Closing Out a Job: Walk-Through, Final Invoice and Warranty Letter

The last hour on a job does more for the next job than most advertising. It is when the customer decides whether the work is really finished, whether to pay today or next month, and whether yours is the name they give the neighbor. That hour runs the same way on almost every job, so it can run from a list: a walk-through together, a punch list in writing, the final invoice the same day, a warranty letter that says exactly what you stand behind, and then the request for a review.

Walk it together before you call it done

Set the walk-through as the finish line before the job starts. When the contract names the final walk-through as the event that makes the last payment due, as getting paid faster suggests, the customer knows the date matters and plans to be there. Walk it with the person who signed the contract, and bring the estimate and every signed change order, so you check the work against what was agreed rather than against anyone's memory.

A walk-through list that fits most trades:

• The scope. Every line of the estimate and of each change order done, in the material, size and color agreed.
• Run what runs. Equipment switched on and cycled, doors and windows opened and locked, faucets and drains run, the thermostat or controller set with the customer watching.
• The permit closed. Where a permit was pulled, the final inspection passed and the sign-off in the customer's papers.
• The site as you found it. Debris hauled, nails swept with a magnet, dust wiped, furniture back, gates latched, lawn and driveway checked.
• The papers handed over. Manuals, the manufacturers' warranty papers, care instructions, product names and paint colors, and leftover material labeled for touch-ups.

Put the punch list in writing

Something small always turns up: a scuff, a missing cover plate, a door that rubs. Handle it on paper, not with "I'll swing by sometime." Write each item down during the walk-through with the day you will fix it, and ask the customer to initial the list. Fix the items, show the customer, and get the list signed off.

Two habits keep a punch list from becoming a second job. First, everything on it must be part of the original scope; a new request is a change order with its own price. Second, settle in the contract how a short punch list relates to the last payment, for example that the balance is due at the walk-through and the listed items are finished by a stated date. A missing piece of trim is a poor reason for a customer to hold a large balance, and a poor reason for you to leave it unbilled.

Say a painter finishes a three-bedroom interior on a Wednesday. On the walk-through the customer points out a roller mark in the hall, a missed spot behind the bathroom door and paint on one outlet cover. The painter writes all three down with "Friday morning" next to each, the customer initials the sheet, and the invoice for the balance goes out that afternoon. On Friday the items take under an hour, and the customer signs the list. Nothing was argued about, and nothing stayed open long enough to grow.

Send the final invoice the same day

The day the work is accepted is the day the customer is happiest with it. An invoice that arrives that afternoon is paid while the result is new; one that arrives two weeks later competes with every other bill in the house. Send it before you leave the driveway if you can, and make it easy to agree with:

• The same words as the estimate, so every line is something the customer already accepted.
• Each change order as its own line, with its signed date.
• The deposit and progress payments already received, so the balance is plainly what is left.
• A due date and the ways you take payment.

If the money still does not come, collecting an unpaid invoice walks through the steps before small claims.

The warranty letter: what federal law says

Nothing obliges you to give a written warranty. The Federal Trade Commission's guide to federal warranty law says the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act "does not require any business to provide a written warranty." But a short letter that says what you stand behind, and for how long, is one of the cheapest ways to end a job well, and the federal rules decide how some of it must be written.

The Act covers written warranties on consumer products. The FTC's guide says it does not apply to oral warranties and "does not apply to warranties on services." The statute counts as a consumer product property "intended to be attached to or installed in any real property" (15 U.S.C. 2301(1)), and the FTC's interpretation (16 CFR 700.1) draws the line inside a house like this:

• Equipment is a consumer product. Separate items attached to the house, "such as air conditioners, furnaces, and water heaters," and other appliances and thermal, mechanical and electrical equipment, stay covered once installed.
• The building's own parts are not. The rule leaves out "the wiring, plumbing, ducts, and other items which are integral component parts of the structure."
• Materials depend on the deal. Materials a homeowner buys for improving or repairing a home (the rule's examples are paneling, dropped ceilings, siding, roofing, storm windows and remodeling) are consumer products. Materials for a new home, a substantial addition, a garage or an in-ground pool are not, though separate equipment attached to them still is.

So a promise that covers only your labor is a warranty on a service: the federal Act does not reach it, and your state's law governs it. A written warranty you give on equipment or materials you supply is different. So is one that covers both: the FTC's guide says that if a warranty "covers both the parts provided for a repair and the workmanship in making that repair, the Act does apply." For those warranties, the federal rules are:

• Title it. On a product costing more than $10, a written warranty must be called "full" or "limited." A full warranty must meet all five of the FTC's conditions: no limit on how long implied warranties last, service for any owner, service free of charge, a replacement or refund if repairs fail, and no unreasonable duties put on the customer. A warranty that does not meet them all is limited.
• Disclose the terms. On a product costing more than $15, the warranty must say what it covers, how long it lasts, what it excludes, what you will do, how to get service and how state law applies, with the line "This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state."
• Keep the implied warranties. If you give a written warranty, you may not disclaim the implied warranties (15 U.S.C. 2308(a)). A limited warranty may limit their length to the length of your written one, if the written one is of reasonable length and the limit is conscionable, "set forth in clear and unmistakable language and prominently displayed on the face of the warranty" (2308(b)).

Implied warranties are, in the FTC's words, "unspoken, unwritten promises, created by state law": that goods "will do what they are supposed to do," and that they suit a particular purpose when the customer relied on your advice in choosing them. What they mean in your state is a question for your state's law.

What goes in the letter

One page, dated, on your letterhead, with a copy in the job file:

• The customer's name, the address and the date the work was completed.
• What is covered: your workmanship on the work listed, in plain words.
• How long: one period, counted from the completion date.
• What is not covered: misuse, storm damage, other people's work, normal wear, and defects in a manufacturer's product, which go to that manufacturer's warranty.
• What you will do: repair the defect at no charge, or whatever you are actually prepared to do.
• How to make a claim: in writing, by email with photos, and how soon you will come and look.
• If the letter covers equipment or materials you supplied, the title, the disclosures and the state-law line above.

Hand the manufacturers' warranties over separately, and point out any that ask the customer to register the product. Never restate in your letter what a manufacturer promises in theirs; the customer should know which claims go to the maker, with your help, and which come to you.

A warranty is also a date in your calendar. A note a month before it runs out, asking whether anything has shown up, catches a small fix while it is still small and reminds the customer who did the work. The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide counts a message that only "gives warranty, recall, safety, or security information" about something the customer bought as transactional; if the note turns into a sales email, the Act's rules for commercial email apply, and emailing past customers covers them.

Then ask for the review

The natural moment to ask is when the punch list is signed off: the work is finished, nothing is left open, and the customer has just said it looks right. Ask every customer the same way at the same point, never offer anything for a review, and never make the warranty or the final price depend on one. Asking for Google reviews explains the FTC's and Google's rules behind that.

If you use the office in our tools, an accepted estimate becomes the invoice in one click and goes by email the same day, and with your own Stripe key saved, an invoice paid online is marked paid on its own.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.