AGENT-RUN BACK OFFICE — UNBILLED WORK RECOVERY
Extra work goes unbilled because nobody wrote it down in time.
Extra work gets agreed on a phone call, done that same afternoon, and never reaches the invoice. Customers are rarely refusing to pay for it — most of it is simply never billed, and nobody can tell you how much.
Free · 20 minutes · no commitment
WHO THIS IS FOR
Owners who are certain they are owed for work that got done, and cannot prove it three weeks after the fact.
THE PROBLEM
It is invisible in precisely the way that keeps it happening. Nothing shows up as a loss, because the revenue was never recorded in order to go missing. The only symptom is a margin slightly worse than the quotes imply, which gets attributed to almost anything else.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
Billing
Work done, not yet invoiced
JOB TICKETS, TECHS’ PHOTOS AND THE VAN STOCK LOG · WEEK TO FRIDAY 3:00 PM
Found this week
$3,940
Four jobs where the work went past what was quoted.
JOB TICKETS · FRI 3:00 PM
Drafts ready
3
For a person to send$3,320 on three invoices, each with its proof attached.
Held
1
No OK on file$620 with no OK from the customer on file. Not raised until there is one.
The four jobs
Unit 112 · rotten subfloor replaced under the toilet
OK’d by phone with the property manager, Tue 1:40 pm · tech’s note, 4 photos, plywood on the stock log
$1,480
Draft readyCondo rooftop · exhaust fan motor replaced on an inspection visit
The condo manager OK’d it by text, Wed 10:05 am · photo of the old motor’s plate, motor on the stock log
$1,150
Draft readyTownhouse 7 · drywall patched and painted after the leak
Quote covered the leak only; the complex manager signed for the patch · before-and-after photos, 6 h across two visits
$690
Draft readyUnit 208 · kitchen faucet replaced at the tenant’s request
Tech’s note and photos, but no OK from the property manager on file · not raised until there is one
$620
Held
4 JOBS · $3,940 · THE AGENT DRAFTS, A PERSON READS AND SENDS
Extras billed since July, paid so far
- Property manager · 40-unit building6 of 6 paid
- Townhouse complex4 of 5 paid
- Condo corporation1 of 4 paid
A RECORD, NOT A FORECAST · WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT IS YOUR CALL
Each charge goes out on the invoice with its proof attached, after a person has read it. A charge without proof is not raised at all.
What you get.
- What was actually done, captured against what was quoted, as it happens, not reconstructed later.
- The evidence assembled while it still exists — times, sign-offs, messages, photographs.
- The charge raised on the invoice with its proof attached, not as a memory weeks afterwards.
- A record of what was billed, what was paid, and which customers never pay it — which is then a commercial decision you can actually make.
How it works.
Priced against the scope, after a Diagnostic that is small on purpose. The shape of the work we can tell you now.
- THE SHAPE
- Ongoing, and priced against what it actually recovers.
- WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
- Your quoted scope and your terms — what you are genuinely entitled to charge for, per customer.
- WHAT YOU KEEP
- The evidence file behind every charge, whether or not that charge was ever paid.
What this does not include.
Published because you should know before the call, not after the invoice.
- Raising a claim we cannot evidence. An unsupported charge costs more in credibility than it collects.
- Pursuing money your contract does not entitle you to.
- Any promise about collection rates. We can show you what was billed and evidenced; whether a customer pays is between you and them.
QUESTIONS
Our customers push back on these charges.
Most of the loss happens before that conversation, not during it, in the extras that were never billed at all. The first gain is simply having the charge raised with its proof attached, which also changes the tone of the pushback.
Will this damage relationships with good customers?
It can, if it is applied blindly, which is why the write-off decision stays with you. What the system gives you is the pattern: which customers repeatedly cost you unbilled work, and whether their business is still worth having once you can see the number.
How would we know it is working?
We measure what you billed and collected before we start. If we cannot establish that baseline, we say so instead of claiming an improvement against a number nobody wrote down.
MORE UNDER AGENT-RUN BACK OFFICE
WHERE THIS APPLIES
The industries whose page names Agent-Run Back Office as one of the places we would start. Each one is written for that trade, with its own numbers.
Bring us one bad week.
Book a pilot call. Tell us where the week goes wrong, and we’ll tell you what an Operations Diagnostic would map and measure.
The first paid step has a clear scope and an end date, and the pilot after it is one workflow — not a platform, and not an open-ended retainer.
Free · 20 minutes · no commitment