How Do I Collect a Deposit Before Starting Client Work?

"How do I get paid before I start?" shows up in freelancer forums as if it were a personality problem. It is a process problem. Professional clients expect a deposit. What they will not do is hunt for a vague Venmo note while you have already blocked two weeks of calendar.

The workflow that works is boring on purpose: write the deposit into the agreement, send a deposit invoice the same day they say yes, record the payment when it lands, and do not start delivery until it has actually arrived. The software's job is to make those steps hard to skip — not to invent a card charge your invoicing tool does not perform.

Put the deposit in writing before anyone is excited

If the first time a client hears "50% upfront" is after they have mentally started the project, you created the awkwardness. State it in the proposal as policy: amount or percentage, due date, whether it is refundable, what work begins after it clears, and how the remainder is invoiced. Example structures people actually use — labeled as examples, not rules — are 50/50 for short projects, 40/30/30 for longer ones, or the first month prepaid on a retainer.

Send that as a signable agreement, not a PDF that needs a printer. Electronic signatures designed to support common business signing workflows close the "I'll get this back to you" loop. For the legal mechanics, see what makes e-signatures legally binding. For making the proposal itself signable, how to send a proposal clients will sign.

Invoice the deposit as its own document

A standalone deposit invoice is easier for a client's finance team than a full-project invoice with a note in the footer. Include your payment instructions — bank transfer, UPI, account details, or whatever you actually accept — on the invoice itself so they are not digging through old email.

This is the part product copy often blurs. fylt Billing helps you create the invoice, show those instructions, and record the payment when it arrives. It does not collect card payments on invoices. Clients pay you directly. Optional paid booking on Calendar is a different flow, processed by Razorpay or PayPal, and is not a substitute for a project deposit on an invoice.

Do not start on "it's on the way"

Bank transfers can take days and can fail. "I just sent it" is not cleared funds. Your kickoff rule should be: work begins when the deposit is recorded, not when the client intends to pay. That is easier to hold if the invoice, the client record, and the project live together — you can see unpaid vs recorded without opening a second app. Billing on the same record as CRM and Projects is what makes that rule enforceable by you, not by memory.

Scripts that do not sound like an apology

You do not need to justify a deposit as distrust. You are reserving capacity.

• "To reserve the start date we discussed, the deposit invoice is due by [date]. Delivery begins once that payment is recorded."
• "Our standard terms are [example: 50%] to begin, remainder on [milestone or completion]. I'll send the agreement and the deposit invoice together this afternoon."

If a long-standing client has a flawless history, you can choose to waive it. That is a credit decision, not a reason to pretend deposits are rude.

Connect the paid deposit to kickoff

Once the payment is on the record, book the kickoff from a real calendar instead of another email thread, and give them a portal with the signed agreement and the paid invoice so they are not asking you to resend PDFs. That sequence is the same onboarding loop as how to onboard without losing the first two weeks, with money as the gate instead of enthusiasm.

Late invoices after the work is done are a different problem — getting clients to pay on time covers that. Deposits are how you avoid financing the entire engagement yourself.