Take the money in stagesNew
A deposit, then materials, then the balance — each one dated, each one its own invoice, always adding up to the quote.
Written 8 October 2026 · updated 27 October 2026
What is said in this recording
A big job rarely gets paid in one go. Set the stages on the quote and raise each invoice when you get there — and the last one is always whatever is left, so what the customer pays adds up to what they were quoted, to the penny.
Step by step
- 1
Set it while you build the quote: under To secure the booking, choose Split the payment into stages.
Or set it afterwards on the quote itself, in the Payment stages card — both write the same schedule.
- 2
You get a deposit and a balance to start with. Add more in between if you need them.
- 3
Name each stage and give it a percentage, or a fixed amount.
“Deposit 20%”, “Materials £2,000”, “Second fix 25%”. The money each one is worth shows beside it as you type.
- 4
Put a date against each stage under Due on, or leave it empty.
Empty is a real answer, and the row says so: “Balance on completion” has no date when you write the quote. A dated stage reads Due now once the day arrives; an undated one waits for you.
- 5
Save the schedule.
Nothing is invoiced yet — this is the plan, not the billing.
- 6
Press Raise and send when you reach that stage.
It raises the invoice AND emails the customer their link to pay it, in one press. It is an ordinary invoice from then on: take a card payment on it, chase it, push it to your accounts.
Worth knowing
The customer sees the whole schedule
Their copy of the quote carries a How this is paid panel: every stage, what it is worth, and when it falls due — with “When the work reaches this point” against any stage you left undated. An invoice for 30% of a job somebody agreed in full is exactly the kind of thing they ring about, so the plan goes out with the quote rather than arriving as a surprise.
A dated stage never jumps the queue
Stages go out in order whatever their dates say. If stage three is dated for last week and stage two has not gone out, stage two is still next — the balance is worked out against what has already been invoiced, so a gap would make the final invoice wrong.
A stage with no date is never late
It is not overdue, it is not chased, and nothing sends it on its own. It waits for you to press Raise and send, which is right: you are the one who knows the work has reached that point.
The stage's date becomes the invoice's due date
Put 30 November on a stage and the invoice raised from it is due on 30 November. Leave the stage undated and the invoice falls due on that customer's normal payment terms, like any other.
The last stage is the balance, never a percentage
20% + 40% + 40% of £999.99 rounds up to £1,000.00 — a penny more than the job. On a £12,000 bathroom with five stages it is worse. So the final stage is whatever is left: the invoices always add up to the quote exactly, and a customer adding them up never finds a difference to ring about.
You do not need card payments switched on
Each stage goes out as an ordinary invoice, paid however you normally get paid — bank transfer, card machine, cash. Splitting the payment is the one choice in that dropdown that works with no online payments set up at all.
A deposit is stage one, not a separate thing
A quote with a deposit and no stages already is a two-stage schedule — deposit, then balance. Staging it just makes the steps in between explicit. Two different answers to “what is due up front” is how a customer gets asked for a deposit twice.
An invoiced stage is fixed
Once a stage has gone out, that stage cannot be renamed, removed or re-priced — the customer is holding the invoice. Change the quote afterwards and the BALANCE absorbs the difference, which is what a balance is for. Everything not yet invoiced can still be moved.
Stages go out in order
Raising stage three before stage two leaves a gap nobody notices until the end of the job, and the balance is then worked out against money nobody was ever asked for.
Not for CIS work
A CIS deduction comes off LABOUR only and is worked out from the lines on the invoice. A stage is a share of the whole job and carries no labour-and-materials split, so the deduction cannot be worked out from it — any figure would be a guess at your tax. TaskMyJob says so rather than raising one: invoice that job in full, or raise each stage as its own invoice with the labour and materials on it.