Ask the client for a deposit
Request a deposit or a quoted stage payment, and send it to your client.
A deposit is money you take before there are any costs to bill against, so it is not built like an invoice. It has its own section on Billing the client: DEPOSITS & STAGE PAYMENTS.
- 1Open the job, go to Money, then Billing the client.
- 2Under "From your estimate" you will see the payment stages off your quote - deposit, rough-in, final - with each one priced.
- 3Press Request on the one you want. It moves to "Asked for, not yet paid".
- 4Press Send to email it to your client, or Copy the link and send it yourself.
- 5When the money arrives, press Mark paid on the request. That opens the normal payment record with the date, amount, method and cheque number, already filled in from the request.
THE AMOUNTS COME FROM YOUR ESTIMATE. If your quote said "50% deposit", that is 50% of the estimate total, worked out for you. A stage the estimate left vague is still listed, and says what it needs - usually an estimate total - rather than guessing a number you are about to ask a client for.
No stages on the estimate? Use "Request a one-off amount" at the bottom. It takes either a dollar figure or a percentage - $5,000 to start, or 30% up front. Type a percentage and it shows what that comes to against your estimate before you send it, and the request keeps a note of how it was worked out.
YOUR CLIENT SEES IT on their portal link, under "Payment requested", but only once you have actually sent it - raising a request does not surprise them with it.
ONCE THE MONEY IS RECORDED, the portal acknowledges it: the request disappears and a green Payments card takes its place, showing every payment they have made with its date and a running total. Your client always sees that their money arrived.
This works the same on AIA jobs. Pay applications bill work already in place; a deposit is not work in place, so it is requested here on both kinds of job.
CHANGE ANYTHING BEFORE YOU SAVE. If you asked for $5,000 and they sent $4,800, record $4,800 - the request is settled by what actually arrived, not by what you asked for.
A client payment does NOT go against a budget line. Budget lines track what the job costs you, and their actuals come from sub invoices and material receipts - money out. Money in from the client lands in Funds Received and your escrow balance, and gets drawn down as you pay vendors.
Deposits are ticked as Retainer / deposit automatically, because that is what they are - money held against work not yet done.