The Deposits and Approvals features will allow customers to approve an estimate, and if set up, pay the deposit required on the estimate.
NOTE: In order for you to use either of these two features, it must be first enabled in the Estimate App Preferences.
Deposits
With Deposits enabled in the Estimates app, you can add a deposit to an estimate which your customer can approve with an e-signature.
NOTE: Deposits need to be enabled and a deposit item needs to be configured in the Estimate App preferences. If you do not have a deposit item, you will need to create one. The only requirement is the deposit item needs to be attached to an Account of type liability. For more information, please consult QuickBooks article "Manage upfront deposits or retainers".
Adding a deposit is done when creating an estimate. Underneath the total at the bottom of the screen, you will find an option to ＋Add deposit.
By selecting that, a couple of fields will open up to add a deposit. You can choose to select a dollar amount, or a percentage of the total. In the below example, a deposit amount of $50.00 was added to this estimate.
Once you save this estimate, there are two ways to collect the deposit:
You can collect the depost within Method by clicking the Collect Deposit button. This will take you to the Sales Receipt app.
You can send the customer an email, and they can pay the deposit themselves in their customer portal.
NOTE: When you click Collect Deposit, the deposit will be marked as Deposit Received, even if the payment hasn't been processed. This is because the sales receipt is created when Collect Deposit is clicked.
Approvals
With Approvals enabled, your customers will be able to view the estimate in their portal and approve or reject it.
What the Customer Sees
When you email the estimate from the Estimates app, your customer will receive an email that looks like this:
When they click View Estimate, they will be taken to their customer portal where they can view and accept the estimate.
At the bottom of the form is a button where the customer can accept or reject the estimate. If they reject the estimate, you will be sent an email telling you about your rejection.
If they click the accept button, they will be presented with a box where they can add their e-signature.
Once the signature is added, they can confirm their choice, and the payment gateway will show for them to pay the deposit.
Once paid, they'll get a verification the deposit has been paid as well as a sales receipt sent to them in an email.
If the customer were to go and look at all of their transactions (and not due and outstanding ones), they will find their sales receipt.
After a Deposit has been Collected
Once the customer has accepted and paid the deposit, the Method user assigned to the estimate will get a notification email that the estimate has been accepted by the portal. They will also see in the closed activities for the contact that the estimate has been accepted.
If you were to open the estimate itself, you will find in the Total box that the Deposit was received.
By clicking on the Deposit Received ($), you will be taken to the Sales Receipt for that deposit.
After the work is done, or the product is delivered, when an invoice is created from this estimate, you will find the deposit within the invoice line items, using the Deposit Item you set up in the Estimate App Preferences.
