Invoicing a deposit, progress payments and balance

A client whose accounts department pays on invoice cannot pay a deposit against a full-value invoice. Hand them a $10,000 document and tell them to send $3,000 and you will be waiting a while, because their system pays what the invoice says. So when a booking is staged as a deposit and a balance, 1pm bills it as real invoices: a deposit invoice for the deposit, a progress invoice for each progress payment in between, and a balance invoice for the rest.

This article covers how the invoices are built, progress invoices, the schedule each one shows the client, raising the balance when the time comes, billing charges added after it, and the cases where one full invoice is still the right answer.

Two invoices, one event total

Set a deposit on a confirmation and the billing splits in two.

The deposit invoice carries a line, "Deposit", for the deposit amount. Tax is split across it pro rata, so the deposit invoice's tax is the deposit's genuine share rather than a rounded guess. When the booking mixes tax rates (GST on the food, no tax on the room hire, say), the deposit has one line per rate, each marked with the rate it's taxed at, so each rate's tax is exact and goes to Xero under the right code.
The balance invoice is the itemised job, every line as you priced it, less a credit line for the deposit already invoiced.

Add the two together and you get the event total and the event's tax, exactly. Nothing is counted twice, which matters because both are ordinary invoices: they issue, send, take payments, appear in your reports, and push to Xero like any other.

The deposit invoice is raised for you when the client acts on the confirmation. The balance is yours to raise when you are ready, which is usually closer to the event once the final numbers have settled.

Progress invoices

When a confirmation has progress payments between the deposit and the balance, each one is billed as its own invoice. A progress invoice carries a line named after the payment, for its amount, with tax split pro rata the same way as the deposit, and one line per rate when the booking mixes rates.

It is raised for you the first time money is paid towards that payment, or when the client asks for their invoice while that payment is due. To raise it yourself, click Raise progress invoice on the event's Billing page. That bills the next progress payment without an invoice of its own.

The balance invoice credits every earlier invoice ("Less deposit already invoiced", "Less progress payment already invoiced"), with one credit line per tax rate where the earlier invoice had more than one. So the deposit, progress and balance invoices still add up to the event total and its tax exactly.

Raise the progress invoices before the balance. The balance invoice bills everything not already invoiced, so once it exists, a progress payment without its own invoice is covered by the balance and no separate invoice is raised for it.

The schedule on each document

An invoice for $3,000 with no context is confusing when the booking is worth $10,000. So each of the pair states the whole arrangement.

The deposit invoice says what the balance will be and when it falls due. The balance invoice says what the deposit was. With progress payments, every invoice lists the whole schedule and says which payment it is for. Either way the client's accounts team sees the full picture while the document's own total stays the stage amount, so they pay this invoice and cannot accidentally pay the event value twice over.

One deliberate omission: the deposit is not shown to your client with a due date. The booking is not held until the deposit lands, so quoting a date a fortnight out invites them to leave the date unsecured until then. The balance keeps its due date everywhere, because that one is a genuine future term. Your own deposit due date is unaffected: it is still stored, still editable on the confirmation, and still what drives the overdue reminder you get.

Raising the balance

Open the event's Billing page and, once a deposit invoice exists with a balance still to bill, Raise balance invoice appears beside the billing buttons.

A client can pay the balance on their booking page before you have raised its invoice. That money is recorded on the confirmation, but it is not on an invoice, so it does not reach Xero. The Billing page tells you when this has happened, with the amount, and the Xero sync console lists every booking in that state with a link to its Billing page. Click Raise balance invoice and the payment moves onto the new invoice.

The balance invoice is issued straight away: it takes the next invoice number, any money the client has already paid towards the balance shows against it, and it goes to Xero if you have auto-push on. Raise progress invoice works the same way. Neither is emailed to the client until you send it. Once an invoice is paid in full, the client can open it from their booking page and their event portal to view, download or print it, whether or not you have sent it. The Paid invoice automation also emails them a receipt with the paid invoice attached as a PDF, unless you switch it off. To change one before the client sees it, set its status back to Draft on the invoice, edit it, and issue it again. You can do that while no payment is recorded against it.

An issued deposit or progress invoice keeps its amount. If the client later changes their guest numbers, the difference goes on the balance, not on an invoice they already hold. For the same reason, while a deposit or progress invoice raised from a confirmation exists, the deposit and progress payment amounts on that confirmation can't be changed. Void the invoice first if the schedule really has to change. Once the balance invoice exists, void that first: it takes the deposit and progress invoices off what the client owes, so they can't be voided out from under it. See Voiding a quote or invoice.

Charges added after the balance

Once the balance invoice exists, Bill new items appears on the Billing page again. It makes a separate invoice for the charges you add after the balance invoice (the extra hour, the late bar tab), and leaves everything the balance already bills alone. It opens as a draft for you to check and send.

This extras invoice is not part of the payment schedule. Money the client pays on the confirmation still goes to the deposit, progress and balance invoices, and the extras invoice is paid on its own.

Before the balance invoice exists, Bill new items is hidden. The balance bills everything not yet invoiced, so raise the balance instead.

When it is one invoice instead

Not every booking is staged, and not every client wants it to be.

No deposit on the confirmation. Nothing changes. The event bills as one invoice, the way it always has.
The client elects to pay in full. If they choose the pay-in-full option (by card, or by declaring a bank transfer), 1pm honours that and raises one full invoice rather than handing them the deposit-stage document.
The whole booking is paid in one payment. If the first money to arrive covers everything (a card payment in full, or one bank transfer you record for the whole amount), the booking bills as one full invoice with that payment on it. This only applies while nothing has been invoiced in stages. Once a deposit invoice exists, the booking stays staged and the rest goes on the balance invoice.
You decide to bill it in one. A live deposit confirmation carries a Bill the full amount instead panel with a Raise full invoice button. Where the client has already declared they are paying in full, the panel says so and leads with it. It raises a draft and stops there, minting no link and pushing nothing to Xero until you send it.

That last one changes the outcome, not the record. What the client declared is a timestamped account of something they did and stays exactly as it was. If the event has already been billed, 1pm refuses and names the invoice that exists rather than quietly double-billing.

Knowing what the client committed to

Whether a client chose the deposit or the whole amount decides which invoice they should get, and it used to be a click inside the confirmation to find out.

The event's Billing page now shows an intent badge beside the confirmation's status with the amount, and hovering it gives you the method and the date they declared it. It clears itself once the balance is settled. It is a promise rather than money, so it never reads as paid and nothing in 1pm gates on it. A client can declare a deposit and send the lot, or declare and never pay at all.

Where the numbers show up

The Deposits and balances report is the forward view: what is contracted, collected, outstanding and overdue across every signed confirmation.
The Invoices report treats the pair as what they are, two invoices, so an outstanding balance invoice appears in the chase list on its own terms.
Do not add money across document types when reconciling by hand. A deposit paid on a confirmation is mirrored onto its deposit invoice deliberately, so the same money appears on both. Adding them together counts it twice.

Deposits and payment schedules covers setting the deposit on the confirmation in the first place.
Event confirmations covers the agreement the staging comes from.
Pricing an event covers the folio the balance invoice itemises.
Paying by bank transfer covers the client self-serving the invoice they need.
Sending invoices to Xero covers how the pair reach your accounts.