Frequently Asked Questions
What is Skimmer Billing and who uses it?
Skimmer Billing is the integrated invoicing and payment-processing feature inside Skimmer used by pool service companies. Customers like Mike Messick of All Seasons Pools (New Braunfels, TX), who services ~210 customers/month, use it to request, collect, and manage payments and AutoPays in one place.
How did Skimmer Billing improve cash flow and save time?
Instead of printing and mailing bills, Mike runs a billing run in a few clicks and AutoPays hit, bringing “tens of thousands” in at month start. He estimates saving 20–25 hours/month by eliminating manual credit card entry, postage runs, and other billing errands.
What advantages does it have over legacy software?
Legacy tools lacked online/mobile access, bulk emailing, searchable archives, and integrated payment processing. Skimmer Billing lets you email hundreds of invoices, search old invoices, and process payments in-platform. Processing fees have been lower than previous costs for stamps, printer cartridges, and supplies.
How does Skimmer help field teams and customer confidence?
Skimmer replaces wet logbooks, loose customer lists, and messy route maps with one platform. Teams show completed work, record labor and chemicals correctly, and maintain organized routes—helping prevent missed revenue and reinforcing customer trust after weather or service issues.
Is Skimmer Billing easy to use and scalable for growing businesses?
Yes. Mike describes it as fast, efficient, and convenient: easy billing runs, AutoPay, searchable invoices, and integrated processing. It’s built to scale so teams can focus on service, bidding new work, and growing revenue without juggling spreadsheets and paper.
Key takeaways
- Swapping out an old, paper-heavy system for Skimmer Billing saved All Seasons Pools roughly 20–25 hours a month by automating billing runs and AutoPays—no more printing, stuffing, or manually entering credit cards.
- Integrated payment processing puts invoicing and collections in one place, cutting costs (less spent on stamps/printer supplies) and getting cash in faster—Mike reports starting the month with tens of thousands from AutoPays.
- Better recordkeeping means fewer missed charges for labor and chemicals, less lost revenue, and easier searches of past invoices—what used to be piles of wet paper is now tidy and searchable.
- Skimmer improves team accountability and customer confidence, streamlines routes and operations, and helps the business scale without adding chaos—practical, reliable, and built for the long haul.
##Key takeaways##
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What did you use before Skimmer Billing?
I used the same old software program that the previous business owner had been using since the early 2000's. I'm sure it was state-of-the-art at some point but it was antique by the time I came aboard in 2014. No online capabilities, prone to little bugs and glitches, and hard to search for archived information. No mobile applications to it, either.
What advantages does Skimmer Billing have over the last platform/solution you used?
With our previous platform, you couldn't email an individual bill, much less hundreds at once. I used to have to set aside two or more days (or, during busy times of year, a few late nights) just to print and fold and stuff piles of paper bills. The processing fees for Skimmer Billing are less than what I probably spent on stamps, printer cartridges, office supplies etc. Plus, it's way easier to search and review old invoices, and it's really nice to have the payment processing function integrated instead of needing a whole separate platform just for that.
Before, I had to set aside extra hours to enter credit card payments manually. Now, I can do a billing run in a few clicks and boom, there come the AutoPays and we've got tens of thousands of dollars of income to start off our month. I bet I save myself 20-25 hours a month, if not more considering all the errands for supplies, post office, bank, etcetera. My time is better spent bidding out new work, taking care of customers in the field, fine-tuning the management approach, and learning new things.
What do you love most about Skimmer Billing?
I can't pick just one. Speed, efficiency, convenience, clarity ... plus I feel like Skimmer listens to me as well as I listen to my customers. Much as I like it now, I have a feeling I'm going to like it even better a year or two from now. Which is good, because I'm in it for the long haul.
How does Skimmer with Skimmer Billing help your business?
It’s an absolute game-changer. It inspires renewed confidence from customers, knowing they're not getting skipped or shortchanged. It simplifies things for our team members, everyone can show they're being accountable and getting their job done. If our hard work gets undone by bad weather or other issues we can still confirm we did our job and reinforce the customer's confidence that we'll take care of it. The more I think about what we use Skimmer for, the more I wonder how we ever made do without it. There used to be piles of scrap paper and various spreadsheets and logbooks that got wet or damaged or lost, customer lists and addresses on loose papers, routes that were geographically out of whack, all kinds of messy approaches that got replaced with one platform that keeps the whole team in touch and on task. I'm sure we missed thousands in revenue with labor and chemicals and other little items not being properly recorded and billed. It was harder for my team, it was harder for me, and we all had less to show for it at the end of the day.
If someone were to ask you why they should use Skimmer with Skimmer Billing, what would you say?
The pool business can get really hectic if you've got the number of customers you need to succeed. If you can't take an organized approach to it you're setting yourself up to lose. You don't want to disappoint your customers, you don't want to miss income, you don't want to waste your employees' time, you're working too hard to waste your time and efforts. Skimmer has really helped me and my team make the most out of our work.
