How to Request a down payment in Odoo

Whether you have owned an online store for a while or are just starting out, you must be familiar with down payments. A down payment is essentially a quantity of money paid by a buyer at the beginning of the process of buying a costly commodity or service. A portion of the entire purchase price is covered by the down payment, and the buyer frequently takes out a loan to cover the balance.

Buyers demonstrate their intent to purchase a product with a down payment and commit to paying the remaining balance later, while sellers are obligated to provide the products by accepting them. It may be necessary to make a down payment for pricey items or projects. By doing so, you can ensure your own safety and the dependability of your client. We believe it is critical that you understand How to Request a Down Payment in Odoo because of this.

Table of Contents

• Why are down payments important?
• How to Request a down payment in Odoo
  • 1. First down payment request
  • 2. Draft invoice for down payment
  • 3. Edit income account and customer taxes
• Conclusion

Why are down payments important?

To ensure complete commitment from the buyer and seller, we frequently establish a down payment in the early phases of a transaction. Only a portion of the total is paid upfront; the balance is paid over time to complete the transaction. Depending on the company policy, the down deposit is sometimes refundable and other times it is not. The client can complete a transaction without having to pay the full amount up front, thanks to a down payment system. Their financial burden would be reduced as a result.

A down payment can be beneficial, especially in cases where manufacturing orders are involved, because it would cover the costs of initiating the processing. Because the initial investment was made with the down payment, the company does not have to suffer losses in the event of a withdrawal. The down payment would be accounted for in the final sum if the sale went through without the customer suffering any losses.

In most cases, if a customer decides to back out of the contract, the down money is not refunded. As a result, it also serves as the dealer’s security deposit while making deals. Therefore, the option for a down payment is advantageous from both the seller’s and the buyer’s points of view. By making more genuine purchases, you may ensure the consumer is dependable and secure your sales.

How to Request a down payment in Odoo

Now that we have gone over the advantages of having a down payment for large-quantity orders, let’s get right into the process of requesting one!

1. First down payment request

For confirmed sales orders, we can demand deposits. To do this, we must go to the Sales dashboard and choose the particular sales order that has been approved. Requesting a down payment for your order is one step closer if you successfully navigate to the website.

In the image above, you can see the Create invoice button. Once you click it, a pop-up window titled Create invoices will appear.

As for this window, there are some fields mentioned that you will need to fill in:

• Create invoice: As we are requesting a down payment, you can choose between the Down payment (percentage) or Down payment (fixed amount) as opposed to the Regular invoice option.
• Down Payment Amount: If you choose the Percentage option, then enter the percentage you would want for your deposit. For the other option, simply enter the amount you want to charge.
• Income Account: For this field, please choose the correct receiving bank account from the drop-down menu.
• Customer Tax: Choose the correct amount of tax that the customer shall be charged.

After making sure that the information you put in is correct, you can proceed to click the Create and view Invoice, and you are all done with this part. Additionally, keep in mind that these settings above will be used in the future.

One thing worth knowing is that a new product called Down payment will be generated when you make your first down payment request. This item will be recorded as a service product with an ordered quantity invoicing policy. As a reminder, you are always free to amend and change this product. Please be aware that you won’t be able to create an invoice if you select delivered quantities as your invoicing policy.

2. Draft invoice for down payment

You can only access a draft invoice that mentions the down payment when it comes to creating and seeing the invoice. The down payment for the merchandise is now automatically prepared and inserted into an invoice. As seen in the screenshot below, the user can view the draft invoice and can access down payment information underneath the Invoice Lines tab.

You can post the invoice there and track your customer’s payment. In order to do so, you would need to locate the Confirm button and click it. Then, the payment’s status will be switched to Posted. When the payment has been paid, you can send it to the customer by clicking the Send button!

But as we all know, in reality, this flow does not occur right away. Therefore, you can go back to the sales order for the time being. There, you will have the option to use the Customer preview button to examine the order from the perspective of the customer or the Invoice button to quickly access a previous draft invoice. The down payment will, in any case, be noted on both (sales order and draft invoice).

When the customer wants to pay the remaining balance on his sales order, you must issue another invoice in order to complete the flow. Once more, you will be given the option of making another down payment or subtracting all previous down payments and paying the remaining balance as usual. Additionally, with a down payment that takes into account a fixed amount, this flow is also feasible.

You must be careful with this process, though, as you won’t be able to deduct all of the down payments when billing your customer if you perform a down payment with a product using delivered quantities as the invoicing policy.

In fact, the final invoice cannot be created until the product has been delivered. You make a credit note that cancels the draft invoice made after the down payment if nothing has been supplied. Installing the Inventory App is required in order to verify the delivery. If not, you can manually input the delivery quantity on the sales order.

3. Edit income account and customer taxes

As mentioned before, we cannot configure the customer tax and the income account every time we create a down payment, with the exception of the first one. We must alter the down payment’s product setting in order to make adjustments to them. We will start this process by going to the Sales dashboard and clicking the Products button.

You will be taken to a page dedicated to your products. So as to not waste your time, let’s locate the search bar and type in Down payment and click it. From here, you can make some edits regarding the payment.

Under the General Information tab, you can find that you are able to make changes to the Customer Tax field. You can either omit it completely, or modify it to another appropriate percentage.

Now that the accounting app is installed, we may change the income account. If not, add the module using the general dashboard for Odoo’s apps. After installation, the product window will include a tab for accounting. The income accounts can be changed from the Accounting tab.

Another way to edit your income account is to access the Chart of Accounts from the Accounting dashboard. There, you will be met with an Income Account window, where you can make some changes to your account as you see fit. The modifiable fields are:

• Code: Enter the code dedicated to your account.
• Account Name: For this field, we advise that you should name it according to your account type.
• Type: This is a drop-down menu for you to choose from the available account types.

When you are done with the configuration for this part, simply click the Save button so as to finalize any changes. The transaction for the customer’s down payment will be recorded in the chosen income account in the accounting configuration of the product labeled Down payment. This step also marks the end of this tutorial.

Conclusion

With the help of Odoo, this process of How to Request a down payment in Odoo is so much easier and more straightforward. When it comes to handling a large order, it will be more secure for you to require a down payment, preferably at least around 10-20% of the total amount charged. That way, you can also build rapport with new customers, which can surely make them trust your business.

This is the end of our walkthrough of How to Request a down payment in Odoo in detail. If you happen to come across any confusion, don’t hesitate to contact Odoo’s customer service in order to get as much help as possible. Additionally, you can also bookmark this guide so as to refer to it whenever you feel the need to!