the same invoice.
Once a client has given SMS consent, you can send the invoice, including the click-to-pay link, directly by text instead of email.
Many cleaning clients respond faster to a text than an email, especially for smaller recurring amounts. Consent is captured once at intake and covers ongoing invoice and reminder texts. This is general information, not legal or tax advice — check with a licensed attorney or CPA in your state before relying on it.
For most residential cleaning invoices — typically well under $625 — card payment fees and ACH fees are similar in practice, though ACH's flat $5 cap starts to win out on larger commercial cleaning contracts.
Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 for cards versus 0.8% capped at $5 for ACH, so the crossover point where ACH becomes cheaper is around $625 per transaction (Stripe Pricing). Most residential cleaning invoices fall well below that, so card is often the more convenient choice for clients, while larger commercial janitorial contracts may benefit more from ACH.
A branded, itemized invoice signals professionalism that can support repeat bookings, though BCTM can't promise a specific increase in repeat business.
Branded invoice templates with your logo and consistent itemization present a more established business than a handwritten receipt. Beyond that general point, actual retention depends on service quality and communication, not the invoicing software itself.
$0/mo — no subscription and no per-user seats. Card payments: 3.9% + $0.30 (1% BCTM platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe). ACH bank payments: 1.8% (1% BCTM platform fee + 0.8% Stripe, Stripe portion capped at $5.00). Cash and check: no fees. Full fee breakdown.
No subscription. You pay a per-transaction fee only when a customer pays you.
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