Hi Josh,
I hit a similar pattern with my own invoices โ a deposit taken up front, then a final amount that only settles once the figures are in. I invoice homeowners and contractors for estimating work, so the deposit covers the first part of the job and the balance follows the final scope.
The order of operations is what has mattered most for me. Once a payment is recorded against an invoice, Square locks the invoice down, so editing the line items afterwards is where it fights back โ which fits with what you found when you tried to mark it paid. What has worked for me is to finalise the invoice total first, before any payment is recorded against it:
1. Hold the invoice as a draft until the sales figures are in.
2. If 15% of sales comes to $25 or less, delete the percentage line altogether so the invoice total is just the $25 deposit, then record the deposit against it. The invoice is then paid in full, with no outstanding balance and nothing left to zero out.
3. Only add the percentage line when 15% of sales is actually more than the deposit โ that is, once sales pass about $167 โ and set it to the difference (15% of sales minus the $25 already paid), so the balance due is the extra amount only.
That keeps the deposit as a real line on the invoice rather than a separate adjustment, and it avoids the one-cent workaround, which I would only use as a last resort, since it leaves a stray cent open on the books.
If deleting the line still will not let you record the deposit afterwards, it is worth sharing the exact steps in order with the team, as Chip asked โ the point where it blocks you, before or after the deposit is recorded, is the detail that will tell them whether it is the edit lock or something else.
Hope that helps โ it is a tidy setup once the sequence is right.
Sean Alex
Estimator
