Breakdown of invoice!

[Guest Gimlet]

I once had a strange challenge to a bill when I was in the building trade. It was a price job, not day work or hourly rate and the client had accepted the quote and agreed to the job going ahead. The job came in on price, no extras but he'd observed me working and noted how many hours I'd taken and he objected to the bill on the grounds that by his calculation I was earning more than was necessary for single bloke with no kids or mortgage, and more to the point earning more than him, and he considered that outrageous. 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Gimlet

[Matthew Storrs]

Suppose- but for £230 is it really worth quibbling, recently I had a £1800 bill to service tractor and a few other bits done to it- it was more than I was expecting but I wasn’t there so I’m hardly in a position to start challenging the invoice. I just can’t really see what he’d achieve by asking a breakdown- the bill isn’t going to suddenly become less- if he  doesn’t  trust a workman enough to not try and pull a fast one then really the only option is to get everything agreed at quote stage and any further costs agreed before they go ahead?

[arboriculturist]

1 hour ago, eggsarascal said:

Let me explain the situation, I got there at 12:00 and left at 16:00 @£50/hour, the customer was not just at home he was out in his garden with me for the duration. The total invoice was for £240. If anyone needs that breaking down they can go to someone else next time they want a drainage job sorting. Come on it isn't difficult 4 x £50, how much did the travel cost?

 

Awkward more no good reason.

I am totally with you - in this particular case totally reasonable, so why burden you with additional paperwork that is clearly totally unnecessary following your explanation.  

 

I used to spend hours producing seriously detailed quotes, invoices, reports etc. etc. but soon realised - 'what a waste of time' . We have produced thousands of quotes and never been asked for a further breakdown for Tree Surgery business. Spec. listing what we will do for them, then just list Labour, fuel, arisings removal. The system works and I have no plans to change it.

 

Admin is IMO a waste of human existence so why devote more of your life to it than absolutely necessary. The older I get the greater my dislike of it. There are far more interesting things to spend time doing.

 

I expect those who have been in business for a short time may well still love the paper exercise and totally disagree.  

Edited June 22, 2019 by arboriculturist

[Baldbloke]

On the other hand Eggs, and I am not suggesting you do it, but since we built ourselves a right big slap of a house in its own field(no fancy motors though)
I have noted that some tradespersons choose to adjust their prices to what they mug/imagine market will bear, based on their subjective client wealth assumptions.
Our first experience of this was a window cleaner, who should have been a multi millionaire at his effective hourly rate.
2nd was the bloke that hung the wallpaper.
There have been a few others, though in all honesty remarkedly few.
But it means some of the wealthy have got burned or heard the stories, and are therefore defensive.
A bit like a nervous apprehensive dog being more likely to bite.
 

We find the same thing. After getting a quote for a carpet clean prior to the guy coming out his window cleaning service quote (having eyeballed the house) was for double bubble compared to the time taken to remove three stains from a carpet.

[felixthelogchopper]

On 22/06/2019 at 14:23, Gimlet said:

I once had a strange challenge to a bill when I was in the building trade. It was a price job, not day work or hourly rate and the client had accepted the quote and agreed to the job going ahead. The job came in on price, no extras but he'd observed me working and noted how many hours I'd taken and he objected to the bill on the grounds that by his calculation I was earning more than was necessary for single bloke with no kids or mortgage, and more to the point earning more than him, and he considered that outrageous. 

I'd have told him to become better qualified so he could up his hourly rate. You could have also pointed out that if he was good enough to charge the same as you he could have done the job himself.

[s o c]

Long shot but maybe he’s totally satisfied but lining things up for future work.

of the clients that pay promptly it’s no biggy to do an extra bit of admin now and again when you consider all the hassle and admin the slow payers generate