Ask for a deposit before you order the materials, as a percentage or a fixed amount with its own due date. Or set the whole job out in stages on one invoice: a deposit, first fix, second fix, and completion, each with its own amount and date. Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due and moves to the next as each one is paid.
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Hollins Building Ltd
Invoice INV-0128
On a draft invoice, ask for a deposit or split the job into stages. It’s one or the other, and on a staged job the deposit is simply the first stage.
A deposit is a percentage or a fixed amount with its own due date. Stages are two or more payments, each with a label, an amount, and a due date, adding up to the invoice total.
The stages print on the invoice: every stage, its date, and its amount. Your client gets it on the PDF and on the copy they’re emailed.
Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due, then re-points to the next as each payment lands. No reminder asks for money that’s already in.
A deposit gets money in before you buy the materials. Stage payments mean a long job pays you as it goes, instead of everything riding on one figure at the end. Either way the job stays on one invoice, so there’s nothing to add up by hand.
Ask for a deposit as a percentage or a fixed amount, and give it its own due date. It prints on the invoice next to the balance, and Sendinvo chases the deposit first, then switches to the balance once the deposit is in.
While the invoice is still a draft, split it into two or more stages that add up to the total. Label them the way the job actually runs: on a kitchen, a deposit, first fix, second fix, and completion; on a loft conversion, steels in, wind and watertight, and sign-off. An invoice carries a deposit or a set of stages, not both, because the first stage already does the deposit’s job. That’s how most bigger jobs run for builders and kitchen and bathroom fitters.
Some work is easier billed as you go: a deposit invoice before you start, then one for each stage as it’s done. A job raises as many invoices as the work needs. Raise invoice fills the first one in from the accepted quote, and each one after with what’s left to invoice, and the job adds up what’s been invoiced and paid against the quote.
The top line reads “£24,000.00 in 4 instalments, the first £6,000.00 due 14 March” rather than putting the whole total on one date, and the payment schedule underneath lists every stage, its due date, and its amount. Your client gets it on the preview, the PDF, and the copy they’re emailed, so there’s no separate letter explaining the terms.
An invoice on a payment plan is judged by the next amount due, not by its own single due date. A job whose last stage falls months after that date doesn’t go red while every stage is on time, and a stage that is late says so rather than hiding behind a date weeks away.
You don’t chase anything from the van. Our invoice reminders work through the stages one at a time, anchored to each stage’s own due date, and every reminder names the amount due that day.
The pay page leads with the stage that’s due, and your client settles that amount by card once you’ve connected Stripe. Your sort code and account number are on that page and on the invoice as well, for a client who’d rather do a bank transfer. Either way the invoice updates itself and chasing moves on.
A CIS invoice can carry a deposit or stage payments too. Each payment carries its share of the deduction, in proportion to its size, and the payment schedule shows what the contractor pays at each stage. Sendinvo chases each stage for that figure, so one paid net of CIS counts as paid.
When you’re VAT registered and the job charges VAT, the stages go out as a payment schedule: titled “Payment schedule”, numbered in its own series, and marked “This is not a VAT invoice”, so sending it doesn’t make the VAT on every stage due at once. As each payment lands, Sendinvo sends your client a VAT invoice for what it covered, dated the day the money arrived. Untick “Send as a payment schedule” to send the job as one VAT invoice instead.
Sendinvo chases the stage that’s due. As each one is paid, chasing moves to the next.
A deposit is one amount up front, a percentage or a fixed sum, with its own due date, printed next to the balance. A payment plan is the whole job split into stages that add up to the total, each with a label, an amount, and a date. An invoice carries one or the other, and on a staged job the deposit is simply the first stage.
While the invoice is still a draft, split it into two or more stages: a deposit, first fix, second fix, and completion, or however the job runs. Each stage takes an amount and a due date, and they have to add up to the invoice total. Once the invoice is sent, the stages are fixed.
Yes. The pay page leads with the stage that’s due and your client settles that amount by card through Stripe, not the whole invoice. Your sort code and account number sit on the same page for a client who’d rather do a transfer, and either way the invoice updates itself.
No. Both come with the subscription, like every other feature: £20 a month for your whole team. Every account starts with 30 days free, no card.
Yes. Each payment carries its share of the CIS deduction, in proportion to its size, and the invoice shows what the contractor pays at each stage. Sendinvo chases each stage for that figure, so one paid net of CIS counts as paid.
When you’re VAT registered and the job charges VAT, the stages go out as a payment schedule: titled “Payment schedule”, numbered in its own series, and marked “This is not a VAT invoice”, so sending it doesn’t make the VAT on every stage due at once. As each payment lands, Sendinvo sends your client a VAT invoice for what it covered, dated the day the money arrived. Untick “Send as a payment schedule” to send the job as one VAT invoice instead.
Set the stages once on one invoice, and Sendinvo chases the one that’s due while you’re on site.