Deposit on Invoice
ASPS
Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
Is there a way that you can add a slot for the deposit amount on the invoice after total?
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Hi @ASPS.
Although adding a new field for deposit amount under the invoice isn't possible, there's a few workarounds I could suggest depending on your needs.
Can you tell me a little more about your business and why that field couldn't be treated as an item on the invoice?
Is it possible to design the invoice so that the client can use multiple payment methods or pay in installments?
Hi @Primalroots.
You can accept partial payments to your invoice without problems, and allow your clients to pay in installments that way. If you want to break it down further, you could also make recurring invoices instead, and make them active for a given period.
Can you give me a little more information? If you can tell me exactly what your workflow looks like, I'll be able to give you a more definitive answer.
This isn't really a solution since you're unable to easily show the customer the total and how much is due per installment (and when the installments are due). It's not a clean solution at all.
I have a similar issue where I invoice customers for rentals where they are expected to pay 50% upon receipt of the invoice and then 50% 30 days before their stay. I can mimic this with recurring invoices just fine and emulate the installment with a credit, but it's extremely confusing for the customers because they can't easily see the total amount due and when the next installment is expected.
With the method I've described above, the feedback from my customers is that it's too confusing. Because of this, I can't use this otherwise wonderful product. It seems a lot of other users have the same issue. When is Wave going to add this as a real feature?
Hi, @PJandCompanyLLC.
Using recurring invoices to handle transactions like in your example is actually one of the methods we suggest on the Help Center as well. You could also send a single invoice with mentions of your terms in the Notes section. Once that 50% is paid, you can resend them the same invoice, which will display the amount that already has been paid. But you are right, those two solutions are very much workarounds.
Could you tell me a little more about your business? It would give us a better idea of how we could best help you out.
Hi @Alexia. Thanks for the workaround tips.
For my business, it's basically the example in my post above. I rent out condos to vacationers. To reserve the room for a given night, the renter must pay 50% of the total bill to hold then the final 50% 60 days before they are scheduled to stay.
When I invoice, I like to send an invoice that shows:
1. All total fees so this is very clear to the renter
2. Clearly indicated payment breakup (50% now, 50% later)
3. The due dates of the installment payments
For myself, I would like to have the invoices auto-generated and sent 60 days before the scheduled date so that I don't have to remember to send the invoice at the right time.
Thanks for following up, @PJandCompanyLLC, we appreciate the feedback!
I think that given your situation, using recurring invoices is your best option. You can set your recurring invoice to send the first invoice for 50% of the payment on a given date, and set the second instance to send out 60 days later. You'll also have to set the end date right after the second invoice so that no third invoice is sent out.
The total fees won't appear by default, but you could add that information in the description of the item, as well as add your terms in the notes section of the invoice. The item on your invoice would look something like this...
Thanks @Alexia for the reply, however, this is too cumbersome for me to use for my business as-is. Having to manually calculate the totals and list it out in a note is a no-go because:
1) It's a lot of overhead for me
and
2) It's too confusing for my customers.
Thanks for the input, but I'll have to wait until something more robust has been implemented before I'm able to move back to wave
I'm sorry to hear that, @PJandCompanyLLC.
I can't make any promises, but I'll make sure this is seen by the right people on our end. User feedback has an important impact on how we choose what to build next, so thank you for taking the time to provide yours.
I am in a similar boat here. I have clients who cannot make the payment in full and so I am offering installments. I have no way to invoice a starting balance that will keep track of their payment history in a clear way. I have set up recurring invoices but there is no way to show the balance being paid down without manually keeping track of it. Having the feature where you can edit the starting balance of a customer or more options for payment terms such as a customization option on the main or 1st invoice where we can set the payment amount to be paid and the frequency of the payments instead of just net 30/60/90 etc. This feature being added would be tremendously helpful to us as well as making it really clear to our customers what their remaining balance is.
I have customers that I will be setting up using wave for their businesses and this feature would be an excellent selling feature for many of them
Thanks for sharing, @SupportSolutionsETC!
Can you tell us a bit more about the kind of business you run? I'd love to get a better idea of the work you do and the needs of your clients.
I am a Virtual Assistant for small business owners and offer a variety of services for my clients that can add up and since they are small business owners I often offer to split the payments One service is to manage their bookkeeping or set them up for bookkeeping if they do not have anything established already. I look for services that are all mobile friendly by being web based so they can work their business from any computer vs having to have software downloaded. Depending on what they offer they will need to have clients make payments on services as well instead of paying the full invoice at once. In this particular clients case that I am trying to work with the budget is small so I have made an agreement for payments to be split over 12 months. Add multiple clients to that list with various arrangements made its very cumbersome to keep track of who has paid what toward their balance. While yes, I can schedule the re-occurring to stop after a certain date it is not clear enough to myself or my client of the remaining balance without tracking it separately myself.
I hope this is clear on what you are looking for.
Hello ASPS did you find a resolve to your question?
Hello!
Unfortunately I have not found a resolve. What I’m currently doing is letting each client know that a minimum of 50% deposit is due before any service is rendered. I have added this notification in my footer and message.
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Alexia, thank you so much for your reply, but the reason I can not add the deposit amount as an item, is because it should not affect the overall total on the invoice. This way, once the deposit is collected, I can note that partial payment was made.
