Ordering units on a deposit that never arrived
Your terms say a deposit at order, a second payment when units are delivered and the balance on completion. The designer takes the order on Saturday. The deposit invoice waits until the office catches up on Tuesday. The unit order goes in on Monday anyway, because the customer wanted a date. Delivery happens, the second payment is not requested because nobody told accounts, and the balance invoice goes out a week after the fitters finish.
Most customers pay. But you have funded a large chunk of their kitchen for weeks, and a few of them turn the balance into a negotiation about a small snag.
Why payments lag behind the job
Stage payments are triggered by things that happen on site or in the supply chain. The person who raises invoices sits in the office and hears about those events second hand, if at all. The job and the accounts live in separate systems.
- There is no link between a job milestone and the invoice it should trigger.
- Designers take orders without the deposit being requested in the same step.
- Nobody checks payment status before placing the supplier order.
- Balance invoices wait for a snag list that never quite closes.
- Reminders depend on someone noticing an overdue invoice in Xero or QuickBooks.
What the lag costs
Kitchens tie up a lot of supplier cost before the customer has paid for them. When deposits and stage payments are late, that cost sits on your bank balance instead of theirs. Late balance payments are also the ones most likely to be reduced or disputed, and the time spent chasing them is time the office does not spend on anything else.
Payment tracking tied to the job
- Each job carries its payment schedule from your terms: deposit, stage payments and balance, each linked to a milestone such as order signed, units delivered, worktops fitted or handover.
- When a milestone is marked done, by the designer, the delivery check or the fitter, the invoice is raised in Xero or QuickBooks through its API with a card or bank payment link, for example through Stripe or GoCardless.
- Customers receive the invoice with a short explanation of what the stage covers.
- Reminders follow on a schedule you set, polite and specific to the job.
- Supplier ordering and fitting start are blocked, or flagged for a manager's override, if the stage before is unpaid.
- Payments received update the job automatically, so everyone sees the same status.
| Milestone | Payment it triggers | What it guards |
|---|---|---|
| Order signed | Deposit | Placing supplier orders |
| Units delivered | Second stage | Fitting start |
| Fit complete | Balance | Guarantee paperwork and handover |
The stages, amounts and whether a manager can override are all set from your own terms. We do not advise on what your terms should say.
What the office notices first
Invoices go out on the day the milestone happens. The office stops being surprised by jobs that went to order unpaid. Reminders go without anyone having to write them. And the designer and project manager can see payment status on the job without asking accounts.
Customers tend to like it too. A clear invoice that arrives when a stage is reached, with a simple way to pay, is less awkward than a phone call asking for money. The customer sees exactly what the payment covers and when the next one will fall due. And because the schedule was agreed at order, nobody is surprised by a request that seems to come from nowhere halfway through their kitchen.
Does this describe your payments?
- Supplier orders have been placed before the deposit arrived.
- Stage invoices go out days after the stage was reached.
- Balance payments regularly wait for a snag to be resolved.
- Chasing overdue payments is a weekly job for someone.
- Fitters do not know whether a customer is up to date.