Quote billing modes

A quote's billing mode controls its one-time billing after acceptance and any required company signature. It does not mean payment has been collected or that all recurring services will renew automatically.

Choose the default in Settings → Quotes, then override it per quote.

The six modes at a glance

The fallback default is Deposit + completion draft, with a 25% deposit. Your organization's saved defaults may differ.

Deposit only

The deposit is billed when the acceptance workflow can create the invoice. The balance is not automatically scheduled as a completion invoice. Arrange its billing separately and avoid billing the deposit again in a later invoice.

A zero deposit creates no amount to collect. Without a usable Stripe connection, a local billing record is not a client-payable Stripe invoice; check the contract's billing status.

Bill in full now

The accepted one-time amount is invoiced upfront. Invoice creation is not a card charge or proof of payment. Check payment status before applying any paid-before-work policy.

Draft for completion

The quoted one-time amount becomes a draft for later review. It is not emailed or payable until finalized and sent.

Tracking more hours does not automatically rewrite that frozen quote draft. If the final scope or price changes, review the agreement and use the appropriate adjustment or change-order workflow before billing.

Deposit + completion draft

The acceptance workflow invoices the deposit and prepares the remaining one-time balance as an unsent draft. When ready, open the contract, review the balance, and use Finalize & send.

A draft is not an invoice the client can already pay. Do not create a separate full-price invoice without accounting for the existing deposit and balance records.

Deposit + progress payments

After the deposit, use the progress-payment controls on the contract to bill agreed portions of the remaining amount. Review the amount already billed and the remaining balance before each send.

Use the quote's own billing controls for completion so existing progress allocations are accounted for. A separate manual invoice is not automatically a continuation of this payment plan.

Milestone schedule

Name the stages and assign percentages totaling 100%. The first stage bills at acceptance. Later stages have Bill this stage, Mark complete, and a per-stage Auto-bill option.

Marking a stage complete sends its invoice only when that stage's auto-bill is enabled. Stage amounts account for rounding so the schedule totals the one-time quote amount. Optional add-ons are not supported.

See Milestone billing for the full workflow.

Where the deposit % comes from

The composer uses your per-quote value, otherwise the organization default, with 25% as the fallback.

The deposit base is the accepted one-time amount: required rows after the flat discount, plus selected optional one-time rows. Monthly, annual, provider-direct, and unselected optional rows do not increase that deposit base.

Recurring rows

Recurring commitments are separate from the one-time total and deposit calculation:

• Billed by your business: the first month or year for required and selected optional rows is invoiced at acceptance. It can accompany the upfront payment or become a separate first-period invoice. This applies even when the one-time work uses Draft for completion.
• Paid directly to the provider: the client pays the outside company. These rows are disclosed separately and never become your invoice, deposit, or business revenue.

Quantity applies to the recurring amount. Monthly and annual commitments stay separate; they are not automatically converted into one monthly total.

First period is not automatic renewal

Eligible catalog-linked monthly retainers can establish the supported recurring billing schedule when their frozen agreement terms are complete and do not conflict with an existing plan. Review the resulting agreement and Automatic Billing settings.

Custom monthly rows do not by themselves establish recurring invoicing. Annual renewals are manually managed, with a reminder supported ahead of the anniversary. Neither kind should be described to the client as automatically charged merely because the first period was invoiced.

Provider-direct acceptance may create project expense disclosures when a linked project exists. It never activates the provider's service or schedules your business to collect those costs.

Project creation and price locks

Project auto-creation is a separate quote setting. When enabled and successful, the project links to the accepted quote and uses the accepted one-time amount after discount as its budget, where applicable. A zero total does not create a meaningful spending cap.

The project may inherit applicable service-plan terms. It does not infer an hourly rate card just because the quote contains a labor line. Accepted prices and retainer terms are not repriced when someone later edits the catalog.

Changing the mode after sending

The sent-quote line-item editor does not change billing mode. Withdraw and replace an unsigned offer when its billing structure must change. For signed work, agree the change separately; editing catalog defaults or voiding a document does not undo an invoice or payment.

When billing needs attention

A signed quote can exist even when a later invoice or project-creation step needs attention. Inspect the contract, existing invoice records, and reported error before retrying. Do not send another acceptance request or create duplicate invoices just to recover a failed billing step.