Deposit Isn't Reflected in the Total Due

[rococomac]

Invoices need to have a balance due, or remainder due to reflect deposits being made.

I just had a nightmare of a time dealing with customer service via phone and chat.

Trying to explain to them that the Total Due on an invoice isn't taking in to consideration a payment was made. For example, this is the downloaded version showing the deposit was made at the bottom. If you click the link to pay, it will show that a remainder of $1509.90. My client is trying to turn this invoice into her accountants to pay the remainder by check, but it has the total due as the original amount. They confirmed that this was normal for Square. It seems awfully asinine to do business this way.

[APTechRI]

@lenjobakes - Thank you for responding! Yes - our situation is the same, and the same, if we edit the invoice  - at that time, the salesmen go in and do the exact same change - to eliminate the overdue - BUT ALSO - so the invoice will reflect their "Balance" (which should also say "Balance Due."

Even if we do not change the invoice, because we are taking a deposit, the invoice the customer receives will be different than what we see on the back end. ITs so simple - and so obvious that Square has a bug with the PDF templates they use.

Use case: (will attach screenshots.)
Customer buys $425 item.
Paid $200 deposit.
Balance due is $225.

When we click on invoice in our backend, Square tells us those 3 numbers very nice and clean at the top.

But when we send a customer their invoice (PDF or shared link), it does not show them their balance due - which is bananas. An invoice has to show someone their balance due, thats sort of the whole point. 

The first two images show the two places on a PDF the accounting is shown - no where does it say balance due.

BUT! If I go into the invoice, change the payment schedule from Deposit % to deposit $ and type in (hello human error!) the amount they paid - THEN the pdf will show balance due. There is no way that is how it is supposed to work. We have 9 sales people - I am not telling all of them to go in and re-enter manually a deposit amount that was paid, because Square can't fix their PDF template...it just seems...unreasonable to ask of a paying Plus paying customer?

top of PDF - no balance dueBottom of PDF - no balance due. Customer forced to do the math (and thinks our accounting is wrong)

[APTechRI]

@lenjobakes - But when we as the vendor go into Square to look at their invoice - and click on the invoice once - Square shows us so nice and clean, the total due, the deposit paid, and the amount remaining. All we want is that same info to show on the PDF, without having to manipulate the invoice after deposit payment. 

[APTechRI]

@kristen - Any help you can provide here per chance?

[APTechRI]

@kristen @lenjobakes - Last comment here today. But the reason its so important for the PDF to be correct is two fold: A) it is incorrect for the customers, and this should be reason enough alone. B) We sell expensive sheds and deliver those sheds, and we print all of our invoices for our delivery crew. And when the customer goes to pay their final payment, the printout is not reflecting that # anywhere, causing our delivery crew to pull out a calculator - which feels horrible. 

[lenjobakes]

Hi @APTechRI ! 

Unfortunately @kristen isn't with Square any longer (see previous comment about layoffs). Just an FYI.

Back to the issue at hand!

I ran some tests and was able to replicate the version of the .pdf you are seeing 🥳

In the example pictured, I created the invoice, did not create a payment schedule, and added a payment. The photo above is what showed on the .pdf when I did that.

HOWEVER, when I created *another* invoice, selected "request a deposit" and input the percentage I requested (50%) it showed up the way you want on the invoice.

As you can see, the deposit is shown and the balance is shown.

When I requested a deposit, the screen looked like this:

And the resulting .pdf was the example directly above.

I also tested what the .pdf would look like if a customer made a change and I did *not* adjust the payment schedule. This is the OG invoice:

The email below was what the client received when I added a $25 item at a 50% deposit request and a discount. 

When I download the .pdf of this invoice, it shows the Deposit and Balance and it shows how much of the deposit had already been paid. (I will admit, I did not love how this one displayed, but it still showed the info).

So in the deposit line, you can see that $108 was paid, but the total deposit amount is $120.

I checked a bunch of my invoices. All of my .PDFs show a deposit and balance line with any payments made underneath. It's because on invoice creation before I send to a customer, I select Add payment schedule and request a deposit of 50% (you can choose whatever percentage you want).

Example 1:

Example 2:

Based on the examples you gave, there might not be a set percentage you require as a deposit. If that's the case, then on invoice creation, you staff can add payment schedule with an AMOUNT requested. Then when they add items, they don't have to make any changes to the invoice other than adding the item. Eg. Invoice is $1000, deposit requested is $500; if the client adds on another product, it doesn't change the deposit amount requested, just the balance to be paid. No editing to avoid overdue notices, no manual entry of numbers (even though copying and pasting with accuracy is something you should be able to expect from your sales folks!), and the customer will clearly see their deposit and balance on their .pdf download.

If you wanted to request deposits and use amounts instead of percentages so no edits needed to be made when adding additional products, you could implement a scaled system: orders of $1000 or less require $200 deposit, orders of $1001 to $2400 require $600, etc. That way staff would never need to edit amounts.

I hope that's helpful! If you are using Add payment schedule on invoice creation and are getting the results you're getting, then that's a bug. But if you are just creating an invoice, adding a payment, and then editing the invoice to show the balance then an adjustment to the way the tool is being used will give you the result you need.

 

[APTechRI]

"If you are using Add payment schedule on invoice creation and are getting the results you're getting, then that's a bug"

It is a bug. 🙂

I appreciate all of your testing - and responses, amazing! 

And I wonder if the bug lies within the use of INVOICE TEMPLATES. We use invoice templates (again, 9 sales people, trying to streamline and make everything the same) - and all of our templates are setup with a payment schedule, to collect 50% deposit. And it works - like the functionality work, but the PDFs do not look like your screenshots, they look like mine. The only difference I can think of - is we always start with an invoice template? Sometimes its an estimate converted to invoice - but always selecting a template.

I don't know. I will go back through some of our past invoices and see if I can reduce it further. 

[APTechRI]

The other thing may be - some of my sales guys use an ipad or register, but some use a computer - could that be whats throwing it?