Just signed up today. We sell travel 2-3 years out. We have varying scheduled payments for each client. Without this feature, these invoices will be confusing. Maybe I'll check back with Wave when they have this figured out.
@PeternKristine It helps to know that this is so important to your business, so thanks for posting.
Hi @Spiezz, sorry that you were having trouble with the link Ryan shared above. It should lead you to the article posted here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622916-How-to-handle-invoice-deposits-or-pre-payments so please let me know if you're still unable to see it. The article outlines how we suggest handling pre-payments in Wave right now, if that's something you wanted to try. For deposits, there have been some good suggested workarounds shared here. One option is to create a service item for the deposit on the invoice (and put the due date for that deposit into the description). Another alternative mentioned was putting the note about the deposit amount and its due date into the invoice notes. Both options might work depending on your situation.
We really appreciate the continued discussion here and the details you've all offered above. Knowing how you invoice your customers helps our team understand the impact that a process like this has on your business. Thank you all again for your honesty about why this is challenging and for continuing to share your thoughts and experience with us.
I would love to see this as well. We, also tailor payment plans to our clients needs. It often includes a down payment and 3 additional payments--typically billed monthly. Currently I am using the notes section, but would love to set up payments for our clients and then follow up with options of sending reminders, etc...
It would be really amazing to have this feature soon as I currently have to create new invoices for clients as and when I finish stages of their work. I cannot use reoccurring invoices as the amount due varies in percentage during the different stages of the project. For example Stage 1 requires 60% fee to be paid, Stage 2 requires 20% of the fee to be paid and lastly stage 3 requires 20% to be paid. I currently use the "Notes"portion but I would like my clients to be able to see the full invoice and at the bottom the amount due at the current stage under "Amount Due"
I am desperate for this feature. My clients pay in installments (10% up front, then 2 payments 45% and 45%). As of now I make 3 separate invoices. This is not only time consuming but it also alters my ability to keep track of sales tax. Because the grand total includes tax already, when I break the payments up into separate invoices I can't use the sales tax function in the invoice without taking the time to reverse the calculations (subtract either 10% or 45% of the sales tax, list the amount less the tax and then add the tax using function in the invoice). If I could just make one invoice and break it up into "amount due at this time" when I send it I would only have to calculate the tax once and could keep track of it within the app. As it is now I keep track of it manually. Please add this feature asap!
@POFloral Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it sounds like what you are requesting is something that's already possible in Wave. You can send the total amount of the invoice that would be eventually paid by your client, and in the description/notes section let them know when the payment instalments are due, etc. Your clients have the option to input how much money they want to pay you on the invoice (ex if a total amount for invoice is $200.00 and the deposit is $50.00 the client has the option to input $50.00 to pay for the invoice, not the entire thing). I understand that there isn't a way to set due dates for each individual amount, but it does seem like this workaround would still work in your case (you can just set the due date for the final total amount)
@treplo Still no plans to have this feature added in Wave as we are focusing our attention elsewhere (reconciliation, migration, moving personal to business, etc). However, it sounds like to me you are just wanting to have your client pay you in 3 instalments -- you can send your client the total amount of the invoice, they choose what they want to pay you for the invoice (so you can write that in the invoice note section, how much they should pay you for each instalment). Perhaps not ideal with your workflow, but that is the essential workaround right now.
@JamieD said: @treplo Still no plans to have this feature added in Wave as we are focusing our attention elsewhere (reconciliation, migration, moving personal to business, etc). However, it sounds like to me you are just wanting to have your client pay you in 3 installments -- you can send your client the total amount of the invoice, they choose what they want to pay you for the invoice (so you can write that in the invoice note section, how much they should pay you for each installment). Perhaps not ideal with your workflow, but that is the essential workaround right now.
**A very poor workaround. All the options presented so far by WAVE are cumbersome! **
WAVE developers must remember that most of us that use WAVE are not accountants! Most of us are entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, etc that require a simple[r] solution. If we were accountants or wanting to use a more complex accounting/customer management system, we would be using one of the many more advanced options available.
(Apparently, WAVE does not confer with accountants as they develop WAVE as the accountants and accounts payable personnel I have spoken with are exclaiming the process should be exactly as we are requesting. App Developers I have spoken with are saying it's as simple as connecting the calculator applet within WAVE to add/subtract payments.)
In my case(s) of Video Production, my (simple) workflow parallels those above:
Create Estimate (approved)
Send Invoice #XXXa for partial payment/deposit - which reflects total balance, payment(s) and balance due.
Send Invoice(s) #XXXb, #XXXc, #XXXd for partial or remaining payment(s) until paid in full -all of which reflect total balance, payment(s) and balance due. C'mon WAVE - SIMPLE!