Hopefully Wave Apps can include a deposit slot under total one day.
Can you create the invoice then make the deposit as a "payment" against the invoice? (This should reflect the total invoice amount in your sales, the deposit being applied, and show the remaining balance on the invoice until paid in full.)
Hi Jacqui,
Yes, of course. That is what I’m doing after the deposit has been paid.
I’m more interested in a slot that shows the deposit amounted needed to be paid when the invoice is sent out and before payment, therefore not affecting the overall total just yet. Like I said, I work around it now by adding it in the footer and message prior to sending the invoice out. So I’m ok for now. Thanks for your reply in any event.
Hi, @ASPS.
That's really the only way to handle a situation like yours for the time being. I'd love to hear a bit more about the field you work in and the kind of transaction you have to handle. I'd like to forward this suggestion to our team and having more real-world context will help us understand how a feature like this could make the lives of our users easier.
Can you tell me about the kind of business you run and how you handle deposits?
Has this issue been solved? I have a simlar issue. I charge for classes but they are expensive so I charge a $50 fee to reserve the seat. Then depending on the length, they pay 2-3 installments but I want a running tab.
Thank you for your feedback, @SupportSolutionsETC and @PQE.
@PQE, I know this isn't an ideal solution, but you can make a single invoice and record multiple partial payments to it. After a payment is recorded, that payment will be reflected on the invoice immediately. If your client clicks the link they received by email, they'll see that partial payment there, as well as the remaining balance.
@Alexia thank you! That's actually exactly what I ended up doing. I live in the Republic of Panama and in the end, they have a machine that I also have to use and for the invoice numbers to stay matching, I can't have seperate invoices for each pmt really.
Happy to hear this solution works for you, @PQE!
+1 for this. It would be nice to have an option to send a partial invoice for x amount from within the invoice page. For example:
I'm a residential designer and upon signing the contract, the client pays a deposit. Upon submitting for permits, I'll charge some portion of the balance, and upon obtaining permits, I'll charge the remaining balance. It's nice that Wave already handles partial payments towards invoices - the last step would be to support sending partial invoices. So if you have an invoice for $2,000, let's say, you would have a dropdown to "Send Partial Invoice" for $500. Then at some point you could send an additional partial invoice for $500. All the while, each time the client checks this invoice online, they see their progress to the $2,000 sum.
Splitting this out in 3 separate invoices and keeping track and writing details of how far along they are towards the total sum is a workaround prone to errors and is tedious.
Thank you for adding your voice to this discussion and sharing your feedback, @Yoav!
I am a freelance designer and writer and offer payment for projects in instalments. Those instalments aren't always the same as the last payment often varies and the deposit is a different amount. I will need to use recurring invoices and a separate invoice for the first and last payment using this current workaround ... I would like to add that it would be much simpler to be able to Send Partial Invoice as mentioned by @Yoav above.
Hi @Alexia,
I run a film production and marketing company. At the moment, I let each client know that a minimum of 50% deposit is due before any service is rendered. I have added this notification in my footer and message. Once a deposit is made, I use the partial payment feature, and send a receipt.
@ASPS Do you typically create quotes or proposals before doing the work where you'd need to generate an invoice and request a deposit? I'd love to hear more about where in your sales process the deposit lies and where that sits in relation to the proposal to Invoice for work completed flow.
In addition to that, when you take a deposit, do you realize that income right away, or do you realize the income when the work is completed for your accounting purposes?
Hi @Rahim,
My business is service based, and deposits are required before any service is rendered. Once an estimate is approved, an invoice is sent and the deposit received. The income from the deposit is realized before the work is completed.
While I thank you for your inquiry, I'll continue as I have been with the waveapps. (Please see message thread for more details of why I need a deposit slot and what I have been doing as a workaround)
This is a huge problem for me as well. I'm a web developer/designer which is also a service based industry. I always require a 50% deposit, and right now I am having to send two different invoices and try to tie them together, for both me and my client, by writing in the description.
For the first invoice, I reference the estimate number and state the project total in the description. Then add a line item that says 50% deposit with just the deposit amount due. For the second one, I create a line item with the total project amount due and in the description write in the estimate number and the invoice number of the deposit payment, create another line item showing the deposit payment applied and reference the deposit invoice in the description, and then they pay the remaining amount due. It makes for very messy, complicated, fussy billing. And when I go back through my transactions it's a huge pain in the butt to try and tie everything back together to make sure the correct total amount was actually paid.
Like @ASPS said, the second email isn't such a big deal, I can just add the deposit payment, but the first one is a pain and I always have to include an emailed explanation to my clients. But I really wish it would just connect the invoice with the deposit payment to the second invoice, roll it together and give them the amount left due. Because I still have to go back and read the description of all of my invoices to find the right one to reference for their deposit line item in the second email..
Thank you both @ASPS and @mikaela for the feedback above. This is an area we can do better in so understanding your workflows is helpful for us to see how we can make this easier for you. If there's anything else that you think would be helpful in this workflow for you, please let me know! As we dig more into this, I will keep your feedback handy and may contact you further for more information.
I too am wrangling a production company. I sent estimate for $100,000. Once accepted, I converted to an invoice, and added a line item of -50,000 to arrive at the $50,000 deposit amount. I am positive this was the worst possible way of doing this.