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Scheduled Payments

How to add flexible scheduled payments to your invoices with a variety of customizable options.

Amanda Rae avatar
Written by Amanda Rae
Updated over a week ago

Please note: Payment Schedules are only available in Standard (Level 2) and Premier (Level 3) plans.

When creating your Quotes and Invoices, you have the flexibility to add a Payment Schedule to customize when payments are due. Payment Schedules act like a set of "mini due dates"; they divide the Invoice Total up into equal or customizable installments and act as a record of what is/was due and when. They can even send reminders for each installment!

NB: Payment Schedules do not reflect payments themselves; they will always add up to the Invoice Total, which is the sum of all the line items on the Invoice. The Balance Due is the amount not yet paid on the Invoice, which will decrease with each payment made.

Before you can add a payment schedule to your Quote or Invoice, you'll need to add at least one line item.

Once added, you'll be able to click on the Payment Schedule checkbox to break out the payments. 

There are two options you can use when creating a Payment Schedule: Custom Payments and Equal Payments. Custom Payments allow you to define when and how you'd like payments due. Equal Payments allow 17hats to do the math for you and evenly split payments based on the start date: 

Custom Payment Option

On the Custom Payment schedule, you can again decide how many payments you'd like to break the balance into using the Payments dropdown menu:

You then will set the due date for the Invoice (this will be set to the Project Date automatically, if creating the Invoice in a Project):

Once you set the number of payments and your Document's Due Date, you can then set when each payment is due:

You can set each payment to be due based on when the document was received, the project date, the final due date or on a custom date. The last payment will always be due on the invoice due date. 

You can also decide if you want each payment to be a specific percentage, or a specific amount of money. 

Finally, check off the option to add a message with the payment schedule, if specific instructions are needed. 

If you decide you'd like to use our Equal Payment option you can switch by clicking the blue link in the upper right corner. If you do switch, you'll receive a warning message notifying you that the custom payment schedule will be reset to the original settings as shown below: 

Equal Payment Option

To set up your Equal Payment schedule simply select when you want your first payment to be due, how many payments you'd like to break up the amount due into, and how often you'd like the payment to repeat. 

As with Custom Payment Schedules, you also have the option to add a message with the payment schedule. 

Once satisfied you can save your payment schedule and you'll be taken back to the document where you'll see the "payment schedule" terms under the documents options.

Editing your Payment Schedule 

If you would like to edit your payment schedule, simply click the pencil icon to update the schedule. 

You can also completely remove the payment schedule by clicking the X, or unchecking the payment schedule in the document options header.

Please note: quotes or invoices with payment schedules cannot be set up as recurring invoices as well.

Any changes made, will not remove previously saved information. So, if you're using percentages you will need to recalculate the correct percentage for the schedule to show the correct amounts. 

Once satisfied, save your quote or invoice and the payment schedule will be displayed above the documents total balance.

Now you're ready to send your quote or invoice out to your client!

* This feature may not be available on all plan types.

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Feel free to reach out via Live Chat or to Support@17hats.com if you still have any remaining questions and we'll be happy to assist!

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