Service-business deposits: proformas, payment records and balances
Track a service deposit and remaining balance with a clear naira example. Keep proposals, confirmed payments and the final sale connected without duplicates.
Updated: 2026-10-26.
A designer, repair technician or consultant may request a deposit before starting a job. The deposit is one part of the payment history, not proof that the entire invoice has been paid. A dependable workflow connects the proposal, accepted scope, money received and remaining balance without counting the same work twice.
ReceiptPro NG’s current sale-recording choices are full payment or an agreed, fully unpaid sale. It does not automatically reconcile deposits or part-payments against an invoice. The example below therefore uses a separate project-and-payments register for the deposit stages rather than promising an unsupported app feature.
Agree the scope before requesting money
Imagine a fictional studio proposes a website setup for ₦80,000 and staff training for ₦40,000. The proposed total is ₦120,000. The studio requests a 40% deposit of ₦48,000, with the remaining ₦72,000 due at an agreed milestone.
The percentage is an example, not a recommended rate for every business. Explain what the work includes, what the customer must supply, the delivery stages and the agreed payment dates. If changes, cancellation or refunds need terms, agree appropriate wording rather than relying on a decorative invoice footer.
The general value of clearly stating payment timing and methods is covered in the Australian Government’s payment-terms guidance. Its jurisdiction-specific legal material is not a substitute for advice on a Nigerian agreement.
Send a clearly labelled proforma while it is a proposal
Give the proposal a reference such as PRO-SAMPLE-014. Show the two service lines and ₦120,000 proposed total. State the proposed ₦48,000 deposit and later ₦72,000 payment in the agreed terms, while keeping the document visibly a proforma or quotation.
A proposal is not evidence that ₦48,000 or ₦120,000 has arrived. In ReceiptPro, saving, printing or sharing the proforma does not record payment, create a sale or add customer debt. Keep evidence of the customer’s acceptance separately and make sure both sides refer to the same version.
Record the deposit as an actual payment event
When ₦48,000 is received, confirm it using your own bank or cash records. In the separate register, record the customer, project reference, payment date, amount, method and available payment reference. Keep the supporting bank entry or other evidence together with the acknowledgement you send.
The project position is now:
- Agreed project amount: ₦120,000.
- Confirmed payment received: ₦48,000.
- Remaining contractual amount in this example: ₦72,000.
An acknowledgement should say that it covers a deposit or part-payment against the project. It should not show the entire ₦120,000 as paid. How the deposit is classified in formal accounts depends on the transaction and accounting requirements; do not assume the label alone decides that treatment.
Keep scope changes visible
Suppose the customer approves an extra service worth ₦20,000. The revised agreed project amount becomes ₦140,000. With the same confirmed ₦48,000 deposit, the remaining amount becomes ₦92,000.
Keep the revised scope, approval and updated calculation linked to the original project. Do not silently alter an old payment acknowledgement to make it appear the customer paid more. A new quote version and a new payment event are different records.
If the customer queries the balance, the register should show the explanation without requiring someone to search through an entire chat history. Dates and consistent references are more useful than a large folder of unrelated screenshots.
Avoid a false workaround in the app
Do not mark the whole project paid when only the deposit has arrived. Do not record a fully unpaid ₦120,000 sale if your records would then incorrectly say that the customer still owes the entire amount. Do not create repeated full-price sales each time a collection arrives.
Use a separate payment register, or accounting software that supports the required deposit allocation, for the stages ReceiptPro does not handle. A proforma remaining in the quote list is not a complete accounting treatment of a received deposit. Keep the actual payment in your wider records and obtain appropriate bookkeeping support.
Complete the history once, without duplicates
When the transaction reaches a state supported by your recording workflow, check whether the original sale has already been recorded before adding anything. If a sale already exists, later collections belong to its payment history, not another copy of the sale. Preserve any prior outstanding-balance record and reconcile it using an appropriate collection process.
Before issuing a final paid acknowledgement, confirm that the total payments actually cover the final agreed amount. Review the descriptions, dates and references as carefully as the design.
Read the proforma guide, compare invoices with receipts, or try the sample document editor. For your own job, choose tools that can represent its real payment stages accurately.