Overview
Partial payments let a customer pay an invoice in more than one instalment instead of settling the whole balance at once. You turn it on for a specific invoice and set the smallest amount you'll accept per payment.
Once it's on, your customer can enter their own payment amount on the invoice payment page, and you can take instalments from the back office too. The invoice tracks what's been paid and what's still owed as you go.
When to Use This Feature
A large job - a full system replacement or a multi-week remodel — where the customer wants to spread the cost.
You take a deposit up front and the balance on completion.
A commercial customer needs to split a bill across two budget periods.
A homeowner can pay part of a repair today and the rest on payday, and you'd rather collect something than nothing.
You're working out a payment arrangement on an invoice that's gone overdue.
How It Works
Partial payments are a per-invoice setting, not a business-wide one. You decide invoice by invoice.
When you turn it on, you set a minimum payment amount. That's the floor for each individual instalment - the customer can pay more, but not less.
As soon as one successful payment lands on the invoice, the invoice moves to a Partially Paid status. It stays there until the full balance is settled, at which point it becomes Paid.
The invoice summary keeps a running tally of two figures:
Payments Made - the total collected so far.
Balance Due - what's still outstanding.
Each instalment can come in a different way. A customer might pay the first third online by card, hand your tech a check for the second, and pay the rest by ACH.
How to Turn On Partial Payments
Open the invoice you want to accept instalments on.
Open the More Actions menu and select Accept Partial Payments.
Enter the minimum payment amount you'll accept per instalment.
Save the setting by clicking on Enable Partial Payment.
Partial payments are now enabled on this invoice. You can set this up on a Draft invoice before you ever send it, or on an invoice that's already out with the customer.
What Your Customer Sees
When you send an invoice with partial payments enabled, the payment page gives the customer an amount field instead of a fixed total.
The field arrives pre-filled with the minimum you set. The customer can raise it - up to the full balance - but not lower it.
If you pass a convenience fee on card payments, the fee recalculates as the customer changes the amount, so what they see always matches what they'll be charged. Convenience fees don't apply to ACH payments.
How to Collect an Instalment from the Back Office
You don't have to wait for the customer to pay online. You can take each instalment yourself.
Open the invoice.
Start a payment as you normally would - charge a card on file, or record a payment you've already collected. See Invoicing.
Enter the amount for this instalment rather than the full balance.
Complete the payment.
The invoice summary updates immediately - Payments Made goes up and Balance Due comes down.
Turning Partial Payments Back Off
You can switch partial payments off at any point, even after instalments have already been collected.
Once it's off, the next payment has to cover the entire remaining balance. The amount field pre-fills with that figure and can't be edited - by you or by the customer.
Instalments already collected stay exactly as they are.
Tips & Best Practices
Set the minimum to your deposit amount. If you always take 50% up front on installs, set the minimum to half the invoice total and the first payment enforces your own policy for you.
Enable it on the Draft before you send. Turning it on ahead of time means the customer sees the instalment option the first time they open the invoice — no second email needed.
Watch Balance Due, not the invoice total. On a partially paid invoice, Balance Due is the number that tells you what to chase.
Use the Partially Paid filter to follow up. Filtering the Invoices page by Partially Paid gives you your open instalment plans in one list.
Turn it off once the arrangement is finished. If a customer has paid down to a small remainder and you want it settled in one go, switching partial payments off forces the final payment to cover the balance.
Things to Know
Partial payments are set per invoice. There is no business-wide default.
The Accept Partial Payments action isn't available on invoices with a zero or negative total.
No payment can exceed the value of the invoice.
A Partially Paid invoice carries the same restrictions as a fully paid one - anything you can't do on a Paid invoice, you can't do here either.
Failed payment attempts aren't counted in the invoice summary. Only successful payments move Payments Made and Balance Due.
Instalments can mix payment types and methods freely - online and manually recorded, card and ACH and check.
Convenience fees are charged per payment, so a customer paying in three card instalments pays the fee three times.
Convenience fees don't apply to ACH payments.
Enabling and disabling partial payments requires the relevant permission. See Standard User Roles.
Troubleshooting
I don't see Accept Partial Payments in the More Actions menu.
Check the invoice total - the action is hidden on invoices worth zero or less. If the total looks fine, check your role permissions with an admin.
My customer says they can't change the payment amount.
Partial payments are either switched off on that invoice, or they were switched off after an earlier instalment. In both cases the payment page locks to the full remaining balance.
The invoice still shows Partially Paid after the customer paid the rest.
Check the Transaction Log on the invoice. If the final payment failed, the balance is still outstanding and the status is correct. Hover the information icon next to a failed transaction to see the reason.
The convenience fee looks wrong on a partial payment.
The fee is calculated on the instalment amount, not the invoice total, and recalculates as the amount changes. Confirm the amount in the field matches what you expect before completing the payment.
I entered an amount and got a validation message.
The amount is either below your minimum or above the invoice value. Adjust it and try again - the window stays open so you don't lose your place.
Have questions? Reach out via the support chat or email support@motionops.com.