Deposits and automatic invoices
What accepting an offer drafts, what decides the schedule, and how to create a deposit invoice yourself.
When your client accepts an offer, Billow drafts the invoices for the whole engagement. Nothing is sent: they sit in your invoice list as drafts.
Drafting runs in the background and takes a few seconds after acceptance.
The drafting schedule
The deposit percentage on the offer decides the set of invoices. There are five options.
Deposit | Invoices you get |
|---|---|
0% | One invoice for the full amount |
25% | Deposit + Milestone 1 + Milestone 2 + Final |
33% | Deposit + Milestone + Final |
50% | Deposit + Final |
100% | One deposit invoice, nothing else |
The number of instalments follows from the percentage and can’t be set directly.
At 0% the single invoice has no title and reads “Invoice”. Titled invoices appear only when there is a deposit.
Examples
A $10,000 project at 50%:
Invoice | Amount |
|---|---|
Deposit | $5,000 |
Final | $5,000 |
The same project at 25%:
Invoice | Amount |
|---|---|
Deposit | $2,500 |
Milestone 1 | $2,500 |
Milestone 2 | $2,500 |
Final | $2,500 |
At 33%:
Invoice | Amount |
|---|---|
Deposit | $3,300 |
Milestone | $3,350 |
Final | $3,350 |
The deposit takes exactly 33%. The remainder is split evenly between the other two, so each is larger than the deposit.
Odd cents go on the last invoice. Every set of invoices adds up to exactly the accepted total, never a cent over or under.
Drafted invoice defaults
Status Draft
Today’s date, due in 30 days
Your project’s currency and tax, locked
No payment method
The payment method is bank transfer or card, set per invoice, and is required before sending.
The deposit invoice
A deposit invoice shows the full project scope, every deliverable at its real price, but bills only the deposit amount.
It is locked further than a regular invoice, including while it is a draft:
Line items, project, account, currency, and tax come from the offer and can’t be edited
The amount follows the offer’s deposit percentage
Payment method and dates are yours to set
The currency and tax fields say “Locked for deposit invoices”.
Creating a deposit invoice by hand
A new invoice offers a Regular / Deposit choice, defaulting to Regular. Picking Deposit gives you the invoice described above.
The choice appears when all three are true:
The project is active
Its offer has a deposit percentage
The project has no live deposit invoice
Refunding the existing deposit invoice brings the choice back. Everywhere else a new invoice is Regular and there is nothing to pick.
The type is set at creation and can’t be switched afterward, in either direction.
Sending order
The other invoices on a project can’t be sent until the deposit invoice is paid.
Declined add-ons
Add-ons your client rejected on the offer don’t count toward the total and never appear on an invoice.
Drafting rules
Drafting happens once. Accepting an offer drafts the invoices a single time, and re-running it won’t duplicate them.
Drafting only ever follows an offer. A project you’ve already been invoicing by hand can’t take on an offer, so drafting never runs on top of invoices you wrote yourself. See Simple projects.
One deposit invoice per project.
Nothing is sent automatically. Every invoice needs you to pick a payment method and send it.
Drafts are editable. Change amounts, dates, and line items, or delete the invoices you don’t want.