@I2Freelance, thank you! I could not have said it better myself. I hope WAVE adds this feature very soon, otherwise I'd be forced to use another platform.
I'll keep it simple....us customers and users of wave need a way of showing on an invoice that a deposit is required before services are rendered. I simply will have to move away from Wave if something is not done about this. It is a very simple issue to understand and I don't know why the administrators after looking at all the comments can't grasp the necessity of it
Hello - I would like this feature as well. I'd love to take a total balance of say 5000 and break up the payment to say equal payments of 1K over 5 months and have the system only request 1K due on each due date. Today it requests the entire balance at each due date which is somewhat confusing to the customer. Thanks in advance. Great product nonetheless!!
Hey @I2Freelance , @ASPS , @Hawp , @vigbkwe1, thanks for taking the time to reach out to us on this topic and give us some insight into why this feature would be a game changer for you! Honestly feedback like this is a Huge part of of what goes into creating new features in Wave.
If your customers are paying in instalments, then please refer to Jamie's comment above, send out the invoice in full to them, and record partial payments on the invoice until it has been paid in full. Each partial payment will generate an income transaction in your account.
This help centre article is your best bet for handling deposits/pre-payments! I hope this helps for now, please keep all of your feedback coming, we are listening
@Zoe_caff , with all due respect, we have given enough insight and information on why we need this. Please refer to the thread if you have not already, and you’ll see that we are doing your suggested workarounds and more, but they are not professional for our service based business.
I second what ASPS has stated. I am sure there is some reason why Wave fails to properly understand the need for the deposit feature. Could be simply that none of those in administering the system have ever run a business themselves where cash flow is vital. Please make it easy for us by looking into what we are saying. A switch to a more "customer focused " invoice system may soon be necessary to get what we need.
Hey everyone, thank you so much for your patience and feedback! This thread and all your suggestions have been incredibly helpful to us. Some of you may know that we are currently upgrading invoices. A lot of the reason there haven't been any substantive update to them recently is we needed to re-build our invoice system on a better and more robust platform, but we're getting to a place where developing upgrades and updates for invoicing is a lot more feasible. So, given the demand, Deposits on Invoices should be in one of the first groups of updates. We don't have an ETA yet, but stay tuned!
This feature is sorely needed by those of us in the creative/production field. I really hope it's added soon. Totally agree with @theprintbazaar as to the process - that's exactly how we run our billing workflow.
Sadly I think we're going to be waiting a long time .I'm not convinced Wave have any interest in bringing this feature in as soon as we would like them to . I hope I'm wrong and I hope they can update us very soon as to when they will introduce deposits into our invoices. Over to you Wave. Let the silence not be deafening
Hey Wave! It would be a fantastic change to add a feature for deposits into your invoices. Something like a due now amount that shows the total cost for items with the deposit amount at the bottom, then an updated invoice showing the paid deposit and remaining balance. Make it happen!
@truehousemedia@Hawp@kaelyn Thanks for weighing in with your feature ideas, guys! I checked in with our Product Team liaison and I have an update on this. I'm afraid we don't currently have a laid out plan for a specialized invoice deposit feature. While we appreciate all your feedback on this, it's not priority one on the roadmap as it is possible to make partial payments on invoices until the invoice is fully paid! When you record a partial payment, the balance due does update on the invoice as well. In the notes section of your invoice, or when you send the invoice in an email, you can request the amount to be deposited. There is also the option of creating a recurring invoice which would allow you to collect a deposit from the first invoice and then the rest of the payment for the remaining invoices. Just in case, have you seen this Help Centre article on partial payments in Wave? It also goes over how to properly account for invoice deposits! https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622916-How-to-handle-invoice-deposits-or-pre-payments
@ChelseaK I know we have other workarounds, but I actually experienced push back from an accounting department of a large agency in Chicago this morning, this is not and mom & pop shop. They insisted on two separate invoices, the first showing the total project amount, minus a 50% discount so that the bottom line was how much they were going to pay for the deposit. Then they want the balance deposit (after any possible changes in reconciliation) to reflect their initial payment with check # and the balance now due. If I break it into two separate invoices then my cash flow projections are not accurate and I have to resort to manual tracking in Excel, which is cumbersome and time consuming. I expect my accounting app to handle this automatically.
So your developers just don't have time to mess with something that is obviously an issue to us because we can just work around the problem. I'm starting to see why Wave is free. Don't get me wrong, you do many things very well, but this one area is a real pain in the butt.
Yes, I have read all of your articles on this matter.
