PetGroomBossPro Blog — Pet Grooming Software

Card on File for Mobile Pet Grooming: Paid Before the Van Pulls Away

Getting paid at a salon is easy. The owner comes back to pick up the dog and pays at the counter. Mobile grooming has no counter. The owner might be at work, on a call, or just not at the door when the dog is handed back. Without a plan for payment, a mobile groomer ends up chasing invoices at night. A card on file is that plan.

The Other Half of the Paid Invoice

Tipping was covered in Tips in Pet Grooming Software: Letting Customers Tip the Groomer on a Paid Invoice. For a tip to happen, the invoice has to be paid first, and for most mobile groomers that means a card on file.

Invoices Created at Completion

In PetGroomBossPro, when the groomer taps Complete on the groomer app, the invoice is created. It carries line items for each service and add-on, with sales tax where you charge it. The owner sees exactly what was done for each pet and what each line cost.

Because the services and add-ons came from the job, and the job came from the last visit or an approved estimate, the invoice matches the work. Nobody types it up from memory at the end of the day.

Charged on Completion or on a Schedule

With a card on file, the invoice can be charged automatically. You choose how:

• On completion. The card is charged as soon as the groomer taps Complete. The visit is paid before the van leaves the curb.
• On a schedule. Invoices are charged on a set schedule instead, for clients or accounts where that suits better.

For most residential mobile grooming clients, charging on completion is the simplest. The groom is done, the card is charged, and the owner gets a paid invoice they can look at in the customer app.

Getting the Card in the First Place

Cards get onto client records a few ways. A sign-up form on your website captures the card as part of signing up, and one click converts that sign-up into a client. Owners can add or update their card in the customer app at any time. And the office can add a card for a client who calls in.

It helps to ask for a card on file as part of booking a new client. Explaining that the card is charged when the groom is finished, and that they get a paid invoice right away, usually makes the request feel normal rather than pushy.

Paying Online

Not every client has a card on file, and not every invoice is charged automatically. Owners can pay any open invoice online from the customer app. That covers the client who prefers to pay each visit themselves and the one-time customer who booked a single bath.

When a Card Fails

Cards expire, get replaced and get declined. When that happens, the invoice stays open. Owners can update their card in the customer app, and past-due invoices get follow-up, so nothing slips through the cracks while the groomer is busy grooming.

Monthly Accounts Are Different

Some accounts do not pay visit by visit. A senior living community with a monthly pet day, a doggy daycare with bath days, or an apartment community can be set to Monthly and get one statement covering every visit that month. Those accounts are covered in Monthly Accounts in Pet Grooming Software: Senior Living, Daycare and Apartment Pet Days.

What It Changes for the Business

Card on file changes the shape of a grooming week. Instead of a stack of unpaid visits on Friday, most invoices are paid the moment the work is done. Instead of awkward conversations at the door, payment happens in the background. And instead of chasing every client, the office only chases the few invoices that actually need it.

For a solo groomer, that might be the single biggest change in how the evenings go. For a multi-van company, it means the office spends its time booking clients rather than collecting from them.

Payments and the Rest of the Product

Billing connects to everything else: the job that created the invoice, the tip on the paid invoice, the reports that show what came in, and the customer app where owners see it all. The payment step just happens to be the one that turns a good groom into a finished one. For every guide in this series, go back to the pet grooming software page.