The 60-second invoice, and why speed is money.

There is a number most contractors never calculate: the gap between finishing a job and sending the bill. For a lot of crews it’s three days. For some it’s three weeks. And every day in that gap quietly costs you money, because the further your client gets from the glow of a finished job, the slower they pay.

A client who just watched you fix their heat is grateful. A client who gets a bill nineteen days later is annoyed. Same work, same amount — completely different payment speed.

The driveway rule

Make one rule for your business and keep it: the invoice goes out before the truck leaves the driveway. Not tonight at the kitchen table. Not Friday when you “do paperwork.” Before the engine starts.

The best time to send the invoice is while you’re still in the driveway.

This only works if building the invoice takes about a minute. That means your line items, your rates, and your client’s number are already in your pocket, and the send is one tap. That’s the whole reason Earnli exists — but the rule matters more than the tool. However you bill, bill from the driveway.

Make paying stupidly easy

Most late payments aren’t malice. They’re friction. A paper invoice needs a checkbook and a stamp. A PDF needs a printer or a login. Every step you add is a day you wait.

• Send it as a text. Texts get read in minutes; emails get read on Thursday.
• Take cards and Apple Pay. The fee costs less than three weeks of waiting.
• One tap to pay. If your client has to create an account, you’ve already lost the week.

The numbers to watch

Track one metric before all others: days-to-paid — the average gap between sending an invoice and the money landing. Under 7 is healthy. Over 21 means your process, not your clients, is the problem. Send same-day, make paying one tap, and remind on a schedule (day 3, 7, 14 — see FG-003), and most trades see days-to-paid cut in half inside two months.