Down Payments

A down payment is money the customer pays before the work starts. You request it when you send the proposal. A deposit the customer pays online is credited on the project's invoice for you. You record a deposit paid by check, cash, or any other way by hand, on the project's Invoice tab.

Quick Start: Collect a Down Payment

1. On the project's Proposal tab, click Create Proposal.
2. In the Down payment section of the Send Proposal dialog, choose Optional or Required, then enter the amount.
3. Click Send Proposal.
4. The customer approves the proposal and pays the deposit online, or chooses to pay by check.
5. If the customer paid online, the deposit is already a credit on the project's invoice. If they paid another way, record the deposit when you receive it.

Why Use Down Payments

Step-by-Step: Request a Down Payment on a Proposal

You choose the down payment each time you send a proposal. There is no company-wide or per-customer default, and the dialog starts at None.

1. Open the project and go to the Proposal tab.
2. Add line items as usual.
3. Click Create Proposal. The Send Proposal dialog opens.
4. In the Down payment section, choose None, Optional, or Required.
5. If you chose Optional or Required, choose Fixed or Percentage. Enter the amount in dollars, or a percentage from 0 to 100. For a percentage, the dialog shows the dollar amount.
6. Click Send Proposal.

Example Settings:

How the Customer Pays

1. The customer opens the proposal from your email.
2. For a required deposit, the customer clicks Approve & Pay Deposit. For an optional deposit, the customer clicks Approve proposal and decides on the next step.
3. On the payment step, the customer pays online, or clicks Approve and pay by check.

If your company does not take online payments, paying by check is the main option on that step. To choose which payment methods customers can use for proposal down payments, go to Settings > Billing > Payment methods.

Card Fees on a Deposit

If you pass processing fees to customers, a card deposit adds 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on top of the deposit itself. On a $1,000 deposit that is $29.30, so the customer is charged $1,029.30. The pass-through is capped at 3 percent of the deposit, and a lower state cap applies where there is one; your company absorbs the cost above the cap. Debit cards are never charged a processing fee. Paying by bank transfer adds a flat 50 cents, and most companies do not pass that one on at all.

Colorado caps a card surcharge at 2 percent (C.R.S. 5-2-212), and the same statute bans surcharging a debit card outright rather than capping it. When your company's state is set to Colorado and you pass fees on, the card type is read when the customer clicks Pay, before the deposit amount is fixed. A Colorado credit card pays the pass-through fee, capped at 2 percent. A debit card, or a card whose type cannot be read, pays no fee, and your company absorbs the processing cost on that deposit. If the total changes after the card is read, the customer sees the new total and the statute text, and confirms before the charge. See Billing Settings for the pass-through switch.

If you absorb fees instead, nothing is added and the customer is charged the deposit amount.

Deposits Paid Online Are Credited for You

When a customer pays a deposit online, DrillerDB adds it to the project's invoice as a credit line named "Proposal Down Payment". You do not enter it yourself, and it is credited once.

A customer who chose to pay by check has not paid yet, so nothing is credited. When the check arrives, record it as a deposit.

Record a Deposit You Received

Use these steps for a deposit paid by check, cash, card, ACH, wire, or another way outside the online payment page.

1. Open the project and go to the Invoice tab.
2. In the Deposits section, click Record deposit.
3. Enter the Amount and the Date received.
4. Choose how it was paid in Paid by. If you have one, enter the Check or reference number.
5. Click Record deposit.
6. On the deposit row, click Apply to invoice. The deposit is added to the invoice as a down payment.

Each deposit applies to one invoice only. DrillerDB refuses a second invoice that uses the same deposit. If you void the invoice, the deposit is open again, and you can apply it to a new invoice.

The Deposits section is on projects only. On a pump or service work order, add the deposit with the Down Payment button under the invoice lines.

Add a Down Payment Line by Hand

Under the invoice lines, click Down Payment to add a down payment row. Enter its label, paid date, and amount. Credit adds a credit row the same way. On a project, prefer Record deposit: it keeps a record of the deposit and makes sure it is applied once.

Down Payments on the Invoice

Credited deposits show on the invoice totals as Down Payments, below Subtotal. Each recorded deposit shows the date it was received.

Example:

Total Billed Includes Down Payments

Total Billed counts the down payments applied on a project's invoices. In the example above, the invoice total is $6,000 and Total Billed is $12,000. Invoice amounts in lists and reports are still shown net of down payments.

Total Billed shows on the project's Overview tab, on the contact page, and in Job Costing.

Handling Cancellations

When Customer Cancels

If a customer cancels before work begins:

1. Review your cancellation policy
2. Determine any applicable credits
3. Process refunds manually through your payment processor

Recommended Cancellation Policies

Accounting Treatment

QuickBooks Integration

If the Deposits section says a deposit is sent to QuickBooks as a Sales Receipt, do not also enter that deposit in QuickBooks.

Manual Accounting

If not using QuickBooks:

• Record deposit as customer deposit liability
• Transfer to revenue when work performed
• Credit the deposit on the final invoice

Multiple Deposits

Progress Billing

For very large projects:

1. Initial deposit (e.g., 25%)
2. Mid-project payment (e.g., 25%)
3. Final payment (50%)

Setting Up Progress Payments

A project can have more than one deposit.

1. Request the first deposit on the proposal.
2. When a later payment arrives, record it with Record deposit.
3. Click Apply to invoice on each deposit for the invoice it belongs to.

Troubleshooting

Down payment not showing on the proposal?

• You set the down payment in the Send Proposal dialog each time you send. Check that Down payment was not left on None.
• Check that the amount is greater than zero.

Customer can't pay the deposit online?

• Check that your company takes online payments.
• Check the payment methods in Settings > Billing.
• The customer can click Approve and pay by check instead.

Deposit not crediting the invoice?

• A deposit paid online is credited after the payment succeeds.
• A deposit the customer chose to pay by check is not credited until you record it.
• The deposit must belong to the same project as the invoice.
• Record the deposit with Record deposit, then click Apply to invoice.

Refund not processing?

• Check Stripe dashboard
• Verify within refund window (180 days ACH)
• Process manual refund if needed

Related Topics

• Creating Invoices - Invoice creation
• Stripe Payments - Online payments
• Approval Workflow - Customer approval
• QuickBooks Integration - Accounting sync