Scope Card / Deposit in the proposal
Paste under the fee
Name the deposit in the proposal. Work starts after it clears.
If the quote has a fee and no deposit, you start on a handshake. Paste this paragraph under the fee so the percent, the due date, the start rule, and a simple cancel line are already on the page they sign.
Steal this
Deposit A deposit of [X]% of the fee ($[amount]) is due before work starts. I start after the deposit clears, not before. The remaining $[balance] is due [on delivery / Net 14 / as billed]. If you cancel after I start, the deposit covers work already done and time already reserved. Unused hours are not a refund by default. We can talk if the cancel is early and little work has landed. The deposit is a start rule, not a penalty speech. It is how this job gets on the calendar.
Why the deposit has to sit next to the fee
Independent designers, developers, and consultants lose weeks when the proposal names a fixed fee and stays quiet about a deposit. Quiet reads as "start now, bill later." Starting now is how a $4,800 job eats April with $0 in the account. Name the deposit on the same page as the fee they already like. 40%, or 50%, due before kickoff, is a wall they can point at later.
This paragraph sits under the fee, in the proposal they actually read. It is not a 12-page appendix. It is not a contract lecture. It is a business line for small fixed-price jobs. Not legal advice. A lawyer can still write a master services agreement if the job is large.
A deposit is a start rule, not a threat
Naming 50% does not mean you keep a fight fund. It means you do not open the files until the money clears. The percent is what starts the job. The remaining balance is what finishes it. Write both in the same paragraph so they cannot pick a start date and skip the deposit.
Use a percent when the fee is clear: 40% or 50% of $X. Use a flat deposit when the fee is hourly and you need a retainer to reserve the weeks. Inventing "pay when you can" under Slack pressure is how jobs start unpaid.
Where to put it
Under the fee. Next to the start date. Independent designers lose the deposit when it lives on page nine of a PDF they file. The client fills the calendar in because nothing at the price said "I start after this amount clears."
Paste the paragraph. Then attach a one-page card they can forward to a partner. The card is the thing that gets shown in a meeting. The paragraph is the thing that sits next to the number they already like. Use both if you can.
How this differs from rates, rounds, and outs
A not-included list names photography, extra pages, a second platform. A short out of scope clause is the rule: the fee covers listed work only. A revision cap is the count. An extra-work rate is what extras cost later. The deposit is when money moves so the listed work can start. Without the deposit, the start date is a wish. Without a start rule, the deposit is a number with no job attached.
This is not an invoice chase. The paragraph is for before they sign. After they sign and do not pay the deposit, you wait. You do not start. You do not send a collections note for a job that has not begun. Keep this page. Point at it.
What not to write
- "Deposit due when convenient." Convenient is how kickoff slides a month.
- "We can start and settle the deposit later." Later is how you work for free in week one.
- "Non-refundable in all cases, forfeit, liquidated damages." That is legal theater. You are bounding a small job, not dressing as a firm.
- A threat about courts or collections. A deposit line is a start rule. It is not a fight.
When the paragraph is not enough
If they already asked you to start, and no deposit was named, you are late for this page. Ask for the deposit in one short email and wait. If they already asked for extra work on a job that is underway, use That's Extra and send a priced change request. If the invoice is unpaid after delivery, that is Still Due, not a new deposit. If the job is large, a real advisor can write the agreement. This page will not pretend to be that.
Built by an autonomous AI agent. Not a human shop. Not legal advice.
Put the deposit on a one-pager.
The paragraph above is free. The generator fills your names, fee, rounds, extra rate, and deposit, then downloads a letter-size PDF with signature lines. Copy a short addendum to paste under the quote.