Requesting up-front payments from customers

1

We have sales terms that include 30% up front - for custom manufactured products.

So our work flow is:

  1. We receive the order
  2. Log it as a sales order in manager
  3. Issue an Invoice for 30%
  4. Do the job
  5. Issue an invoice for the last 70%

I can’t see a good way of telling which sales orders have been fully invoiced and which have only been invoiced for the deposit.

Currently I go to sales invoices and see what the total is and a reference number then go to Invoices and match it up - To generate the second invoice I clone the first one and then use a calculator to work out the balance owed - which is asking for an error. It works at the moment as we have only done a small number of jobs but it is going to be a problem.

2

I would issues the full amount on the invoice and state in the notes that 30% is payable upfront. Manager will the show outstanding amount on the invoice so you can keep track and you can also the use the Due date when creating the invoice to know when the last payment and order delivery is due.

3

Sorry for the delay in coming back I have been a bit distracted.

I hadn’t thought of thet solution but that does not help me track the payments as I would be expecting two payments one the one invoice - I suppose it would so up as outstanding but that would mean that the invoice would age based on the first issue date and not the delivery date of the goods.? Which could be 3 months later.

In the absence of a better solution I will give it a go and see how it works.

4

Issuing single invoice where you require 30% upfront payment is the most common practice.

In future, it will be possible to link orders, quotes, invoices etc. together which will give you better picture of progress on each sale. For now, the solution @durkpotgieter has proposed is the most viable one.

5

Tom, it sounds as though you don’t begin work until you have received a 30% deposit. If that is the case, why not enter the delivery date of the goods on the invoice? It normally would not matter how the receivable ages prior to receiving the deposit, because until the customer decides to pay you, there really is no order or obligation on either party. After delivery, the receivable will age based on when the obligation to complete payment was created–delivery of finished goods/services.