Retainers and payment plans

A payment plan is a deposit plus one or more later payments. You set it on the booking before the couple signs; Hailo collects the deposit on the booking page and raises an invoice for each later payment.

Deposit defaults

• Settings > Defaults > Default deposit (%) is the starting deposit on every new booking and proposal. Hailo ships with 30%.
• On a proposal, Advanced settings > Deposit lets you type a flat dollar amount instead. Leave it blank and the percentage applies, recalculated whenever the line items change.
• The booking and its proposal always agree on the deposit; changing one updates the other.

The payment schedule on a booking

Open the lead's Booking tab. Step 05, Payments, summarises the plan ("30% deposit on acceptance" or "$1,500 deposit on acceptance", or "No payment schedule yet") with a chip that reads Needs a package until the proposal has line items. Click Edit to open the Payment schedule panel: "Set the deposit and split the balance into as many payments as you want."

Rows

Each row is a card with a label, an amount and a due rule:

Control	Options
Label	Deposit, Second payment, Final balance, anything.
Amount	% of the total or $ fixed.
Due	when the contract is signed ("Due the moment the couple signs the contract."), On a calendar date, or a number of days, weeks or months before the wedding or after the wedding.

Under the rows Hailo tells you whether the schedule covers the total. With only a deposit it offers Add final payment (one more row for everything left) or Split into multiple. Once covered it reads "✓ Schedule covers the full $X." with Add another payment for more rows. If the rows overshoot, the last row absorbs the difference when invoices are raised, so deposit plus instalments always equals the contract total to the cent.

Load a saved preset

Pick one from Load a saved preset (the default preset is marked "· default"). "Loading a preset overwrites the current rows below." Presets are built under Templates > Catalog > Payment terms. See Catalog.

Hold the date

Tick Hold the date and pick a date: "If they haven't paid by this date, the offer expires." The couple's link stops working after that date unless they have already signed.

Save

Tick Save this schedule as a preset ("Reuse it on future bookings without rebuilding row-by-row.") if you want it in your presets, then click Save payments. Closing the panel also saves.

What happens when the couple pays the deposit

On the booking page the couple signs, then pays the deposit by card or a manual rail. When the payment is confirmed, Hailo:

1. Converts the lead to a client and creates the wedding event.
2. Raises one invoice per later row, each marked sent, with the due date worked out from your rule and the real wedding date, and a proportional share of any sales tax.
3. Marks those invoices for automatic reminders.

The invoices appear under Finance > Invoices with "from proposal" under the couple's name, and on the couple's client hub.

Instalment reminders

Details of timing and wording are in Payment reminders.

Instalments on a single invoice

An invoice you build by hand can carry its own plan of up to three rows. On the invoice, open Split this into instalments, name each row (Deposit, Balance, Final payment are the placeholders), give each an amount and a date, and click Save changes. The couple sees the plan on their invoice page with a Paid marker as rows are settled. This is a display schedule: the invoice is still one balance, and the reminder goes out against the invoice's own Pay by date.

If it didn't work

Symptom	What to do
The chip reads Needs a package	Add a package or line item in step 03 first; a percentage of nothing is nothing.
The schedule does not add up	Read the coverage line under the rows and add or adjust a row. Hailo will still raise correct invoices, with the last row absorbing the difference.
No instalment invoices appeared	They are raised when the deposit payment is confirmed, not when the couple signs. For a manual rail, confirm the payment on the lead first.