Hey @truehousemedia . Thanks for providing us with your very specific use case in this situation as it helps us get a larger idea of the different needs of our users. I'm afraid that this isn't as simple as our developers tweaking a few things and having this readily available in Wave. We do try and prioritize things that we thinks our users need, but there really are a lot of different things that our users do want added to the platform. As Chelsea said above, this is something that isn't on our roadmap at the moment as we work towards adding other invoicing features to Wave, but I will pass your feedback along to the appropriate team for future considerations.
Comments
So happy to see that I am not alone. Hopefully this feature can be added someday soon, seeing that OCR is being taken away
Just signed up today. We sell travel 2-3 years out. We have varying scheduled payments for each client. Without this feature, these invoices will be confusing. Maybe I'll check back with Wave when they have this figured out.
@Ryan_W The link in your response is not active. I also have this issue.
Hi everyone, thanks so much for all the feedback that you've provided so far.
@ASPS in case you missed it: we've updated the plan for OCR, based in large part on the feedback we received from the community. Please have a look at the updated plan by clicking here. In the meantime, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@PeternKristine It helps to know that this is so important to your business, so thanks for posting.
Hi @Spiezz, sorry that you were having trouble with the link Ryan shared above. It should lead you to the article posted here: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622916-How-to-handle-invoice-deposits-or-pre-payments so please let me know if you're still unable to see it. The article outlines how we suggest handling pre-payments in Wave right now, if that's something you wanted to try. For deposits, there have been some good suggested workarounds shared here. One option is to create a service item for the deposit on the invoice (and put the due date for that deposit into the description). Another alternative mentioned was putting the note about the deposit amount and its due date into the invoice notes. Both options might work depending on your situation.
We really appreciate the continued discussion here and the details you've all offered above. Knowing how you invoice your customers helps our team understand the impact that a process like this has on your business. Thank you all again for your honesty about why this is challenging and for continuing to share your thoughts and experience with us.
I would love to see this as well. We, also tailor payment plans to our clients needs. It often includes a down payment and 3 additional payments--typically billed monthly. Currently I am using the notes section, but would love to set up payments for our clients and then follow up with options of sending reminders, etc...
Thank you so much for your consideration!!!
It would be really amazing to have this feature soon as I currently have to create new invoices for clients as and when I finish stages of their work. I cannot use reoccurring invoices as the amount due varies in percentage during the different stages of the project. For example Stage 1 requires 60% fee to be paid, Stage 2 requires 20% of the fee to be paid and lastly stage 3 requires 20% to be paid. I currently use the "Notes"portion but I would like my clients to be able to see the full invoice and at the bottom the amount due at the current stage under "Amount Due"
I am desperate for this feature. My clients pay in installments (10% up front, then 2 payments 45% and 45%). As of now I make 3 separate invoices. This is not only time consuming but it also alters my ability to keep track of sales tax. Because the grand total includes tax already, when I break the payments up into separate invoices I can't use the sales tax function in the invoice without taking the time to reverse the calculations (subtract either 10% or 45% of the sales tax, list the amount less the tax and then add the tax using function in the invoice). If I could just make one invoice and break it up into "amount due at this time" when I send it I would only have to calculate the tax once and could keep track of it within the app. As it is now I keep track of it manually. Please add this feature asap!
@POFloral Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it sounds like what you are requesting is something that's already possible in Wave. You can send the total amount of the invoice that would be eventually paid by your client, and in the description/notes section let them know when the payment instalments are due, etc. Your clients have the option to input how much money they want to pay you on the invoice (ex if a total amount for invoice is $200.00 and the deposit is $50.00 the client has the option to input $50.00 to pay for the invoice, not the entire thing). I understand that there isn't a way to set due dates for each individual amount, but it does seem like this workaround would still work in your case (you can just set the due date for the final total amount)
any progress on this feature?
Thanks
@treplo Still no plans to have this feature added in Wave as we are focusing our attention elsewhere (reconciliation, migration, moving personal to business, etc). However, it sounds like to me you are just wanting to have your client pay you in 3 instalments -- you can send your client the total amount of the invoice, they choose what they want to pay you for the invoice (so you can write that in the invoice note section, how much they should pay you for each instalment). Perhaps not ideal with your workflow, but that is the essential workaround right now.
**A very poor workaround. All the options presented so far by WAVE are cumbersome! **
WAVE developers must remember that most of us that use WAVE are not accountants! Most of us are entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, etc that require a simple[r] solution. If we were accountants or wanting to use a more complex accounting/customer management system, we would be using one of the many more advanced options available.
(Apparently, WAVE does not confer with accountants as they develop WAVE as the accountants and accounts payable personnel I have spoken with are exclaiming the process should be exactly as we are requesting. App Developers I have spoken with are saying it's as simple as connecting the calculator applet within WAVE to add/subtract payments.)
