Requesting a Customer Deposit on an Estimate in QuickBooks Online

A recurring question from service businesses on QuickBooks Online is how to collect money before the work begins. Many users have handled it with workarounds: a separate invoice sent ahead of the job, then reconciled against the real one later. The accepted answer in the community points to something simpler, the deposit request built into the estimate itself. QuickBooks Online lets you ask for a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the estimate total, and the request travels out with the estimate email.

Deposits also show commitment from the client and protect cash flow early in a project, which is why the question keeps coming up. The same flow exists in Intuit Enterprise Suite, though the steps below follow QuickBooks Online.

Adding a deposit request to an estimate

The controls live in the Customer Hub, not on the estimate creation screen, and the request attaches to an estimate you have already built.

1. Open All apps, then choose Customer Hub, then Estimates.
2. Locate the estimate you want to change and select View/Edit.
3. Find the Deposit request switch on that estimate.
4. Pick the dollar sign option for a fixed amount, or the percent sign option for a share of the total, and enter the figure.
5. Select Review and send, adjust the covering email if the wording needs work, then select Send estimate.

Can your customer pay the deposit online?

That depends on whether the estimate is pay-enabled, and it is worth knowing the difference before you send anything.

On a pay-enabled estimate, the customer can view the estimate, approve it, and pay the deposit through the customer portal. That portal is the secure online page where your client opens the documents you send, so the payment happens without a separate request from you.

A non-pay-enabled estimate is narrower. The customer can still see the deposit amount and approve the estimate, but the portal cannot take their payment. The deposit figure stays visible either way, so the ask is never a surprise buried in the total.

There is one dependency on your side. The accepted answer ties the online payment option to having a QuickBooks Payments merchant account, so confirm that piece before you promise a pay button.

Tracking the deposit after you send the estimate

Nobody has to cross-check bank records to learn whether the money arrived. The STATUS column on the estimates list already shows whether the customer paid the requested deposit.

For the full trail, find the row dedicated to that customer, open the arrow dropdown, and choose View activity. The log lays out the complete activity on the estimate, so approvals and payments both show up in one place.

Applying the deposit when you invoice

The payoff arrives at conversion. When the estimate turns into an invoice, the paid deposit is applied as a partial payment on its own. No manual entry is needed to make the two documents agree.

You can automate the conversion itself. Go to Settings, then Account and settings, and select Sales. Find the Deposits on estimates section and select the pencil icon to edit. The toggle there decides whether an estimate converts to an invoice on its own once the deposit is paid. Select Done to save.

Leave the toggle off and the deposit still applies when you convert the estimate by hand, so the setting changes the timing, not the math.

Before deposits become routine

Deposits are customer money held ahead of the work, and states treat that arrangement differently. The accepted answer carries a plain caution on the point: check the rules where you operate before the practice becomes standard in your business.

Once that is settled, the workflow needs little attention. The request goes out with the estimate, the payment shows in the status column, and the money lands on the invoice without another document in between.