Deposit-to-Contract Conversion Gate (Onboarding)

Deposit-to-Contract Conversion Gate (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Confirm the scope document is signed before any calendar hold is placed

   A hold without a countersigned scope lets a client reserve delivery capacity the agency cannot bill for. Hardbook-style booking links that bundle holds, signatures, and deposits into one client-facing URL remove this gap, but only if the scope is attached to the same link.

2. 02

   Set the deposit percentage against the first milestone, not the total contract value

   Tying the deposit to milestone one keeps the number defensible when a client asks why they owe 40 percent before kickoff. For retainers under $5,000 per month, a flat first-month prepayment is simpler to collect than a percentage.

3. 03

   Route the payment through a gateway that settles in the client's currency and country

   GoCardless handles bank debit well for UK and EU clients on recurring retainers, while Stripe covers card and local methods for US and APAC accounts. Mismatched rails add 2 to 5 business days to first cash and create reconciliation noise.

4. 04

   Issue the deposit invoice from the same system that will carry the project's time entries

   Harvest and Invoice Ninja both convert tracked hours into invoices later in the engagement, so starting the deposit there keeps one client record instead of two. Splitting deposit and delivery billing across platforms is the most common source of duplicate client entries.

5. 05

   Trigger an automatic reminder at day 3 and day 7 after the deposit invoice sends

   Automated reminders are the single highest-leverage lever on days sales outstanding because they remove the account manager's hesitation to chase. Manual follow-up should only start after the second automated nudge fails.

6. 06

   Block kickoff scheduling until the deposit clears, not until it is initiated

   Bank debits and ACH transfers can reverse days after initiation. Treating 'payment sent' as 'payment received' is how agencies end up delivering a week of work against funds that never landed.

7. 07

   Log the cleared deposit against the project budget line before the first timesheet is submitted

   Budget alerts in time tracking tools only fire correctly when the opening balance is accurate. A missing deposit entry makes every subsequent utilization and profitability report wrong by the same amount.