The Payments section holds the payment schedule: how the client's total is broken into instalments. It matters more than it looks, because invoices are generated straight from it.
The default plan
Every itinerary starts with two instalments:
- Deposit — 25% of the total
- Balance payment — 75% of the total
If that's how you work, there's nothing to change.
Editing the plan
Each row has:
- Name — what the instalment is called.
- Amount and % of total — set one or the other. Switch an instalment to % to bill a percentage of the client total, so it stays correct if the trip price changes later.
- Due date.
- Status, Paid date, Method and Reference — filled in as payments come in.
Add another installment adds a row, so a three-way split — deposit, interim, balance — is a matter of adding one and adjusting the percentages.
Why percentages are usually better
Trips change. If you set fixed amounts and then add an activity, the instalments no longer add up to the total. Percentages re-calculate themselves, so the plan survives edits.
Tips
- Get this right before you generate the first invoice. Generate invoice reads the schedule and bills the next unbilled instalment, so fixing the plan first is easier than editing line items afterwards.
- Due dates here are what your terms and conditions usually refer to — worth keeping the two consistent.