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Bill a deposit before shipping

A deposit invoice bills money up front, before anything ships. It has no product lines: just the deposit amount. Later invoices for the order are reduced by what the deposit already collected.

Before you begin​

RequirementDetail
PolicyThe order is on Manual (or Per shipment) invoicing. An order on Per order has a single order invoice, so switch it first: see Change one order's policy.
Customer Deposits accountMap a Customer Deposits account in Accounting → Settings → Nominal Code Mappings before you issue a deposit invoice. Without it the deposit can't be posted to your books, and the page warns you with a link to Open Nominal Code Mappings.
PermissionYou need permission to update sales invoices.

Create the deposit invoice​

  1. Open the sales order, select the Invoices tab and click + Invoice.
  2. Under What are you billing?, choose Deposit.
  3. Under Deposit as, choose % of order and enter a Percent, or choose Amount and enter it. The page shows the result, for example "Deposit: $900.00 of $3,000.00 ordered".
  4. Check the invoice date, terms and due date.
  5. Click Issue invoice, or Save draft to issue it later.

What you'll see: the deposit invoice is listed on the order's Invoices tab and on the Sales Invoices list, where its Kind is Deposit invoice. Send it and record the customer's payment against it like any other invoice.

How later invoices take the deposit off​

Each later invoice for the order carries a negative Less deposit line naming the deposit invoice, so the customer isn't charged twice. Your books follow the same path: the deposit is held as a customer deposit (a liability) until a later invoice takes it off, then counted as sales. See Sales invoices and your accounting.

Next steps​

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