By updating billing methods and improving data compliance, several laundry operations discovered hidden revenue streams that significantly boosted their earnings.
In industrial laundry operations, most conversations revolve around production efficiency. Topics such as washing capacity, logistics, automation, and staffing often dominate management discussions.
According to Peter van Kessel, COO of ABS, this focus is understandable, but it does not tell the complete financial story of a laundry operation.
“The real business of a laundry comes together on the invoice,” Peter explains. “That is where everything meets. The contract, the services delivered, the rental model, repairs, logistics, and additional services.” Yet invoicing is still often seen as an administrative task rather than a strategic function. “When invoicing structures are not reviewed regularly, laundries may be leaving revenue on the table without realizing it,” Peter says.
The Diversity Behind Laundry Invoicing
For people outside the textile service industry, invoicing may seem straightforward. In practice, invoices reflect a wide range of operational services.
“A customer relationship in a laundry environment rarely consists of just washing textiles,” Peter explains. “There are often many additional services involved.”
These services can include washing, textile rental, logistics, garment preparation, labeling & embroidery, repair services, and replacement items. Each of these can appear as a separate invoice line, depending on the contract structure.
Invoicing therefore requires flexible system configurations that accurately reflect operational reality.
Where Laundries Often Miss Opportunities
Outdated invoicing structures
“Many laundries configure their invoicing model once and rarely revisit it,” Peter explains. “But services evolve over time, and the invoicing structure should evolve with them.”
Hidden data inconsistencies
Laundry invoices can contain many line items. Over time, small inconsistencies may appear, such as outdated prices, missed index adjustments, or contract conditions that were never updated.
Services not being invoiced
In some situations laundries discover that certain services are delivered operationally but never appear on the invoice due to configuration gaps.
The Importance of Data Compliance
While improving invoicing structures is important, data compliance is equally critical. Large volumes of invoice data make errors difficult to detect, which can lead to hidden revenue leakage.
“Eventually, nobody really looks at those long invoice rules anymore, not even the end customer,” Peter explains.
- Simple price input errors
- Prices that have not been updated over time
- Missed Price Index adjustments
By conducting regular data checks and benchmarking pricing across customers, laundries can quickly identify and correct discrepancies.
“If you have 200 customers using the same product, benchmarking can reveal significant differences, often caused by small errors,” Peter says
How Technology Is Changing Invoicing
Technology plays an increasing role in improving invoicing accuracy and transparency. Tracking technologies such as RFID provide insight into textile usage, enabling more precise billing for loss and replacement.
Automation also introduces new operational steps, which can become additional invoice components.
Laundries should regularly review invoicing structures and analyze the data behind them. The biggest opportunities often come from improving existing processes rather than adding new ones.
When invoicing is supported by strong data visibility and flexible systems, it becomes a powerful tool for improving overall business performance.
