Deposit, Progress, and Final Invoices for Painting Jobs
A 20% deposit on quote acceptance is Surfacely's system default. Progress and final invoices aren't locked to a percentage — they're built around your job's milestones.
A typical painting project has three invoice types. The split varies by job size and client.
The three invoice types
| Invoice type | When sent | Typical % of quote | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit | On quote acceptance | 20–50% (residential), 10–25% (commercial) — Surfacely defaults to 20% | Materials, scaffold, project mobilisation |
| Progress | At milestones during job | 30–40% per stage | Cashflow during job |
| Final | On completion sign-off | Remainder | Trigger warranty start, close project |
The Surfacely deposit auto-generation
When a quote is accepted, Surfacely auto-generates the deposit invoice based on the org's settings. The deposit invoice:
- Uses a sequence-numbered ID (DEP-001, DEP-002, etc.)
- References the project and quote number
- Opens in the client portal for Stripe payment or bank transfer
- Records the payment receipt against the project's financial record
Variation invoicing
When the client approves a variation (Addition or Reduction), Surfacely generates a variation invoice or credit note. The variation flows through the same payment portal as the original invoice.
Stripe vs bank transfer
Most residential clients prefer the Stripe payment button — instant, with email receipt. Commercial clients often request bank transfer with reference. Surfacely supports both — payment details show on the invoice from the org's paymentDetails settings.
Payment terms
Default terms: deposit on acceptance, progress invoices payable within 7 days, final invoice within 14 days. The painter configures default terms in quoteSettings.terms.paymentTerms and overrides per-quote where needed.
Choosing your deposit percentage
The deposit is not an arbitrary number. It should cover what you spend before you can invoice anything else — materials, access hire, and the days of labour that happen before your first progress claim.
Work it backwards. On a $12,000 repaint with $2,400 of paint and a $900 scaffold booking, a 20% deposit is $2,400 — which does not even cover the materials and the hire. That job wants 30%. On a job where you buy the paint in week two and claim at the end of week one, 20% is plenty.
The rule of thumb worth holding: a deposit that leaves you funding the job out of your own working capital is not a deposit, it is a loan you are making to the client at 0%.
When a client will not pay a deposit
Residential clients occasionally push back. The two honest responses are to reduce the deposit and add a progress claim earlier, or to decline the job.
What you should not do is start without one. A client who will not commit a few hundred dollars before you have bought anything is telling you something about how the final invoice conversation will go, and every painter who has been burned learned it in exactly this order.
Commercial is different. A principal on 30-day terms with a signed contract and a schedule of works is not the same risk as a homeowner who found you on Facebook, and 10–15% there is normal.
Progress milestones that actually work
Tie progress claims to something the client can see, not to a calendar. "50% on completion of all exterior preparation" is checkable by standing in the driveway. "50% at the halfway point" is an argument waiting to happen.
- Exterior repaint — deposit, then on completion of wash and prep, then on completion of first coat, then final.
- Multi-room interior — deposit, then per floor or per zone as each is finished and cleaned up.
- Commercial — monthly claims against the schedule of works, tied to measured completion.
Chasing without the awkward call
Most late payment is not refusal, it is drift — the invoice is in a pile, or the person who approves it was away. A reminder that goes out automatically at day 7 is not confrontational; it is administrative, and it collects most of what would otherwise age.
Keep the escalation boring and consistent: a reminder at the due date, a second at seven days, then a phone call. The painters who get paid fastest are not the ones with the toughest terms, they are the ones whose reminders arrive on the same schedule every time so clients learn the rhythm.