Deposits and payment schedules

A signed confirmation is a commitment. A deposit is that commitment with money behind it: the figure that holds the date and tells you the client is serious. 1pm lets you ask for one on a confirmation, then tracks the deposit and the balance for you, all the way to paid.

This article covers setting a deposit, adding progress payments between the deposit and the balance, how the balance is worked out, chasing what is overdue, and the report that shows it across every booking.

Setting a deposit on a confirmation

A deposit lives on an event confirmation. While the confirmation is a draft, choose how much to ask for:

A percentage of the total (handy when every booking takes the same share), or
A fixed amount (when this one is a round number you have agreed).

Give it a due date, and that is the deposit set. If you have a default deposit in your Tax and invoicing settings, it is filled in for you, so a confirmation with your usual terms is no extra typing. Leave the deposit off entirely when a booking does not need one.

The deposit and the balance

Once a deposit is set, 1pm splits the total in two: the deposit, and the balance (everything left after it). Each carries its own due date, with the balance defaulting sensibly from your settings so you are not entering the same date twice. The confirmation shows where things stand at a glance: the deposit amount, what has been paid, and the balance still to come.

As payments are recorded, the figures update. When the deposit is covered it shows as paid, and the balance tracks down to zero as the rest arrives, so the outstanding number is always current wherever the confirmation appears.

Progress payments between the deposit and the balance

Some bookings are paid in more than two goes: a booking fee to hold the date, a progress payment a few months out, then the balance. For each payment in between, click Add a progress payment under the deposit on a draft confirmation, and give it:

a name the client sees, such as "Progress payment" or "Second instalment";
an amount, either a fixed amount or a percentage of the total;
a due date.

You can add up to four. They are paid in order: the deposit first, then each progress payment, then the balance, which is whatever is left. The deposit and progress payments together cannot come to more than the booking's total, each progress payment needs an amount, and the due dates must follow the same order. If any of these is off, 1pm tells you what to fix and keeps the schedule you had before.

The balance's due date sits on the same form, so you can move it on a draft before the client sees it.

To set this up once, add Progress payments under Deposits and payment timing in your Tax and invoicing settings. Each one is due a number of days before the event (84 days is twelve weeks), and the days must count down in order, with the balance last. Percentages can't add up to more than 100% of the total, counting the deposit. They are copied onto every new confirmation that has a deposit, and dated from that booking's event. On a booking only days away, the deposit's default due date is brought forward so it never falls after a progress payment or the balance.

The client sees the whole schedule on their booking page and pays each payment in turn. The deposit is still the payment that confirms the booking. Each progress payment is billed as its own invoice, as deposit and balance invoices explains.

When a client wants to pay it all at once

Some clients would rather settle the whole thing in one go than pay a deposit now and a balance later. You do not have to set that up: when you have online card payments switched on and a deposit is the amount due, the client's confirmation page offers a quiet Or pay in full option next to the Pay deposit button. It is their choice, made at the moment they pay.

For your tracking, paying in full is simply a single payment that covers everything. The deposit shows as paid and the balance drops straight to zero, rather than the two landing on separate dates. The booking confirms exactly as it would on a deposit, because any payment that meets or beats the deposit is enough to hold the date. The client has just cleared the balance at the same time.

The pay-in-full option appears while the deposit or a progress payment is the current step and more than that is still owing. Once only the balance remains, the same button simply pays the balance. If you take deposits offline instead of through 1pm, this option does not show, and you record a full payment yourself the usual way.

Staying ahead of what is overdue

A deposit is only useful if it is paid on time. An overdue deposit, progress payment or balance rings a reminder on your notifications bell, once for each payment, so a late payment is something you chase on purpose rather than discover the week of the event.

To remind the client as well, set up a Booking payment due soon or Booking payment overdue automation. It emails the client about whichever payment is due, with a button to their booking page where they pay. See chasing overdue invoices.

Give the client a live link to their event and the balance is never far from them either. Their run of show carries a Your booking card back to the confirmation, and their portal carries the same link on each event row, both reading view & pay while anything is outstanding. A client who has lost the original email can still pay without asking you to resend it. See sharing the run of show with your client.

For the whole picture in one place, the Deposits and balances report lists what is outstanding and what is overdue across every confirmation, ready to print or export to CSV. It is the list to work down when you want to see, in one go, who still owes a deposit and who has a balance due. The Next payment column names the payment each booking is at now, what is still owed on it, and when it is due.

The report follows the booking rather than the signed paperwork. It reads each event's current date, so a booking you reschedule after it is signed moves to its new date on the report, and it counts a booking whose dates reach into the range you asked for even if it starts before it. Cancel an event and its confirmation drops off, because the money is no longer owed. Anything the client already paid you still shows on Payments received and Revenue.

Money paid against a deposit or balance invoice counts here too, not only money paid on the confirmation itself. A balance the client settles on the invoice you sent them reads as paid on this report and stops the reminder.

Event confirmations covers raising the confirmation a deposit sits on.
Getting paid covers recording payments and taking card payments online.
Sharing the run of show with your client covers the client's live link and the route back to the confirmation from it.
Reports covers the rest of the reporting suite, including Revenue and Invoices.