Invoicing - Customers to pay deposits on invoices
To have the ability for customers to pay deposit through invoices
Purposes: Business can just send one invoice to customer/client, so they don’t have to send multiple invoices when it comes to part payment.
Hi team, work for requesting and accept deposit payments has progressed well. We're now just entering the stage of rolling out a solution powered by Stripe to a limited group of users.
As mentioned in my last update - we're extremely grateful to our community here, who have shared their interest and provided feedback on how deposits in invoicing would meet your needs. We'd love to hear your feedback on our developments for this feature early and have included anyone that has voted on this idea and is connected to Stripe in the first group rollout - You'll receive a banner in your organisation on how to make use of this soon.
I'll share more again here as the rollout widens. Thanks!
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Les Reif
commented
Hi Kelly — please include City of Darwin Cruises in the next rollout wave. We're already connected to Stripe (CODC org). We're a charter business and currently send two separate invoices per booking (deposit + balance). This feature would replace a real, daily workflow pain point. Happy to provide feedback. Thanks.
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Marcela Ramirez
commented
I've been waiting for (and asking for) this feature for years. Please make it available on invoices that don't use Stripe.
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di lechner
commented
With the removal of the ability to charge a Credit Card fee in Australia from the 1st Oct 2026, using the ability to take a deposit payment as implemented by XERO would actually cost small businesses money.
Why have Xero hitched your cart to a credit card merchant opposed to making this a universal feature. Seems like you have taken a short cut to a feature requested for over 10 years. This is so frustrating.
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Aaron Clore
commented
Love the progress on the new deposit feature — this is very close to becoming a functional replacement for our current process.
The last step that would make it truly usable for businesses like ours is the ability to easily record customer deposits as **prepayments / customer deposits**, rather than as payments against an invoice.
For our workflow, the deposit cannot immediately come onto the books as a regular invoice payment and create tax liability months before the project becomes taxable. We pay tax when we install the custom products that we fabricate or order from suppliers. That installation is the taxable event for us, not the day the customer gives us a deposit to begin the project.
What we need is a simple workflow where:
1. A customer pays a deposit through the Xero/Stripe deposit feature.
2. When the payment comes in, we can reconcile it as a **customer prepayment / deposit**, not as taxable invoice income.
3. That creates a credit on the customer’s account.
4. When the project is installed and becomes taxable, we create the final taxable invoice.
5. We then apply the customer’s deposit/prepayment credit against that final invoice.Right now, I’m considering a workaround: when the Stripe payment comes through, I may try to record it as a prepayment instead of simply reconciling it as an invoice payment. But the dream would be for Xero to make this a built-in option.
In short: the deposit feature is great, but for custom work, construction, fabrication, and similar businesses, we need a way to collect a deposit without prematurely recognizing the sale or creating tax liability before the actual taxable event occurs.
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Cann River Hospitality
commented
Will paying deposits on invoices be available without using stripe?
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Simon Millar
commented
we need to do this for draft invoices as well
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Daniel Miatt
commented
I now have access to this, which is great. it's clearer and easier for my clients rather than having to explain to them that they can pay a deposit with a bank transfer, but not credit card. Great job!
A couple of little bugs you may or may not be aware of:
1) 'sent' is not showing in the invoice list when i request a deposit on an invoice
2) the deposit and balance email template is not available to edited in email settings. -
Sue Bary
commented
Will paying deposits on invoices be available without using stripe?
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Florida Smitty's
commented
Could you add an option to accept a cash deposit, so we can use it in person? We rarely use card payments. Thank you.
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Leanne Goff
commented
Please make this available to Xero Global users especially via Stripe
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Jeff Taylor
commented
This was a option on a previous invoice last week and it was great.
Now I cant find this option? -
Kimberley Piombini-Admin
commented
This looks great - but it would be better if you could choose the payment provider. We use Adfin and recommend Adfin to clients as Stripe charges higher fees. So at the moment we can't use the request deposit function as we are not wanting to use Stripe at all.
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Zack Long
commented
This will make my life so much easier when this becomes available.
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Chris Pritchard
commented
The idea of accepting deposits via Xero is great in principle, and it is something I already do.
I take a 50% upfront payment upon acceptance of the quotation, but this is always taken by bank transfer. I do not want to incur the transaction fees associated with card payments, as for us these can amount to hundreds of pounds.
I was hoping that the feature you have developed would not rely solely on accepting card payments.
At present, I manage the process by taking 50% into the bank as a pre-payment and then sending the customer a customised receipt for that pre-payment. When the balance becomes due, I invoice the customer. Xero is aware that there is a payment on account, so I allocate that part-payment to the invoice, which then leaves the remaining balance outstanding before I send the invoice to the customer.
The slight niggle with this process is that the payment date shown on the invoice received by the customer is the date on which I raise the invoice. It does not show the actual date on which the part-payment was originally received. Aside from that, my current system works reasonably well.
I had hoped that Xero might develop something that would cut out a few of these steps and make the process easier, but unfortunately that does not appear to be the case.
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Mark Davies
commented
Please include my company in the rollout.
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Kai Kaufmann
commented
This would be a great addition for my screen printing business which requires 50% up-front payment. Please include me in the pre-trials and i'll be happy to provide feedback!
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Daniel Miatt
commented
I'm very excited for this! 95% of my sales have a 25% deposit which can currently only be paid by bank transfer. Adding a credit card deposit payment feature will make it much less confusing for my clients.
This is a great upgrade for myself and others in the wedding industry! -
Rick Smith
commented
How is this going to work for a company on an accrual basis? The way it should work is that the deposit becomes a liability and doesn't become an asset until the sale is completed. This is particularly important at end of year and for sales tax reporting.
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Nathan Carter
commented
Hi there,
I'm from Quotient (we integrate with Xero). While this suggestion is for deposits directly on invoices, we recently released a feature that lets you set a deposit as a percentage on quotes instead, as an alternative workflow that might appeal if you're using quotes upfront.
When the quote is accepted, Quotient automatically creates the deposit invoice in Xero (linked to the quote, showing it as partially invoiced). The customer sees a link to it right away (and can pay online if set up in Xero). You can then invoice the balance later as needed.
Details here: https://www.quotientapp.com/help/deposits
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Nathan (from Quotient) -
Lisa Cran
commented
@kirsten Frost, exactly, after the quote is accepted, it needs a middle stage of a sales order, where deposit is applied, the sale is indicated as work in progress (WIP), then when work is completed, invoice is adjusted/finalized and sent as an invoice. Splitting a quote into multiple invoices does not properly track the scope.
Xero Projects does allow a single deposit invoice to be created and then applied to invoices at the end. However, it applies it as a negative line item, rather than as a payment after the subtotal. But that's a different topic. Xero Project does not allow for progress payments, other than on the final invoice as partial payments, not during the course of work.