Stop funding your client's project out of your own pocket.
Progress billing means invoicing a job in instalments as the work is completed, instead of waiting until the end and carrying the cost yourself. Each progress invoice covers a stage or a percentage of the contract, so money comes in while the job is running. It is standard practice in construction, renovation, and any project that takes longer than a month.
For jobs that run for weeks · bill as you go · free PDF, no signup
The cash-flow problem it solves — On a twelve-week job billed at the end, you fund three months of materials and labour out of your own pocket and carry every day of payment terms on top. Progress billing moves that burden back onto the schedule the work is actually on.
Charge 30% at the start, 40% at lock-up, 30% on completion. Set the percentage and the amount due is calculated from the contract total.
List only the work completed this period as line items. The client can see exactly what they are paying for in this invoice.
Every invoice shows the deposit or instalment due now and the balance remaining, so nobody has to reconcile it themselves.
Add bank transfer, PayID or your preferred rail. We never take a percentage of your money, so a $20,000 stage payment arrives as $20,000.
Write the stages and their percentages into the quote the client signs. Progress billing goes wrong when the schedule is invented after the job starts.
Create an invoice listing the work done in that stage, or use the deposit toggle to bill an agreed percentage of the total.
Put 'Stage 2 of 4 — lock-up' in the reference field. It halves the number of queries you get back and speeds up approval.
Share a tracked link so you know when it was opened, and chase on your terms if it has not been paid.
Bill each stage as you finish it. Free PDF invoices, no signup, and no transaction fee taken out of your stage payments.
Create a progress invoiceProgress billing is invoicing a client in instalments across the life of a project rather than once at the end. Each invoice covers a defined stage or percentage of the contract, and the client pays as the work is delivered. It is also called progress invoicing, milestone billing, or staged payments.
You agree a payment schedule up front — for example 30% deposit, 40% at a defined midpoint, 30% on completion. As each milestone is reached you issue a progress invoice for that portion, referencing the stage. The final invoice clears any remaining balance and accounts for everything already paid.
A deposit is a single payment taken before work starts. Progress billing is a series of payments taken throughout the job, and usually begins with a deposit as the first instalment. Use a deposit for short jobs, and progress billing for anything running more than a few weeks.
Either bill the agreed percentage of the contract total for that milestone, or bill the actual value of work completed in the period. Percentage-of-contract is simpler and easier for clients to approve; percentage-of-completion is more accurate when the scope moves.
No. Retainage (or retention) is a portion of each progress payment — commonly 5-10% — that the client holds back until the job is signed off and any defects are fixed. You can still bill progressively and have retention withheld from each payment.
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