TowingBossPro Blog — Impound & Storage

Adding Storage Days to the Invoice So Nothing Goes Unbilled

Ask an experienced lot owner where their money leaks, and storage days will be near the top. Not because anyone is stealing. Because the person at the counter is busy, the owner is upset, and doing the math on a car that has been there "a couple weeks" is easier to skip than to get right.

Setting a Daily Storage Rate per Vehicle covered setting the rate. This article is about making sure every day at that rate actually lands on the bill.

Where Storage Revenue Disappears

The leaks are predictable. The invoice gets built from the tow and nobody adds storage. Storage gets added for the days somebody counted on a calendar, which is not the same as the days the car sat. The count stops at the day the invoice was first created, but the owner shows up a week later. A friendly face at the counter knocks off a few days to end the argument, and nobody records why.

Each of those is a lost day, or five, on one car. Multiply by every vehicle that goes through the lot in a year.

Let the Software Count

In TowingBossPro, each stored vehicle has a storage start date and a daily storage rate, and the number of storage days is counted and added to the invoice. The tow charge, any other line items and the storage days sit on the same invoice. Nobody has to open a calendar and count squares.

That alone changes the conversation at the window. The total is the total, and it came from the record, not from whoever happened to be working.

It also changes what happens when the owner comes back later than planned. Someone who called on Tuesday and was told a total may not show up until Friday. Because the days are counted from the start date, Friday's invoice reflects Friday, not the number somebody quoted on the phone. Train your staff to say "as of today" whenever they give a total, for exactly this reason.

Keep the Tow and the Storage on One Invoice

It is tempting to bill the tow right away and handle storage later. Avoid that when you can. Two invoices for one vehicle means two things to collect, two things to explain, and a better chance the second one never gets paid. One invoice with the tow, the storage days and any other charges is easier for the customer to understand and easier for you to collect.

Sales tax can be applied where it applies in your area. Check with your accountant on whether storage and towing charges are taxable where you operate.

Discounts Need a Paper Trail

There will be times you reduce a storage bill: a hardship case, a mistake on your end, a good account. That is a business decision and it is yours to make. Just make it on purpose. Record the reduction on the invoice and add a note on why, so that six months from now the reports show what you gave away and to whom.

What you want to stop is the invisible discount, the days that never made it onto the bill because nobody counted them.

Check the Lot Against Open Invoices

Once a week, look at the vehicles still in storage and make sure each one is going to produce a correct invoice when it leaves: start date set, daily rate set, vehicle details complete. A stored vehicle with a missing rate is the one most likely to walk out under-billed.

Then use your reports to look at storage revenue over time. If the number is flat while the lot is full, something is leaking.

Pay special attention to vehicles that leave the lot without passing the release window: account vehicles your own truck delivers to a shop, transfers to another yard, or a car an agency collects. Those are the ones where nobody is standing at the counter asking for a total, so the storage days are easiest to forget.

Accounts Get the Same Treatment

Storage billed to a body shop, dealer or property manager deserves the same care. Those invoices sit under the account in TowingBossPro along with its calls, so you can see what each account owes for storage and follow up with payment reminders instead of letting it age quietly.

Billing every day is not about squeezing owners. It is about getting paid for the space, insurance, lighting and labor that a stored vehicle actually costs you. The Impound & Storage Software overview shows the whole flow. Next, the vehicle details that make every record useful.