Definition: Services rendered is the conclusion of a service agreement that is presented to the client to demand payment. After the agreed upon activity is completed it could be said that services were rendered successfully.
What Does Services Rendered Mean?
This concept is mostly employed for situations where the service is charged after the activity has happened. In other words, the client is billed after the service is completed. In such scenarios, services rendered often include a report of what has been done and how much it cost.
Contractors are a good example, since they often present a preliminary project and budget but after the job is done they will report a services rendered summary that might vary from the initial estimations. Lawyers function similarly, since legal cases are very difficult to budget and even though they can provide a guesstimate, the final bill for services rendered will normally be higher than expected.
Finally, service companies such as public service businesses, charge their customers after the monthly cycle has ended, therefore the invoice is for services already rendered to them.
Example
Lorain is currently remodeling her house and to do so she hired Fernando, a contractor that a friend of her recommended. After Lorain explained to him what she wanted to do, Fernando measured and calculated all the materials he required to perform the job and he also estimated how many people he needed to assist him during the work. He provided a budget of $12,000 for everything Lorain wanted and he estimated that he will take at least 3 months to complete the project.
After the three months had passed the house was entirely remodeled but the bill for services rendered grew to be $35,000. Lorain complained about the amount but Fernando explained to her that they encountered several structural issues that they had to fix, therefore the initial budget underestimated the actual value of the remodeling.
