01-22-2024 08:37 AM
Hello ServiceTitan Community!
New to ServiceTitan here, in the Garage Door industry! We're in need of some extensive help and recommendations on how you all record taking a customer deposit. Putting the Pricebook aside, we all understand how customizable the door industry is. Therefore, the majority of our retrofit installs are ordered, and we require a downpayment (Deposit) before we order the door.
Here's the issue: When we send out an estimate to a customer, or when they're ready to proceed with a job, we require a 50% deposit on all doors we sell before we can order & book the job. We currently have to convert the "Sold Estimate" (which, in my opinion, should be called an "Accepted Estimate") to a job and create an invoice before we can collect a 50% deposit. We need to avoid booking the job and creating an invoice until we have that deposit (CASH) in hand because there are folks out there who, unfortunately, might not follow through once a job is "Sold." Then, we end up with both a "Job" and "Invoice" sitting out in limbo.
We can't continue with this workflow for several reasons:
Accounting and Reporting Implications:
Managing "Sold" Estimates and Unbooked Jobs:
A simple solution would be to have a payment link somewhere in the estimate email, or the ability to charge a percentage when the customer accepts the estimate online. Rather than applying it to the invoice, there NEEDS to be some sort of mapping where it is applied to customer deposits (NOT THE INVOICE) for accounting purposes.
Any advice on this would be extremely helpful. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, lol.
01-22-2024 10:54 AM
@Sheena_Palacios I have not! But I sure will!
It doesn't seem that we have access to that feature, but if that is our only option to make this work, I will reach out to support! Thank you for your feedback!
01-22-2024 10:59 AM
Yes, that feature requires account configuration so reach out to your CSM team to learn more about it!
01-30-2024 08:35 AM
Unfortunately, I do not feel like this is the best solution.
04-25-2024 10:15 AM
Hi Zach! Just wanted to see if you tried progress billing and found it helpful? This is what we do at our business and although not a perfect workflow, it keeps our AR in check and our jobs as organized as can be!