Payment plans divide one engagement into an ordered sequence of invoices. Use them when the client should pay by milestone, date, fixed amount, or percentage instead of receiving one invoice for the full amount.
Create the plan
Select New payment plan and choose the client. The plan opens on its Invoice tab.
Build the source invoice with line items, tax, discount, due terms, payment settings, payment instructions, and a template. These settings are used on every invoice the plan generates; later edits apply to future invoices only.
Open Plan and give the plan a clear name.
Add payment steps in the order they should happen.
Choose when each step becomes due and whether it uses a percentage or fixed amount.
Choose whether generated invoices remain drafts for your approval or send automatically.
Choose normal client payment or automatic collection from an eligible saved method.
Select Save, review the complete schedule, and select Activate when it is ready. While the plan is a draft, the header reminds you that no invoices will be created.
You can save a draft before the schedule is complete—for example, with a $0 or 0% installment while you are still building the invoice—so you can work on the invoice and the plan in either order. Every installment must have a positive amount before the plan can be activated.
The plan's invoices show its payment instructions only when the selected invoice template contains the Payment instructions token. If it doesn't, the Invoice tab shows a warning; add the token to a text block in the template, then refresh this plan's template.
The final payment automatically uses the remaining balance, preventing rounding or allocation gaps.
What clients see
After you activate a plan, clients who can access invoices in the client portal can open Invoices → Payment plans. The portal shows the plan name, remaining obligation, open invoice balance, future installments, and the complete ordered schedule. The Home page also highlights the next obligation without treating it as a notification that requires immediate action.
Use client-ready plan and installment names. A scheduled date is shown as the date an invoice is expected, while the payment due date follows the invoice terms you configured. A milestone remains conditional until you mark that step complete. Draft plans are never shown to clients.
Understand the sequence
Steps run in the displayed order. A date-based step still waits behind an earlier unfinished milestone. The plan summary shows the total, allocated percentage, and final remainder so you can catch an incomplete schedule before activation.
On an active plan, select Create invoice: followed by the step name (for example, Create invoice: Deposit) when you need to bill the first unfinished step early. This works for both manual milestones and payments scheduled for a future date; later steps remain locked until the steps before them are invoiced.
After confirming, use Open draft or Open invoice in the confirmation message to go directly to the invoice that was just created. You can also return to the plan later and select the invoice link on any completed schedule step.
Manage existing plans
The list shows each plan with its Status, total value, invoiced value, remaining value, the next required step, and last activity. Search or filter the list as your number of plans grows.
The Status filter starts with every plan still in play—Draft, Active, and Needs attention—and hides Completed plans until you add them to the filter. Archived plans stay hidden—even after you clear the filter—until you choose Archived in the Status filter. Plans with the most recent activity appear first; select another sortable heading when you need a different comparison.
The next-step column tells you what must happen before the plan can produce its next invoice.
Open a plan to review its Invoice, Plan, and Activity tabs. Draft plans can be revised before activation and never create invoices until you select Activate. To change an active plan, select Return to draft; it stops creating invoices until you activate it again.
To remove a plan in any status, open the ⋯ menu and choose Delete payment plan…. Deleting a plan stops it from generating further invoices. Invoices it already generated are kept.
Archive a plan you no longer need
When a project is abandoned or put on hold, archive its plan instead of deleting it. Open the plan, then open the ⋯ menu and choose Archive payment plan…. Archived plans never create invoices, are hidden from the payment plan list, totals, dashboard, and client portal, and keep their invoices, payments, schedule, and activity history.
Archive keeps the plan and its history; Delete removes the plan.
Only a plan that isn't running can be archived—a Draft, Needs attention, or Completed plan. To archive an active plan, select Return to draft first.
If circumstances change, choose Archived in the Status filter, open the plan, and select Unarchive payment plan from the ⋯ menu. The plan returns to the status it had before you archived it. Unarchiving never restarts billing: an unarchived draft creates invoices only after you select Activate.
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