How To Start A Deposit

Charging a customer for a deposit involves creating a contract. Deposit contracts are just like other contracts in many ways:

  • The system bills the customer for the deposit using information on the contract.
  • The customer pays for the billed amount.
  • If the customer doesn't pay, credit & collections starts a collection process to encourage the customer to pay.

Deposit contracts differ from regular contracts in the following ways:

  • Deposit contracts typically don't cause a receivable account to be affected when the deposit is billed. It is when the deposit is paid that a financial transaction occurs (debit cash, credit deposit payable).
  • Deposit contracts have a credit balance when the billed amount is paid (the deposit paid by the customer is a liability of your company - it owes the customer this money).
  • Deposit contracts may be billed in installments or in a lump sum.

Creating a deposit contract involves the following steps:

  • From the Main Menu, select Customer Information and then click Start/Stop. The Start Stop screen appears.

  • Search the account for which you want to create a deposit contract

  • Enter a Start Date and Start Method of Start a Contract.
  • Click the Start button.
  • After you click the Start button, the Start Confirmation page will appear:
    • Choose an appropriate Division / Contract Type for the deposit contract.
    • Define the total amount of the deposit and the installment amount, if any. You define the total amount of the deposit in Total Amount To Bill. You can have the system recommend a deposit amount by pushing the The Lock Iconthat appears adjacent to this field.
    • If you allow the customer to pay the deposit in installments, define the Installment Amount (the prompt for this field is defined on the contract type and therefore will differ depending on how you've set up the system). After defining this information, close the page. The system will use the information you entered to create a deposit contract.