Deposit Invoice Template: What to Put On It

You’ve won the job. It’s $6,000, it starts Monday, and you’ve never worked with this client before. You need materials bought by Friday.

So you ask for a deposit, and then you hit the awkward part. What does that document actually look like? Is it an invoice? Does it show the full price or just the deposit? And what happens to it when the job finishes?

Here’s the template, filled in with real numbers, plus the parts most guides skip: what to say when the client pushes back, and how to make the deposit disappear cleanly into the final bill.

What a deposit invoice is, and what it isn’t

A deposit invoice asks for part of the money up front. That’s the whole idea. You’re not billing for work you’ve done, you’re billing for work you’re about to do.

It’s a real invoice. The client can pay it, you can chase it, and it goes in your books. That’s what separates it from a proforma invoice, which is a quotation dressed up to look like a bill and carries no obligation at all.

It’s also not a retainer. A deposit is part payment for one specific job. A retainer buys ongoing availability, usually monthly, and doesn’t attach to a single deliverable. If what you want is the second thing, a retainer agreement is the document you need instead.

And it isn’t the same as progress billing, though they get confused. A deposit is money before anything happens. Progress billing is money released as stages complete. Plenty of jobs use both: deposit on signature, then stage payments after.

The deposit invoice template

Copy this, change the numbers, and it works for most trades and freelance jobs.

DEPOSIT INVOICE

Invoice number: DEP-2026-014
Date issued: 12 March 2026
Payment due: 19 March 2026

From: [Your business name, address, phone, email, tax number if you have one]
To: [Client name, company, billing address]

Project: Kitchen refit, 14 Hillcrest Road
Total project value: $6,000.00

Deposit requested (40%)    $2,400.00
Sales tax, if it applies    $0.00
Total due now    $2,400.00

Balance of $3,600.00 will be invoiced on completion.

What this deposit covers: materials ordering and scheduling. Work begins once payment clears.

Refund terms: refundable in full if you cancel before materials are ordered. After that, the deposit is non-refundable to the extent of costs already committed.

Payment: [bank details or payment link]

Three lines in there do the heavy lifting, and they’re the three people leave out.

The total project value matters because it tells the client the deposit isn’t an extra charge. Leave it off and a $2,400 invoice looks like a $2,400 bill.

The balance line stops the “wait, I thought that was it” conversation three weeks later.

The what this deposit covers line is what makes the refund terms stick. “Non-refundable” on its own sounds arbitrary. “Non-refundable once materials are ordered” sounds like a reason, because it is one.

A worked example, start to finish

This is the bit that trips people up. The deposit has to vanish into the final invoice without the numbers going strange.

Same job, $6,000 total, 40% deposit.

March 12. You send DEP-2026-014 for $2,400. Client pays it March 17.

April 2. Job’s done. Now the final invoice, INV-2026-089:

Kitchen refit, 14 Hillcrest Road    $6,000.00
Less deposit paid 17 March (DEP-2026-014)    -$2,400.00
Balance due    $3,600.00

The final invoice shows the full $6,000, then subtracts the deposit as a credit line. It doesn’t just say $3,600.

That matters for two reasons. Your client sees one document with the whole job on it, which is what they’ll file. And your books show $6,000 of income for that job rather than two unrelated amounts that nobody can tie together a year later.

Reference the deposit invoice number on that credit line. When somebody queries it in eighteen months, that reference is the entire answer.

How much should you ask for?

There’s no rule, but there are patterns.

25% to 33% is normal for larger jobs and corporate clients, where your risk is lower and their approval process is slower.

50% is the common freelance and trades split. Half to start, half on delivery.

100% happens with small jobs, first-time clients, or anything where chasing the balance would cost more than the job is worth.

The useful way to pick isn’t a percentage at all. Ask: what have I spent before I’d get paid anything? Materials, subcontractors, a week of your time. Cover that, and the deposit is doing its job. A $6,000 kitchen with $2,200 of units in it justifies 40% easily, and you can say exactly that if asked.

When the client pushes back

They will, sometimes, and this is where most guides stop being useful.

“I don’t normally pay deposits.” Usually true and usually not a refusal. They’re checking it’s standard. “It’s how I run every job, it covers materials before I start.” Said once, plainly, that’s normally the end of it.

“How do I know you won’t take the money and disappear?” A fair question from someone who’s been burned. Don’t get offended. Offer something concrete: a smaller deposit covering materials only, with the rest on completion. Or point them at reviews or a previous client. The person asking this is usually trying to find a reason to trust you, not to get out of paying.

“Can we do it after the first week?” That’s a no dressed as a compromise. If they can’t pay $2,400 now, the $3,600 later is the real worry. Hold the line politely, or reduce the scope to something you can afford to risk.

Silence. No answer at all is the clearest signal you’ll get. Don’t order materials, don’t book the dates. Send one follow-up, then treat the slot as open. Chasing a deposit is a preview of chasing the final balance, and that preview is free information.

One thing that prevents most of this: mention the deposit when you quote, not after they say yes. If it’s on the quote from the start, it’s a term. Raised afterwards, it feels like a condition you added.

How to record it in your books

Here’s where people get it wrong, and it matters at tax time.

A deposit isn’t income when it lands. You haven’t earned it yet. Until the work is done it’s a liability, usually called deferred or unearned revenue, because you’re holding money against a promise you still owe.

When the job completes and you raise the final invoice, the deposit moves from that liability over to income, and the whole $6,000 lands in the right period.

Treat the deposit as income on day one and you’ll book revenue in a month you didn’t earn it. On a job spanning a year end, that’s a real problem rather than a tidiness one.

Sales tax works differently depending on where you are, and it often falls due when the deposit is received rather than when the final invoice goes out. Worth confirming for your state or country rather than assuming, because getting it backwards means filing a correction later.

Frequently asked questions

Can you issue an invoice for a deposit?

Yes. A deposit invoice is a normal invoice with a restricted scope. It needs an invoice number, a date, both parties’ details, what the payment covers, and the amount due. The only real difference is that it bills part of an agreed total rather than completed work.

How do I put a deposit on an invoice?

On the deposit invoice, show the full project value first, then the deposit amount with its percentage, then the balance still to come. On the final invoice, list the full project value and subtract the deposit as a credit line referencing the deposit invoice number, so the two documents reconcile.

How do I send a deposit invoice in QuickBooks?

Most accounting tools handle this as a progress or partial invoice against an estimate. You raise the estimate for the full amount, invoice a percentage of it, and the software keeps track of the remaining balance for the final invoice. The exact menu names move around between versions, but the underlying pattern is the same everywhere.

What percentage should a deposit be?

Commonly 25% to 33% for larger or corporate work and 50% for freelance and trades jobs, with full prepayment for small or first-time work. Rather than picking a number, cover whatever you’ll have spent before any further money reaches you.

The short version

A deposit invoice shows the full project value, the deposit, and the balance to come. All three, every time.

The final invoice repeats the full value and subtracts the deposit as a credit line, referencing the deposit invoice number.

Pick the amount by what you’ll be out of pocket before the next payment, not by a percentage someone told you.

Put the deposit on the quote, not on the phone call afterwards.

And keep it out of your income until you’ve earned it. You’re holding it, not keeping it, until the work is done.