Ask ten livery yards when they are paid and you’ll get ten different answers. Adi Devonish from LIVERYLive looks at why mixed payment arrangements cause so many issues and how switching to one simple billing cycle can put yard owners back in control of their cash flow.
An arrangement no other business would accept
When speaking with yard owners across the country, one challenge keeps coming up: payment times are all over the place.
On the same yard, some liveries pay on the 1st of the month, others pay 4-weekly, some pay weekly, some extras get settled at month end but some according to a mystical, pretty unpredictable timetable. Each arrangement probably made sense when it started, but together they become an administrative headache. Time spent cross-checking who owes what, and when, is time taken away from the yard.
Running a livery yard is a labour of love, but it is also a business. Yard owners are remarkably flexible in many ways, but flexibility with payment dates does not keep the cash flow flowing.
Imagine filling your trolley in Tesco and telling the cashier: “I’ll pay for half of this next week and the rest at the end of the month.” It simply wouldn’t happen. Retailers and service providers set clear payment terms and customers follow them. Your livery business deserves the same structure.
You are in control of your business
As a yard owner you provide essential, high-value care and facilities. You have every right to set the terms that keep your business running smoothly. Moving all your clients onto one payment schedule isn’t unreasonable, it’s good management.
Why one payment schedule works for everyone
- Less admin: one billing date instead of a dozen due dates scattered through the month.
- Predictable cash flow: you know when income arrives, so budgeting for feed, bedding and maintenance becomes far easier.
- Clear expectations: owners know exactly what they’re paying and when, every month.
Who we are
LIVERYLive is a UK-built app for equine yard management, used by livery yards of every type and size across the country. It’s built around one idea: yards run better when everything lives in one place, instead of being spread across WhatsApp groups, a whiteboard, a diary and a spreadsheet.
How LIVERYLive handles billing
LIVERYLive is designed around calendar monthly billing. Every owner on the yard is billed on the same cycle, so the question of “when do you pay?” is answered once, for everyone. If your yard needs to bill weekly or 4-weekly, the system can handle that too, but calendar monthly is where it works best and saves you the most time.
Extras added as they happen. Most of the stress in billing isn’t the livery fee, it’s the extras. Rug changes, horses kept in, extra hay, a farrier hold. In LIVERYLive, when an owner requests something it lands on the yard’s to-do list. When the job is done, it’s ticked off and the charge goes straight onto that horse’s bill on the day the work was carried out. Checking off the day’s tasks takes less than 30 seconds at the end of each day, and it means nothing gets missed.
No more billing day in the office surrounded by notes, diaries and old messages, trying to rebuild the month from memory. One 30-horse yard told us they captured over £300 in extra charges in their first month, not by putting prices up, but by billing accurately for every extra that had been requested.
Owners pay through the app. At the end of the month the bill is ready, and owners can pay directly through the LIVERYLive app, available on iPhone and Android. No chasing bank transfers, no matching payments to names on a statement.
No surprises for owners. Owners can see charges build up as they happen, so the monthly bill is never a shock. That means fewer awkward conversations when the invoice arrives.
Flexibility where you want it. If you’d like a tighter rein on cash flow for certain items, you can flag them to be paid at the time of request instead of going on the monthly bill. For example, hay and bedding could be paid for when ordered, with everything else settled at month end.
Links straight to your accounts. LIVERYLive connects directly with Xero and QuickBooks, so your invoices and payments flow into your accounting software without being typed in twice. Your book-keeping stays up to date, and your accountant will thank you for it.
You can see everything LIVERYLive does for yard managers on our benefits page.
How to make the switch
If your owners are currently paying on different schedules, you don’t need to change everything overnight. Give reasonable notice, say 30 to 60 days, explaining that you’re streamlining billing so you can spend more time on the yard. Moving onto LIVERYLive is a natural point to do it: new system, one billing date, clear terms from day one.
Want to see how billing works before you commit? Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it.
And if you’re worried about the time it takes to set up, we can do it for you. Send us your horses, owners and the services you charge for, and we’ll set up your yard in the app and hand it back ready to use.
Clear communication, clear boundaries and consistent processes protect both your time and your cash flow. Setting firm business terms isn’t awkward, it’s professional.
For more on getting your yard ready for the busy months, read our earlier piece: Get Ahead of Winter: Smarter Yard Management Starts Now.
Try LIVERYLive free
LIVERYLive comes with a free six-week trial, covering daily tasks, the shared yard calendar, arena bookings, billing and accounting integrations, on your phone or at your desk. See our pricing or book a demo.
LiveryList readers get 50% off their first month after the free trial. Enter the code LIVERYLIST50 in the Discount Code field when you create your account.