Getting paid: from job done to money in the bank.

01The workflow, as it runs today

This is the current-state map: every step, handoff, and system the invoice touches between a finished job and money in the bank.

1. Tech marks the job complete in the dispatch app. System: dispatch app · Handoff: tech → office
2. Dana builds the invoice in QuickBooks — the next morning, or whenever the phones calm down. Waits here System: QuickBooks Online · Handoff: office
3. Invoice emailed to the customer from QuickBooks. System: QuickBooks email
4. Nothing happens for 7 days. Waits here
5. Dana calls the customer — "just checking you got the invoice." System: phone + a spreadsheet of who she's called
6. Nothing happens for another 7 days. Waits here
7. Second email goes out. Sometimes. If Dana remembers. Slips here Handoff: Dana's memory
8. At 30+ days, a paper statement is mailed. System: printer, stamps
9. At 45+ days, Mike (the owner) calls personally. Handoff: Dana → Mike

The pattern: the invoice sits unsent for 1–3 days, follow-ups happen only when Dana has a free moment, and anything past 30 days lands on the owner's desk.

02The baseline

Built from Hartwell's own records and a 15-minute intake — not guessed, and not dressed up as lab measurement. A screen share isn't a stopwatch; your books are the source of truth.

Where each number came from: invoice counts and days-to-paid from 6 months of QuickBooks history; Dana's hours from her own estimate during intake; write-offs from last year's books. If a number here were soft, it would say so.

03The verdict

Could Hartwell live with it? Sure — the business survives. But $7,400 a year leaking out of one workflow, every year, is exactly the kind of quiet cost this review exists to surface.

04The fixed-price build scope

If Hartwell wants it fixed, here's what I'd implement — priced up front, no hourly meter running:

• Invoice auto-send on job close. The moment the tech marks a job complete, the invoice builds and sends — no more 1–3 day sit.
• Automatic reminder sequence. Day 7: polite email. Day 14: email + text. Day 30: firmer email with the statement attached. Dana touches nothing unless a customer replies.
• One overdue dashboard. Every unpaid invoice in a single view, sorted by age — replacing the spreadsheet and Dana's memory.
• Weekly digest for Mike. Every Monday: what's overdue, what's at risk, what got paid. No more surprises at 45 days.

$2,400 $2,150 after your $250 review credit

Timeline: 5 business days. Not included: collections calls, legal letters, or changing how the accountant closes the books — this fixes the workflow, not the relationships.