Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum I'm Never Going to Accept Payment By Mail Again!

I was wondering why this piano teacher wanted my
address before I came to the school, and only after
I showed up does he ask me if it would be ok to mail
the check for tuning two pianos to me!

And since I've done 3 tunings for him in the past, I
accepted the situation, but a week has gone by, and
still no check!

Now they want me to tune a third piano! They better
darn well have a check for me in person, or I ain't
even gonna drive over there!

You'd think a brand new school which probably cost a few
million, would have the funds to tune their pianos!

Arrgghh!! The incompetence!

I got bills to pay!

I've been tuning for 45 years and never had a school pay on the spot. This is interesting. I never knew some schools can bypass accounting, business, or school board procedures.

One lesson I've learned is not to leave your bill on the band director's desk. I did that a few times and about half the time weeks would turn to months and when I finally called the school they would report that the bill never reached the office.

I myself am the son of a high school band director, so I know how many balls they are trying to keep in the air at the same time. Not blaming them at all for misplacing a single sheet of paper. They've got more pressing matters on their mind than getting you paid. Better just to walk the bill down to the central office yourself before driving off the school grounds.

Just my 2 cents worth.

4-6 weeks for processing payment is routine for schools. No need to give up on them just yet. I'd suggest just giving them a call. As Chuck said - the bill may be sitting under a pile of papers in the band room.

Schools often take 3-5 weeks to pay. Often a P. O. is required from the teacher - so I always try to get the number. Payment can come from the school, the district, the PTA, or some visiting organization that used the piano.

Did you give them a W-9? They will probably need that before they can pay you.

Ok, thanks people, I feel better now.

It's obvious this is all because I've made the jump
to more than one piano tuned for one period. So
more money and more bureaucracy, of course.

So payment is usually by snail mail when dealing with
schools?

It usually is whenever you tune for an institution.

I didn't know it took that long to get paid from schools. That is definitely something I should know as a noob. Do you guys recommend any companies that provide carbon copy billing forms?? Anyone want to share what their receipt/invoice/bill looks like?

For a long time, I used NEBS for carbonless forms, but there are many other vendors now. Just google it. You can also buy generic carbonless pads at the office supply store and stamp your info on them with a rubber stamp.

Expect home owners to pay you when you finish tuning - but all others usually require an invoice (which I give them at time of tuning) and they pay when they write their checks. Occasionally the A/P accountant will be a pain, and require a purchase order and exact quote ahead of time, or specific info on the invoice, before paying.

What you don't want to do is extend a large amount of credit to a client you don't know. Be careful out there.

What about paperless invoicing?? Is that common? It would be alot easier sending out emails except for receipts- not sure if an e-receipt can work.

I just mail or email invoices on my computer letterhead. If you are so desperate to get the money immediately, you are not adequately financing your business.

Remember what I said about W-9 forms! Download that from the IRS, and fill it out so it is ready to go whenever you need one.

I know this is unrelated to the thread, but is it possible to deduct from taxes start-up costs when starting a new business? I mean it seems like theres so much to buy to start tuning business. In a worse case scenario what happens when You spend more on start-up costs than you make in revenue can you still deduct from taxes?

Get a copy of Small Time Operator from Nolo Press.

You can write off your business expenses against your business income. If they are more than your income, then you can carry them over into the future. Your health insurance is an additional write-off.

However, if your income is that low, you should defer your deductions as long as possible, and take them when you have more income. If your income falls into the zero bracket amount, the only thing it will offset is your Social Security, and you will likely need that when you retire.

A good thing to do is download a Schedule C from the IRS and get to understand it. That will show you the categories that are adjustments to income, and you can set up your books accordingly.

Of course, you can go to a tax accountant and have things set up for you, at additional expense, which you can write off. Just remember that what you can write off will never net you anywhere near what you spend on things.

BTW, just because it's a brand new school, doesn't mean it has the budget to tune the pianos - the school board sets the budget, and it can be very low, compared to the market price for tuning. It's a shame, but music teachers often have to be creative to get funds to tune the piano.

Well, it's true most schools have tight budgets.

For example, all three of these pianos were donated to the school.

I had to email an actual piano tuning invoice to the business
manager! She won't cut the check until she has the invoice.

I guess I should be happy I'm getting some higher volume
clients....I just have to be patient waiting for the fat check!

You haven't done paperwork till you have to bid on a school district contract for tuning that is 70 pages long, filled with legal gunk. And, provide proof of auto insurance, liability insurance, get fingerprinted for a background check. That's what happens when the piano maintenance is supervised by the district purchasing dept. instead of individual schools. I usually deal with individual schools.


Anyway, it's not unusual to get a call from a school, wanting a written quote on tuning the piano or pianos.

This is a sore point with me. I debated a lot with myself about replying to this thread. I don't want to raise my blood pressure too much

When I was a young tuner just starting out, I accepted a lot of institutional work. It was great to be able to point to the school districts, churches, etc. that I tuned for while trying to build a good reputation.

I was very successful at it. They liked me a lot. In fact, I acquired so much institutional work that I almost went out of business.

Firstly, when you tune for an institution like a school district or church that has multiple pianos, they will often expect demand a discount.

The good ones will pay you within a month. Some will take 2 months or more because the paperwork has to make its rounds. When the money finally does reach you, you may have given a discount. So, it's less than you would have received for a home tuning.

Or, the church committee first has to approve tuning the piano. Then, the church pianist has to approve of the job you did. Then, the committee has to meet yet again to approve issuing the check. Then, the church secretary has to actually write and mail the check to you. All this is for a job that they should be able to pay out of petty cash.

You have made a zero interest loan to an organization far wealthier than you that is payable more or less whenever they get around to it. And when the money finally does come, not only is there no interest, it's for less than you would have gotten paid elsewhere immediately.

Then, there was the timing issue. For most institutional work, such as for churches and schools, the greatest demand comes in November and December. They will want to do their shows, concerts, and high religious services during that time.

There was only so much "daniokeeper" to go around. Because I was already committed to my institutional work during Nov and Dec, I had to turn away new calls from private owners that would have paid me immediately at full price.

Things got so bad that I had to borrow money to do work I wasn't getting paid for until whenever. Then, when that money finally showed up, it was spoken for... it went to pay my debts. Very demoralizing!

This was a very long time ago. I've wised up since then.

It's nice to have some institutional work. You will make business connections and it can enhance your reputation.

Though I'm sure there are tuners on this forum that are doing just fine with mostly institutional work, I was never able to make it work for me.

Did some work for a college in UK once. After months I eventually started proceedings against them under the insolvency legislation as they simply would not pay. That certainly got the money but it was very unfortunate.

A friend of mine does, or used to do a bit of work for the Church of England. He had so many unpaid invoices that he simply insisted on 100% payment in advance, or he did not play! Of course that meant that they virtually never used him, but that was exactly what he wanted.

We all have some war stories - A chain of nursing homes sent me a form letter 30 days after I tuned the piano. The letter had a demeaning tone and was full of demands the vendors need to meet to secure payment, and checked for me was "we need an invoice number in order to pay this" So I sent them another copy of the invoice with the number 001 hand written on the top. Another 15 days went by so I started making phone calls. I finally got paid, but it took me more time on the phone to secure the payment than it did to tune the piano. Turns out the chain of nursing homes had switched to a third party A/P company to handle vendor payments. I wish them luck with that.