TowingBossPro Blog — Towing Software

Getting Storage Days Onto the Invoice Every Time

Storage is one of the few charges in towing that grows on its own. Every day a vehicle sits in your yard, it takes space you could use for something else, and your daily rate is how you get paid for that. But storage only pays if the days actually make it onto the invoice.

In Tracking Impound and Storage Vehicles Without a Clipboard, we covered tracking what's in the yard. This article is about turning that record into money.

The Math Nobody Does at the Counter

On paper, billing storage means someone at the counter looks up when the vehicle came in, counts the days, multiplies by the rate and writes it on the bill — while the owner stands there, frustrated, wanting their car. It is easy to miscount, easy to round down to avoid an argument, and easy to forget entirely when the counter is busy.

Every one of those shortcuts costs money. A few days missed on a handful of vehicles a month adds up to a meaningful number over a year, and it's all revenue from space you already gave up.

There is a consistency problem too. When storage is counted by hand, two people at the same counter can charge two different amounts for the same stay. Customers compare notes, and accounts definitely do. Charging the same way every time is as much about fairness and trust as it is about revenue.

Start Date and Daily Rate, Then Let It Add Up

In TowingBossPro, a vehicle in storage carries a storage start date and a daily rate. When it's time to bill, the storage days are added to the invoice along with the tow itself. The person at the counter doesn't have to count on a calendar, and every invoice uses the same method.

The key is getting the two inputs right. The start date should be the day the vehicle arrived. The daily rate should be whatever applies to that vehicle under your rate sheet and any rules or agreements that govern it. Storage rates and how days are counted vary by jurisdiction and by contract, so set them to match what applies to you.

Explain the Charge Before the Customer Sees It

Storage charges cause more arguments than almost anything else in towing, mostly because customers are surprised by them. A clear invoice helps: the tow, the number of storage days and the daily rate shown separately, so the total makes sense at a glance.

Telling customers early helps even more. When an owner calls to ask about their vehicle, tell them the daily rate and that it keeps adding up until pickup. Two-way texting lets you put that in writing in the same thread they used to reach you, so there's a record of what they were told.

Accounts and Storage

Some storage vehicles belong to commercial accounts — a body shop that hasn't decided whether to accept a car, an insurer slow to authorize a repair, a dealer that needs a place to hold a unit. Those vehicles are easy to forget because nobody is calling about them.

When the call is under the account and the vehicle has a storage start date, the account's invoice can carry the storage days like any other charge. Payment follow-ups help keep accounts from letting storage bills sit, and card on file or auto-billing can handle accounts set up to pay that way.

Collecting at Release

The best moment to collect storage is before the vehicle leaves. Have the invoice ready with storage days added when the owner arrives, and let them pay at the counter or online. If someone else is picking the vehicle up for the owner, the owner can pay online from wherever they are.

Once a vehicle leaves the yard unpaid, your leverage drops sharply. Make it a firm habit that releases happen after payment unless you have a specific arrangement with an account.

Review the Yard Every Week

Once a week, look at every vehicle in storage, how long it's been there and what it owes so far. That five-minute review catches the vehicles nobody is calling about and gives you a running sense of how much money is sitting in your lot.

It is also a good gut check on your rates and your policies. If vehicles routinely sit far longer than you expect, that may say something about your notice process or your account terms. For how storage fits with dispatch and billing, see the towing software guide.