Accounting/Preloading

Jonathan_Stickland
Jonathan_Stickland PPC Member Posts: 42 ✭✭
in Feedback in Action

Everyday my accounting team yells at me for the number of small line items they have to enter from my credit card to Thumbtack.

Everyday I explain to them the only way around it is preloading large amounts of money to Thumbtack, but I risk running out and tasking someone else to monitor the funds. Why, because you don't offer an automatic reload option trigger!

I would not mind doing this, but allowing Thumbtack to hold my cash for X amount of days with no benefit is not good business. Even banks offer a little interest in a checking account or basic savings account.

Please consider adding another benefit for those of us willing to preload large amounts, such as a discount for leads purchased. Almost every other lead generation site does, y'all don't….yet (crosses fingers!)

Also, please consider listing the 15% discount received in leads on each lead cost, or in a rolling accounting measure. Mine hasn't been applied anywhere I can see at any point, and it messes with my cost of acquisition figures I monitor on a regular basis. Once a month isn't good enough, we need better.

Hope this helps.

Comments

  • zona5101
    zona5101 Posts: 3 ✭

    throwback… back in the day, you paid for lead "units" and the more you bought at one time the cheaper were each lead unit. I am not sure why TT ever changed that except perhaps it was limiting their revenue stream.

  • ArvinC
    ArvinC Administrator, Moderator Posts: 489 admin

    Hi @Jonathan_Stickland , thanks for laying this out so clearly. The accounting perspective is especially helpful here because you're highlighting not just how you pay for leads, but the operational impact that multiple transactions can have on a business managing its books closely.

    The ideas around an automatic reload option, potential benefits for Pros who choose to preload funds, and better visibility into how discounts are reflected in your lead costs are all useful, specific suggestions. I also appreciate you connecting this back to tracking customer acquisition costs, since having clear and timely numbers matters when you're making decisions about your business.

    And @zona5101 , thanks for adding some historical context on how the experience worked in the past as well.

    I'll make sure the feedback and specific use cases shared here are included as we're surfacing Community insights to the appropriate teams. Thanks to both of you for adding thoughtful context to the conversation!

  • EricGilletteDOTcom
    EricGilletteDOTcom Posts: 12 ✭

    I second this - there is literally ZERO benefit to preloading lead costs. I'd love, like others have pointed out, if there ACTUAL benefits to preloading. Perhaps a discounted lead price based on tiers for example (preload this much, get 10%off, preload this much get 20% off, etc). I tried to find the benefit in preloading, but there is none unfortunately.

  • MyCleanCharlotteMaid
    MyCleanCharlotteMaid Posts: 125 ✭✭✭

    I think clearer financial reporting would be very helpful for small service businesses, especially when managing prepaid balances, lead charges, discounts, and refunds.

    For cleaning companies, every marketing expense needs to be considered alongside labor, supplies, travel, scheduling, and the actual revenue generated from completed jobs.

    One challenge with prepaid lead systems is making sure the amount added to the account, the charges deducted, promotional credits, and remaining balances are all easy to reconcile.

    I think it would be useful to have a detailed report showing the opening balance, funds added, individual lead charges, discounts, refunds, and closing balance for a selected period.

    It would also help to connect lead spending with actual booking results so pros can understand which services and types of opportunities provide the best return.

    For example, a lead for a small one-time cleaning may have a different financial value than a recurring cleaning customer or a larger deep-cleaning project.

    Better reporting would help businesses monitor spending, identify discrepancies, and make more informed decisions about their marketing budgets.

    Transparency in billing benefits both the platform and the professionals using it.

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