Guide12 May 20266 min read
Take a Deposit the Moment an Estimate Is Accepted
The best time to collect a deposit is the second a customer says yes. Here is how to take a percentage on estimate acceptance, straight into your own Stripe.
The best time to collect a deposit is the second a customer says yes. Here is how to take a percentage on estimate acceptance, straight into your own Stripe.
There is a golden moment in every sale: the instant the customer decides to go ahead. Their commitment is at its peak and their wallet is closest to open. Most businesses waste that moment. Here is how to capture it by taking a deposit the second an estimate is accepted.
Commitment is perishable. When a customer accepts your estimate, they are as sure as they will ever be. Wait until you have started the work to ask for money and that certainty has already begun to fade. They have had time to notice a cheaper option, to second-guess the spend, or simply to get distracted. Asking for a deposit later means chasing a payment on top of chasing the acceptance you already earned.
Collecting the deposit at the point of acceptance folds two steps into one. The customer signs off on the estimate and pays their deposit in the same breath, on the same page. There is no awkward follow up, no separate invoice for the deposit, no gap for cold feet to creep in.
A deposit is not just cash flow. It is proof the customer is serious, taken at the exact moment they are most serious.
Quote Nudge QB adds deposit collection directly to the branded acceptance page. When a customer opens the estimate to accept it, they see your colours and logo, review the figures, and sign with their finger. If you have enabled deposits, the page then asks for the percentage you have set before the acceptance completes. Pay, sign, done.
The payment runs through Stripe Connect, which means the money goes straight into your own Stripe account, not ours. We never hold your funds. You keep the direct relationship with your payment processor, your existing Stripe payouts, and your own records. And because acceptance and payment happen together, the estimate is marked Accepted in QuickBooks automatically at the same time.
Materials, sub-contractors, and time all cost money before the customer pays the balance. A deposit means you are not financing the job out of your own pocket while you wait for the final invoice. For trades in particular, this is the difference between a healthy cash position and constantly juggling.
A customer willing to put money down is a customer who is genuinely going ahead. Deposits quietly separate the serious buyers from the ones who accept to keep their options open and then vanish. That protects your diary from no-shows and last-minute cancellations.
Every pound collected up front is a pound you are not chasing later. If a customer does go quiet after the work, you are only ever exposed for the balance, not the whole job. Combined with automated follow up on the estimate itself, deposits close the loop between winning the work and getting paid for it.
Deposits work hand in hand with automated chasing. Your follow up sequence keeps a sent estimate alive until the customer is ready, the branded page makes accepting effortless, and the deposit captures commitment at the peak. You can even reference the deposit in your later reminders, a gentle "secure your slot with a deposit today" that gives hesitant customers a concrete next step. Our email templates include a deposit reminder you can lift straight into your sequence.
Money and customer data demand real security, not a checkbox. Quote Nudge QB uses OAuth2 with PKCE for the QuickBooks connection, encrypts refresh tokens at rest, and isolates every business's data with row-level security in a multi-tenant Postgres database. Payments run through Stripe's own infrastructure, so card details never touch our systems. You get the convenience of one-tap deposits without compromising on the safety your customers expect.
The moment a customer accepts is the moment they are most willing to pay. Design your process to capture a deposit right there, on a branded page, straight into your own Stripe, and you turn the best moment in the sale into cash in the bank and confirmed commitment on the diary. It costs you nothing to try, and it can transform how a small business manages its cash flow.
Want deposits on your estimates without building a thing? Start a free 14-day trial of Quote Nudge QB, no card required, then £16.79 a month, cancel anytime. Setup details are in the docs.
Auto follow-ups, branded e-sign acceptance and deposits on your QuickBooks estimates. £16.79/mo after the trial — no card required.
Start free trialOne nudge is rarely enough, and ten is too many. Here is how many times to follow up on an estimate, the ideal cadence, and exactly when to stop chasing.
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