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Deposits and retainers

If a client pays you upfront — a deposit before a project starts, or a monthly retainer — record it as a deposit on the project. Deposits flow into invoicing in two directions: unpaid deposits can be requested on an invoice, and paid deposits can be applied as credit against one.

Recording a deposit​

Open the project, go to Billing, expand Deposits, and click Add Deposit:

  • Amount (required)
  • Date (required) — defaults to today.
  • Notes — optional; useful for "50% upfront per contract" and the like.
  • Paid / Unpaid toggle — whether the money has actually arrived.

The deposits list shows each deposit with a green Paid or gray Unpaid badge, along with running totals ("Total: $X | Paid: $Y").

Deposits on invoices​

When you create an invoice for a client with deposits, the wizard surfaces them in step 2:

  • Deposit Requests — unpaid deposits you can include on the invoice to ask for the money. These add to the invoice total.
  • Deposit Credits — paid deposits you can apply against the invoice. These subtract from the total, shown as a negative "Deposit Credit" line.

Both are checkboxes, so you decide per invoice which deposits to involve. A typical flow: record an unpaid deposit, request it on the first invoice, mark it paid when the money lands, then apply it as a credit on the final invoice.