Charging a late fee

A late fee is a normal term of trade in this business, and shops that charge one collect faster than shops that do not. LakeOps treats it as ordinary, not as something to apologize for — but it is off until you switch it on, and it is designed so a customer has seen the term before they are ever charged under it.

Setting one up

In Settings, switch late fees on and say what the fee is and how many days a job has to be unpaid before it applies. Then it applies on its own, to jobs that pass that age.

It is always its own line

It also means the price of the job never changes after the fact. What the work cost is what the completion email said it cost, forever.

Your policy prints before the fee does

Once late fees are on, every statement you send carries a sentence stating your terms — whether or not that customer has been charged one yet. A fee somebody can genuinely be asked to pay is a fee they could have read about first, and the statement is the only document between the completion email and the money.

Waiving one

Open the job and waive it. The fee comes off, and LakeOps also records that you waived it — permanently, so the next sweep does not helpfully add it back tomorrow night and undo what you just told a customer on the phone.

That stamp stays on the job. A shop that waived once for a good customer generally wants to keep doing so, and now it can see that it did.

Late fees and sales tax

A late fee is not taxed. It is a charge for the use of money rather than payment for a service, and in most places that puts it outside sales tax — and the tax on a job was worked out and locked the day the work finished, months before any fee existed. Ask your accountant if your state is unusual here.