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Subscription billing: recurring invoices in QuickBooks, exceptions in POM

The monthly fee runs itself in QuickBooks — POM catches the exceptions.


▶ Watch: Flat-rate monthly billing (47 s)

Some companies charge a flat monthly fee — say $400 a month, every month, service and chemicals included, regardless of visit count or usage. The cleanest way to run that model: let QuickBooks send the fixed invoice automatically, and use POM only to catch the exceptions — the repair, the part, the add-on that is not included. Set it up once and month-end billing nearly disappears.

How the model works

  • The subscription itself lives in QuickBooks as a recurring invoice (a memorized transaction). It goes out on schedule with no action from you, and if you use autopay, the card runs automatically on the same schedule.
  • POM records every visit as usual — service reports, chemicals, photos — but the service is priced at $0, so routine visits never generate a charge.
  • Only exceptions get invoiced from POM: anything used or sold that the subscription does not include.

Step 1: Set the service to $0 in POM

Go to Settings → Service Types, open (or create) the subscription cleaning service, and set the price to $0. Then on Appointment Presets, add the included chemicals at quantity 0 and price $0 — same technique as flat-rate billing (see the companion guide, Flat-rate billing: include chemicals at one price).

Tip: companies on annual contracts or subscriptions often preset these jobs to the Pre-Paid billing status instead, since no invoice is ever needed for the service itself. Either way works — $0 pricing keeps the visits visible in your billing review; Pre-Paid takes them out of it.

Billing status options on a service type: Not Billed, Billed, Stripe, Unbillable, Pre-Paid, Ready, Pending, QBD, QBO

Step 2: Create the recurring invoice in QuickBooks Online

  1. In QuickBooks Online, open Recurring transactions and click New. Depending on your QuickBooks layout, it’s under the gear icon or under All apps → Accounting → Recurring transactions.
  2. Choose Invoice, and make it a template — for example Monthly Flat-Rate Cleaning.
  3. Set the type to Scheduled, the interval to monthly, and pick the start date.
  4. Add the customer, the line item (your monthly cleaning fee), and save.
  5. Repeat per subscription customer. The first pass is the time-consuming part; after that it runs itself.

If your customers are on autopay, the card runs automatically on the same schedule — the whole subscription side happens in one swoop every month unless you cancel it.

Step 3: Bill only the exceptions from POM

Open the Billing page for your date range. Because routine visits are $0, the page is easy to read: anyone showing a real balance has something worth invoicing — a skimmer basket, a repair, salt. Invoice just those.

Billing page where subscription visits read zero and an exception stands out

Many companies do this monthly. Plenty do it quarterly instead — cleaning customers rarely rack up extras, so a quarterly true-up cuts the invoicing workload even further.

Prefer one document per month?

You can also send statements: create each service as its own invoice in POM (Actions → Bulk Invoice, each service as a separate invoice), then send the customer a single statement from QuickBooks that rolls them up.

Good to know

  • QBD, QBO and Stripe billing statuses update automatically when you invoice or export — you should rarely need to change them by hand.
  • Some offices use the optional Ready status as a reviewed-and-ready-to-invoice flag between the office and billing.
  • Deposits are posted in QuickBooks, not entered in POM.

Questions? Email help@poolofficemanager.com or call 614-710-0074.