Deposits and draws
Keep deposits separate and bill every stage once.
- With Max
- Held apart from your income
- Each draw is a real invoice
Ask for the deposit
Get the money before you buy materials.
Ask right from the job
- Type the amount, add a due date
- Email it or copy the pay link
- Asked before you order materials
They pay from their phone
- Turn on bank payments
- They pay right from the link
- It lands on the job when it arrives
Checks count too
- Paid by check, wire or cash?
- Record it and where you deposited it
- Part payments show what's still owed
Not income yet
A deposit feels like yours. It's not.
How contractors get in trouble
- A deposit makes the month look good
- Spend it on something else
- Nothing's left when the bill comes
Kept off to the side
- Held on its own Job deposits account
- As money you owe the customer
- Your profit and loss doesn't change
Never looks like spare cash
- Counted as customer money on arrival
- Left out of cash you can spend
- Shown on Work in progress
Bill in stages
Every stage billed once, never over contract.
No stage gets forgotten
- Set your stages once
- Bill next draw knows which one's up
- No stage missed or billed twice
Can't go past the contract
- Draws over the contract won't save
- Invoices by hand count against it
- Percent and dollar stages both count
Nothing sends until you do
- The draw is drafted with its stage
- Check it and change what you need
- Send it like any other invoice
Use the deposit
It comes right off what they owe.
Comes off the bill
- Click Apply to invoice
- The deposit comes off the draw
- They see only what's left to pay
No income counted twice
- The invoice already counts as income
- The deposit adds none on top
- On cash, it counts the day you apply
If the job falls through
- Record the refund you sent
- Or release it as a customer credit
- Each one has its own Undo
How it works
Questions, answered.
Because you haven't done the work yet, and if the job falls through that money goes back. So BooksGPT keeps it on a Job deposits account, which your balance sheet shows as money you owe the customer. It stops being held when you apply it to an invoice, refund it or release it.
Yes, if you've turned on bank payments. They open the link, see the job and the amount, and pay by bank right there, and BooksGPT records it on the job when it arrives. Deposits are bank only, not card. Without bank payments, the page asks them to contact you, and you record the check, wire or cash yourself.
Ask for the deposit on the job's Billing tab, even if you never send the request. Then click Record payment, choose Bank row and pick that row, so the money is only counted once.
Add it once as a deposit held from before. Enter the amount and the date, and pick the account it sits on now. BooksGPT moves it onto Job deposits, and from there you apply, refund or release it like any other deposit.
A percent draw reads the contract the day you bill it, so a change order approved by then is already in it. A dollar amount stays what you typed, and Remaining is whatever's left to bill. Draws you've already billed stay as they are.
That draw goes back in line, and it bills again the next time you click Bill next draw. So a voided invoice can't leave a stage stuck, and you won't bill it twice.
Asking for deposits and setting up draws come with Max. An owner or bookkeeper sets them up. The project needs a customer, and draws also need a contract.