Deposit invoices: what to put on one, and when to send it
A deposit is what turns a yes into a booked job. It means you are not paying for the site visit and the first days of drawing out of your own pocket, and it shows the client is committed. In a small drawing or survey practice, the deposit invoice is often the first invoice a client gets from you, so it sets the tone for the rest.
This guide covers what a deposit invoice is, how to ask for the deposit in your quote, what to put on the invoice, when to send it, and how it connects to the final bill. The screen is from ArchplanAI, on a sample firm with sample figures.
What a deposit invoice is
A deposit invoice asks for part of the agreed fee before the work is finished. Once a client has accepted your quote, it is a real invoice for a real job, and you treat it like any other: it takes the next number in your normal sequence, and if you are VAT-registered it is a VAT invoice.
A pro-forma invoice is different. HMRC describes pro-formas as a way to "offer goods or services to potential customers", where nothing is supplied until payment arrives. HMRC says a pro-forma should be "clearly marked 'this is not a VAT invoice'", and a VAT-registered client cannot use it to reclaim VAT. If you send a pro-forma and the client pays, you then issue a proper VAT invoice as well. For a deposit on a quote the client has already accepted, a deposit invoice saves that second step.
Asking for the deposit in the quote
The deposit should never be a surprise. Put it in the quote the client accepts: how much, as an amount or a percentage of the fee, and when it is due.
Published terms from UK practices show the usual shapes. For drawings, half on instruction and half on completion. For measured surveys, half on confirmation, before the site visit, and half on delivery. Some firms ask for a deposit only on long jobs, or on jobs with large costs up front.
If your client is a homeowner and you agreed the job online, by phone or email, or at their home, they usually have a 14-day cooling-off period. If they ask you to start within those 14 days and then cancel, you can keep enough to cover the work you have already done, and they get the rest of the deposit back. Get their request to start in writing, for example by email.
What goes on it
A deposit invoice should show:
- your business name and address, and the client's name and address;
- an invoice number from your normal sequence, and the date;
- what the deposit is for: the job, the address and the quote it comes from;
- the deposit, and, if you are VAT-registered, the VAT on it and the total;
- the full fee, and what will be left to pay on completion;
- when it is due, how to pay, and the reference to quote when paying.
If you are VAT-registered, it also needs everything HMRC lists for a VAT invoice, including your VAT registration number and the tax point.
In the sample below, Fenwater Surveying's job FWS2026-004 is quoted at £2,975.00 net, £3,570.00 with VAT. Its deposit invoice, INV-0004, is for £1,487.50 net, half the net fee, and it is marked paid, with its receipt underneath. These are sample figures on a sample firm.
In ArchplanAI the VAT is worked out from the net amounts and shown on the document, and every document goes out with your logo and details on it.
When it goes out
Send it as soon as the client says yes. The longer the gap between acceptance and the deposit invoice, the more the booking feels provisional, to them and to you.
In ArchplanAI, the moment they accept, the deposit invoice is ready; or, once auto-deposit is set up in Settings, it raises itself. Auto-deposit raises it at your default percentage and emails it to the client. It waits until you have entered your bank details and said whether you are VAT-registered. It works the same when someone in the office accepts the quote for a client who said yes by phone or email.
VAT on the deposit, in short
If you are VAT-registered, HMRC says "most deposits serve primarily as advance payments" and create a tax point when you receive them. If you issue a VAT invoice for the deposit before it is paid, the tax point is the invoice date instead. Either way, the VAT on the deposit belongs to that earlier date, not to the day the job finishes. If you are not VAT-registered, the invoice shows no VAT. Which return a deposit falls in, and what happens to the VAT if a job is cancelled, are questions for your accountant.
Then the balance
The final invoice is the agreed total less what has already been paid. Show the deposit on it, so the client can see how the figure was reached, and put any extra work agreed along the way on its own line.
In ArchplanAI the final invoice is worked out from the job: the accepted total, less what has been paid, with the VAT shown. The quote, the deposit, the balance and the receipt all agree to the penny, and the receipt is issued when you mark the payment received.
The whole sequence is in the quote to invoice process, step by step. Keeping the deposit and the balance in step is the job of invoicing software for architects and survey practices: the deposit raised from the accepted quote, and the balance worked out from the same figures.
See it with your own figures. Book a 30-minute setup call and we will put one of your own quotes through it while you watch.