A deposit is a term of the deal. Say it before you quote, not after they accept.

Jobber handles the mechanics: a required deposit on a quote, as a percentage or a fixed amount, paid in client hub in the same step as the approval.¹

What a deposit changes

Cash flow is the reason everyone gives and the least interesting one. The effect is on behaviour. It makes the customer decide: someone collecting a fourth quote will not put money down, and you find that out in the first week instead of on the morning you kept free.

It binds you as well. Once you hold their money you owe them a date and a scope.

Decide before you ask what happens if they cancel, and put it on the quote. What you may keep is governed by state law and differs by state. This is not legal advice.

Where it is normal, and where it costs you the job

Normal where your exposure is real and the customer can see it: non-returnable or special order material, work booked weeks out with a crew held for it, a big ticket from a customer you do not know.

It loses you the job where it reads as friction. Emergency and same day calls, where you lose to whoever picks up next. Small service tickets, where the deposit is worth less than the trouble of collecting it. Recurring mowing or cleaning, where a card on file is the right tool. Commercial accounts, where the request can sit in a vendor setup queue.

A deposit covers your outlay and the risk of being stood up. If neither is in play, you have added a step to buying from you.

How much

Anchor it to your exposure, not to a habit. On material heavy work, cover what you spend before you start. On labour with little material, a small amount is enough: you are buying commitment, not funding the work.

Jobber takes a percentage of the quote total or a fixed amount.¹ On small tickets the fixed amount is the more honest of the two.

Before the quote, not after the handshake

Say it when you book the visit, and write it on the quote before you send it.

Jobber is blunt about why. A deposit can be added while you build the quote, or later by editing the line items.¹ But change the deposit or the total on a quote already in Approved status and the client’s signature is removed from the quote and from client hub, with a box to tick confirming you understand.² Changing a deposit after approval reopens the agreement.

A quote nobody has approved yet

A quote sits in Draft until it is sent or marked as awaiting response, then Awaiting Response, then Approved.²

With Jobber Payments, an emailed quote carrying a required deposit shows a Review & Pay Deposit button instead of View Quote.² In client hub the client signs, enters card details, and approval and payment happen together.¹² Jobber’s documentation states that clients cannot make partial payments on quote deposits.¹

You can also take it from the quote yourself, with Collect Deposit, or Record Deposit if you are not using Jobber Payments.¹ One limit: a card cannot be charged for a deposit from a client’s billing section. Card deposits come from the quote.⁵

Against the invoice

A deposit on a quote that becomes a job and then an invoice is applied automatically, because it stays linked to that quote. Otherwise you add it while creating or editing the invoice, as a new deposit or from the client’s account balance.¹ It sits in the Deposits row of the payment summary, and deleting it there frees it for another invoice for the same client, though deposits do not move between quotes.⁴ Void an invoice and an attached deposit goes back to the balance.¹⁷

A deposit taken before any invoice exists shows as a negative balance in the client’s billing section, credit sitting with you.⁵ Check it before the final bill goes out.

Deposit or progress payment

Both are set from the same Add Deposit or Payment Schedule text near the quote total. Each installment is a percentage or a fixed amount, they have to add up to the full quote, and the first can be ticked as the required quote deposit.¹³ Schedules must be added at the quoting stage so they carry through to the job and its invoices, and without a quote one can go on a one-off job, not a recurring one.³

If you want half up front on a three week job, what you want is a schedule. A big deposit on a long job puts the money far ahead of the work, and that gap is where arguments start.

When they push back

Do not negotiate it down on the call. Halve it because someone frowned and every number you give becomes soft, starting with the price.

Where we come into it

We build software that reads a Jobber account and flags what this leaves behind: required deposits sitting unapproved, and invoices going out while a deposit sits unapplied on the client’s balance. An app only touches what its scopes allow, and ours read.⁶

You do not need us to ask for a deposit. If you want to see what is unapproved or unapplied right now, we will read it once, free.