Why ask for a deposit
A deposit is money the client pays on approval, before the work starts. It protects you from a late cancellation after you have reserved the date or bought materials, and it shows the client is serious. In return, the client feels safe when they know exactly what the money secures.
How much to ask for
There is no single right share. Work that needs materials bought in advance justifies a larger deposit; a service that costs you nothing before the day needs only a small amount to hold the booking. In common practice the share runs from 20% to 50% of the job.
More important than the share is stating it clearly in the quote itself, rather than asking for it after approval as if it were a new condition.
How to write the deposit into the quote
Clients relax when the quote answers these questions before they ask them:
- The amount or share, and when it is due: on approval or by a set date.
- What the deposit secures: the date, the materials, or the start of the work.
- Whether it is refundable if the client cancels, and on what terms.
- The ways to pay, with full names and details, so the client does not have to ask.
- The remaining payments and their dates, so the client sees the whole picture from the start.
A payment schedule for bigger jobs
On longer jobs, splitting the amount into stages is easier on both sides: a deposit on approval, a payment halfway or at a clear milestone, and the rest on delivery. Tying each payment to a stage the client can see makes paying feel like a natural result of progress, not a surprise demand.
Keeping track of what was paid
With several jobs and clients at once, it is easy to lose track of who has paid the deposit and who has not. A record for each quote helps: what the client says they sent, what actually arrived, and what is still due.
In Naam, the ways to pay you set appear on the quote page, the client reports from that same page that they have sent a payment, and you confirm when it arrives. No money passes through Naam: the client pays you directly.