Create Payment Plans

Updated Jan 9, 2023

A payment plan in Dubsado lets you create invoice due dates, split large invoices into installments, and send follow-up payment reminders.

Create a payment plan template

Save your payment as a template so that it's easy to use on future invoices.

1. Go to Templates >> Payment Plans.
2. Click Create new template.
3. Click Add installment.

All of your changes autosave as you go.

Title

New Payment Plan is the default title of your payment plan. Titles are for internal use and won’t show in any client-facing materials.

Autopay

Restrict or require your clients to enroll in automatic payments. See autopay enrollment settings.

Due date

The due date is the date that you want the payment made. Your options are Relative, Fixed, or TBD.

Relative (recommended): The payment plan automatically adapts the due date timing based on your trigger. Best used for automating payment plans using a workflow.

Triggers:

• Project date: The first four triggers calculate a due date based on the project start or end date.
  • If your project date is a single date, it is treated as both the start and end date.
  • If you don’t have a project date mapped, the due date displays as TBD until you set one.

• After payment plan applied to invoice: Uses the date that you apply the payment plan to the invoice as the due date.

  After contract signed by client: Waits to determine a due date until after the contract is signed.

  • The due date displays as TBD until the client signs and submits the contract.

Fixed: You choose an exact date. Best used for one-time events or specific holiday offers. Don’t use fixed dates in a payment plan template that you plan on using continuously in the future.

TBD: Acts as a placeholder for you to manually select a Fixed due date within the client’s invoice at a later time. Best used for situations when payments depend on work deliverables where you don’t know the exact deadlines yet.

Amount due

The amount due is how much your client must pay by the due date. Your options are Divide equally, Percentage, Fixed, or a combination of all three.

Divide equally (recommended): Automatically calculates each installment based on the total number of installments in the payment plan. If you need to bill the client more than expected, the next installments automatically adjust to the new amount.

• Example: You have three installments on your $3,000 package and your client already paid the first installment ($1,000). The client then requests additional work worth another $500. The remaining two installments will adjust to charge $1,250 each.

Percentage: Bases the amount due as a percentage of the invoice total. Percentages can be different, but all installments must sum to 100%.

• Example: 25% initial deposit, 50% on the first due date, and 25% a week before the event.

Fixed: An exact dollar amount that doesn’t change regardless of the invoice total.

• Example: A $200 initial deposit upon booking, regardless of booking the $1,000 package or the $3,000 package.

  
  

Reminders

Emails that notify your clients to make their payments. If you don’t set up any reminders, your client is not notified when a payment is due. See automatic payment reminders.

👋 Here's a tip... Once a client pays off an installment in full, future reminders associated with that installment won’t send!