Deposit invoices: how much to collect upfront on a job

MORTAR · 5 min read

Contractor and homeowner shaking hands to start a renovation

Starting a job with nothing collected upfront is one of the fastest ways for a contractor to get into cash-flow trouble. You buy the materials, you pay the workers, and you're carrying the client's project on your own money until they decide to pay. A deposit fixes that — and asking for one the right way is a mark of professionalism, not cheek.

Why take a deposit?

It funds materials. You shouldn't be financing the client's tiles and cement out of your own pocket.
It protects your cash flow. Money in before money out keeps the business healthy.
It signals commitment. A client who has paid a deposit is serious and far less likely to vanish.

A deposit invoice showing a 50% deposit amount with a calculator — Put the deposit in writing as a clear invoice — not a vague WhatsApp figure.

How much should you collect?

For most renovation jobs, contractors collect somewhere between 30% and 50% upfront. The right figure depends on how material-heavy the job is: if you need to buy a lot of tiles, fittings and cement before you even start, lean toward the higher end so you're not out of pocket. There's no fixed rule — set a deposit that covers your early costs and feels fair for the job.

Contractor loading cement and tiles into a truck at a supplier — The deposit should at least cover the materials you buy before work begins.

Structure the rest as stages

For anything bigger than a quick job, don't go straight from deposit to a single final payment. Tie the remaining money to progress stages — for example, deposit, a payment at the halfway mark, and the balance on completion. Staged payments keep cash coming in as the work proceeds and reduce the risk of a big unpaid balance at the end. (For long contracts this becomes a progress claim.)

Hand holding a phone showing a payment received notification — Money in before work starts keeps your business off the back foot.

Put it on the quote

State the deposit plainly in your quotation terms — "50% deposit upon acceptance, balance on completion" — so there's no awkward conversation later. When the client accepts, raise the deposit as a proper invoice they can pay by transfer or DuitNow, and record it. See our guide to writing a quotation for the full format.

How MORTAR helps

When a client accepts a quotation in MORTAR, one tap converts it into a project and raises the deposit invoice automatically — by default at 50%, with the numbers carried straight over from the quote. You record the payment when it lands, and the outstanding balance updates itself. No re-typing, no forgetting to ask.

Want deposits raised the moment a quote is accepted? Join the MORTAR early list.