Balance Due!!

[Willem Blees]

Matthew

All my tuning orders, (Tuning ticket, as?I call it), are 3 part carbonless invoices.?(white, yellow, pink, available at most office supply stores or print shops). 95% of the time, I leave the pink with the amount paid, and the other two copies are taken home. But when there is a need to leave a bill, I leave both the yellow and the pink copy with the balance due. I then have a self inking stamp which reads. "Keep pink copy for your records. Return yellow copy with check." ?About 40% of the time I get the yellow copy, about 30% of the time I get the pink copy. and the rest of the time?I don't get a copy at all, especially when it comes from a? school. If at all possible I have someone sign at the X at the bottom of the tuning ticket. That proves I was there. 

I keep a pile of the?invoices due on my desk. I also?have a line in my computer where it asks if there is a balance due. I kind of keep a mental note of who owes me, and about once every two weeks I look through the pile to see if anyone is more than a month?overdue, and I call them. ?In all my 31 years in the business, I think I've only been stiffed twice, and?one of those was a church. 


Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
Author of 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Sat, 31 May 2008 9:42 am
Subject: Balance Due!!



I had a client today who had to leave for an appointment so her brother was there to make sure I got paid.? Besides tuning I had to fix two notes.? She left for my tuning fee with her brother and that was it, so when I gave her brother the bill, he was short?on the?cash.? She didn't plan on my extra work or the tax.? So I took the bill and wrote what was paid, and the balance due.

?

Is that the right way to do it, or next time should I have the party present sign it?? Should there also be a due date?? Then there's the situation where there is no one home and a check is left on the table.? I did have one client leave me a blank check!!? I was like "hmmm, let's see, I need new tires on my car, maybe a new tuning hammer...."

?

?

Matthew

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