In my case(s) of Video Production, my (simple) workflow parallels those above:
@I2Freelance, thank you! I could not have said it better myself. I hope WAVE adds this feature very soon, otherwise I'd be forced to use another platform.
It is a very simple issue to understand and I don't know why the administrators after looking at all the comments can't grasp the necessity of it
Hello - I would like this feature as well. I'd love to take a total balance of say 5000 and break up the payment to say equal payments of 1K over 5 months and have the system only request 1K due on each due date. Today it requests the entire balance at each due date which is somewhat confusing to the customer. Thanks in advance. Great product nonetheless!!
Hey @I2Freelance , @ASPS , @Hawp , @vigbkwe1, thanks for taking the time to reach out to us on this topic and give us some insight into why this feature would be a game changer for you! Honestly feedback like this is a Huge part of of what goes into creating new features in Wave.
If your customers are paying in instalments, then please refer to Jamie's comment above, send out the invoice in full to them, and record partial payments on the invoice until it has been paid in full. Each partial payment will generate an income transaction in your account.
This help centre article is your best bet for handling deposits/pre-payments! I hope this helps for now, please keep all of your feedback coming, we are listening
I second what ASPS has stated. I am sure there is some reason why Wave fails to properly understand the need for the deposit feature. Could be simply that none of those in administering the system have ever run a business themselves where cash flow is vital. Please make it easy for us by looking into what we are saying. A switch to a more "customer focused " invoice system may soon be necessary to get what we need.
Hey everyone, thank you so much for your patience and feedback! This thread and all your suggestions have been incredibly helpful to us. Some of you may know that we are currently upgrading invoices. A lot of the reason there haven't been any substantive update to them recently is we needed to re-build our invoice system on a better and more robust platform, but we're getting to a place where developing upgrades and updates for invoicing is a lot more feasible. So, given the demand, Deposits on Invoices should be in one of the first groups of updates. We don't have an ETA yet, but stay tuned!
This feature is sorely needed by those of us in the creative/production field. I really hope it's added soon. Totally agree with @theprintbazaar as to the process - that's exactly how we run our billing workflow.
Over to you Wave. Let the silence not be deafening
Hey Wave! It would be a fantastic change to add a feature for deposits into your invoices. Something like a due now amount that shows the total cost for items with the deposit amount at the bottom, then an updated invoice showing the paid deposit and remaining balance. Make it happen!
@truehousemedia @Hawp @kaelyn Thanks for weighing in with your feature ideas, guys! I checked in with our Product Team liaison and I have an update on this. I'm afraid we don't currently have a laid out plan for a specialized invoice deposit feature. While we appreciate all your feedback on this, it's not priority one on the roadmap as it is possible to make partial payments on invoices until the invoice is fully paid! When you record a partial payment, the balance due does update on the invoice as well. In the notes section of your invoice, or when you send the invoice in an email, you can request the amount to be deposited. There is also the option of creating a recurring invoice which would allow you to collect a deposit from the first invoice and then the rest of the payment for the remaining invoices. Just in case, have you seen this Help Centre article on partial payments in Wave? It also goes over how to properly account for invoice deposits! https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622916-How-to-handle-invoice-deposits-or-pre-payments
@ChelseaK I know we have other workarounds, but I actually experienced push back from an accounting department of a large agency in Chicago this morning, this is not and mom & pop shop. They insisted on two separate invoices, the first showing the total project amount, minus a 50% discount so that the bottom line was how much they were going to pay for the deposit. Then they want the balance deposit (after any possible changes in reconciliation) to reflect their initial payment with check # and the balance now due. If I break it into two separate invoices then my cash flow projections are not accurate and I have to resort to manual tracking in Excel, which is cumbersome and time consuming. I expect my accounting app to handle this automatically.
So your developers just don't have time to mess with something that is obviously an issue to us because we can just work around the problem. I'm starting to see why Wave is free. Don't get me wrong, you do many things very well, but this one area is a real pain in the butt.
Yes, I have read all of your articles on this matter.
Hey @truehousemedia . Thanks for providing us with your very specific use case in this situation as it helps us get a larger idea of the different needs of our users. I'm afraid that this isn't as simple as our developers tweaking a few things and having this readily available in Wave. We do try and prioritize things that we thinks our users need, but there really are a lot of different things that our users do want added to the platform. As Chelsea said above, this is something that isn't on our roadmap at the moment as we work towards adding other invoicing features to Wave, but I will pass your feedback along to the appropriate team for future considerations.
Please add your feedback to the Poll in the link below to further contribute to our conversation surrounding deposits 🙂
https://community.waveapps.com/discussion/6135/how-would-you-use-deposits-in-your-business#latest