Tradie Tips: Taking Partial Payments

It’s every tradies nightmare to get to the end of a big job and have a client fall silent. If they’re refusing to settle their debts by the due date, it means that you have to waste your valuable time chasing the customer down. If you’re a small business, this payment could be crucial in order for you to start your next big job, and if you have to delay your next client, it may make you seem unprofessional.On the other hand, we’ve all heard horror stories of that friend of a friend who paid for their job up front and had their tradesman go missing in action before finishing or even starting the job. This is every client's biggest nightmare. You definitely don’t want to be painted with the same brush, so maybe it’s time to consider requesting partial payments. Getting paid in instalments based on progress is a great way to give both yourself and your client a bit of peace of mind. The terms of your progress payments should be discussed and agreed upon with customers prior to commencing the job. We also can’t stress enough that you need to have your client’s confirmation in writing - don’t get caught out without it!

Your business...

Will receive an initial instalment or deposit (you can read about our recommendations for charging deposits here) which should help to cover the immediate costs needed for the necessary equipment, supplies and labour. From then on, you will send invoices for the percentage of the job that’s completed. Our recommendation is anywhere between 10% and 33%, depending on the size of the job. If the payments stop at any point while you’re on the job, your work can also stop. This way, if your client is unable to fork up the money at the end of the job, you won’t have the headache of considering legal proceedings - you’re covered.

Your client...

Can rest easy knowing your team will be working towards these payments based on the progress that’s been made. If the work doesn’t meet the customer’s expectations by the time another payment date rolls around, they have an opportunity to discuss this with you, and the protection of not having paid the amount in full.

How Trak Can Help

Trak makes partial invoicing and payments an easy process. When you create an invoice on Trak, you are given multiple options as to what amount you would like to bill for.

If you would like to create a partial invoice based on a percentage, it should look like this:

If you would like to create a partial invoice based on a dollar amount, it should look like this:

Click here to check out the Trak blog for more articles.