How to invoice for a deposit - ie 20% - of total order?!

Question asked by Adam Stanley 12 years ago

Hi

Quite often will do a quote via clearbooks. It gets approved by client (YAY!) and then I want to invoice them for say 20% of the quote total now on booking (we are an equipment hire business) with the balance due on the delivery date of the equipment.

What's the easiest way to do this? I'm a longtime Clearbooks user, but have never really figured out the best way!!

Thanks

Adam

4 Replies

I send deposit invoices, the way we do it is simply create the full invoice in draft format.
Then create a new invoice, put the full total in the item.
We then add "70%" discount in the discount box - our deposits are 30%
The deposit total is then worked out, and you can send the invoice.

We then add an invoice "credit" to the first invoice, which shows the deposit was paid, with the dep invoice number etc.

It's a quicker process than you may think, and has worked well enough.

It also means that even if the scope of work changes, and more cost is added, then the client credit invoice remains the same.

I agree it would be really helpful to be able to invoice a percentage of an order. To get round this I have been doing the following.

  1. Once the quote has been accepted, change it to a sales order rather than an invoice
  2. Create a new invoice for a percentage of 'sales order xxx'

Hi Adam, I would recommend two different ways of dealing with this. The first is putting the payment details in the 'Payment Advice' box on the invoice so that your customers know what percentage they are to pay on booking and when the second amount will need to be paid. Alternatively you can create a line item as 20% deposit and then the hire items as further line items to be paid once the equipment is delivered.

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