Recording Partial Payments and Deposits
Partial payments and deposits are common in trade work — especially for larger jobs, material-heavy projects, or customers paying in stages. Trade2Base handles all scenarios: upfront deposits via Stripe, manual cash or BACS payments against an invoice, and automated balance reminders.
When partial payments are used
Deposit on acceptance — customer pays a percentage upfront before you order materials or begin work.
Staged payments on longer jobs — e.g. 33% on start, 33% on first fix, 33% on completion.
Instalment arrangements — customer pays the total across several agreed payments.
Part-payment received — customer sends what they can and promises the balance later.
Adding a deposit requirement to a quote
Open or create the quote
Go to Quotes and open the relevant quote in edit mode.
Add a deposit line
Click Add deposit in the totals section. Choose how to express it: as a percentage of the quote total (e.g. 25%), a fixed £ amount (e.g. £500), or a fixed line item (e.g. “Materials deposit — £350”).
The customer sees the deposit clearly
On the PDF and portal the deposit amount is shown alongside the full quote total so the customer knows exactly what they need to pay upfront.
Collecting a deposit via Stripe payment link
If you have Stripe connected to Trade2Base, you can generate a payment link for the deposit amount so the customer can pay online before the job starts:
From the quote, click “Request deposit”
Trade2Base generates a Stripe payment link for the deposit amount only.
Send the link
Share via email, WhatsApp, or SMS directly from Trade2Base. The customer clicks through and pays securely by card.
Deposit auto-recorded
Once payment is confirmed by Stripe, Trade2Base automatically records the deposit against the job and updates the outstanding balance.
Tip
Collecting deposits before starting work significantly reduces late payment risk and ensures material costs are covered. Most customers expect to pay a deposit on larger jobs.
Recording a manual partial payment (cash or BACS)
Open the invoice
Go to the relevant invoice and click Record payment.
Enter the amount received
Type in the amount the customer has paid — this does not have to be the full invoice amount.
Select the payment method
Choose Cash, Bank transfer (BACS), Cheque, or Other. Add an optional reference (e.g. BACS reference number).
Select the payment date
Use today's date or enter the date the funds were received.
Save
Trade2Base records the payment and the invoice status updates to Partially paid, showing the amount paid and the outstanding balance.
Invoice status for partial payments
Once a partial payment is recorded the invoice status changes to Partially paid. The invoice header shows both the amount paid to date and the outstanding balance clearly. In the invoices list the “Partially paid” badge makes it easy to identify jobs with outstanding balances at a glance.
Sending a payment reminder for the balance
You can send a balance reminder manually at any time, or set up an automatic reminder:
Manual reminder: open the invoice and click Send reminder. The message includes the outstanding balance amount automatically.
Automatic reminder: in Automations → Invoice reminders, enable reminders for “Partially paid” invoices. Set the trigger (e.g. 7 days after partial payment recorded) and choose email or WhatsApp.
Generating a balance invoice
For staged payment jobs you may want to send a formal balance invoice covering only the remaining amount:
Open the original invoice
Click the options menu and select Generate balance invoice.
Review the balance invoice
Trade2Base creates a new invoice for the outstanding amount, referencing the original invoice number. The deposit or previous payment is shown as a credit.
Send to the customer
Send via email or WhatsApp. The customer can pay via the portal payment link or their usual method.
Reporting on outstanding balances
In Reports → Outstanding balances you can see all partially paid invoices, sorted by amount outstanding and days overdue. Filter by engineer, customer, or date range to prioritise which balances to chase. You can also export the report as a CSV for use with your accountant or bookkeeping software.
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