Solved

Accept Partial payments on Draft orders or Manual orders

gio-novo
Visitor
3 0 29

I know you can accept multiple partial payments on Shopify POS which is very useful in my business but i would like this same function when doing draft orders or manual orders. I would like to email my customer the draft order and accept a "deposit" or a "down payment" on an order. Currently Square Invoice and PayPal Invoice offer this useful feature, where you can determine what is the initial minimal payment amount ( example 50% deposit) and after the customer either pick up or we deliver the order the customer pays the remaining amount. With square Invoice you can even set up a schedule of payments similar like a subscription but with a defined dates and last payment date. Also with 3D Cart you can record partial payments on offline or manual orders. 

 

When will we be able to accept or record partial payments on draft or manual orders on Shopify?

 

Thank you 

Accepted Solution (1)
Dallas
Shopify Staff (Retired)
916 61 211

This is an accepted solution.

Thank you so much for all of this information to help clarify what you're needing. 

 

Based on what you're saying the option that would work best for you is to use the Draft Order feature and split the payments up that way. I know it isn't as intuitive as you'd like, but it will cut out the steps of using square and copying the information over. 

 

If you have your customer's contact information you can send them an invoice directly from the draft order so that they can pay there, the money is tracked and inventory is adjusted appropriately. The invoice won't have any information from the previous payment invoice, but you can add that information in the notes. 

 

From the options available in association with what you need I think this would be the best option for you. 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

View solution in original post

Replies 101 (101)

Dallas
Shopify Staff (Retired)
916 61 211

Hey, there.

 

This is Dallas from Shopify's Social Care Team.

 

Ok, so there isn't a way to do that now, but I do have some options that might be useful for you when it comes to initiating partial payments.

For manual orders online, the best way would be to create incremented draft orders. Nothing would trigger anything automatically, but you could go to Settings > Orders > Drafts and send out an invoice or a percentage of the payment (1st installment) and then you could create an order for the remaining balance (or following payments) that need to be paid. In order to make sure that all of the payments are organized you can refer to the initial order (number and amount) in a new draft order.

 

It would look something like this:

2020-03-tqpt0-q66ea


The other option that you might not have thought of would be to create incremented payments for your customers online so that you don't have to make a draft order for partial payments. I'm not sure how your business structure is set up, so if you take a lot of phone orders (aka make all the incremented payment orders manually) then this wouldn't work. However, if that isn't the case and you have customers that visit your online storefront then you could get an app like

 

This would allow you to predetermine how your customer will need to pay. It will also allow you to guarantee that you get the money for the order rather than relying on the honor system. 

 

Have you thought of an option like that or does that seem like something that would work for you?

Please let me know if you need more assistance!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

gio-novo
Visitor
3 0 29

Hi Dallas,

 

Thank you for your quick response. The apps options will not work for my business, since this would only be at an in-person or over-the-phone type of order. I sell furniture online and the order has to be either paid in full or financed. But for in-person sales i'm a little more flexible because on special orders (meaning the product is not in our local warehouse instead we have to ship it to our warehouse) the customers pays 50% deposit to place the order and the other 50% payment is due upon store pick up or when we deliver it to the customers home. Currently the workaround i found is to create the order on the Shopify POS on an ipad and record the deposit cash/card payment of 50% of the order total. Then when the customer picks up their order, they pay the remaining 50% on the store or if the customer prefers home delivery, then the customer doesn't come to the store, instead we email the customer the remaining balance amount which is the other 50% prior delivery. But in this scenario i use either Paypal or Square invoice to email the customer the remaining amount and after it's paid i manually record the payment on Shopify POS. I use a third-party card processor by the way.  It would reduce the number of steps and make the process much smoother if all this could be done on the Shopify back-end. The Ideal scenario would be like this: The customer visits store and pays 50% deposit on a special order via Shopify POS. Then when the customer is ready to pay the remaining 50% , i can quickly just open the order on the Shopify back-end and email the customer directly from Shopify charging the remaining 50% amount.  Once the customer opens the email, they will be able to see the invoice with all the order details, order total, the previous paid amount, and the current amount due. All this with a just a click of button and without the need of using a third-party invoice app. This will greatly reduce data double entry and everything remains centralize. 

 

Thank you

 

 

Dallas
Shopify Staff (Retired)
916 61 211

This is an accepted solution.

Thank you so much for all of this information to help clarify what you're needing. 

 

Based on what you're saying the option that would work best for you is to use the Draft Order feature and split the payments up that way. I know it isn't as intuitive as you'd like, but it will cut out the steps of using square and copying the information over. 

 

If you have your customer's contact information you can send them an invoice directly from the draft order so that they can pay there, the money is tracked and inventory is adjusted appropriately. The invoice won't have any information from the previous payment invoice, but you can add that information in the notes. 

 

From the options available in association with what you need I think this would be the best option for you. 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

Matt37
Explorer
65 0 78

Sorry Dallas, 

 

Splitting up the payment between multiple transactions seems like a work around, but it's not. It basically blows up your accounting, or creates a reconciliation nightmare. 

 

We also sell furniture with a 50% deposit. And we use shopify for our website and POS. I have asked everyone I can think of to find a way to enable Partially paid to work online, or via the draft. OR have a customer pay the balance via an email.  

 

No luck. I'll probably have to get a developer to build a solution. 

 

 

Dallas
Shopify Staff (Retired)
916 61 211

I see! If you're looking for partial payments online then you're going to be limited to one of the options that were listed above. 

 

I completely understand what you're saying, however, about this being a feature that wouldn't work for your store. In that case I think you might be right, an Expert would be the way to go about this right now. 

 

However, I think this is a good note that I want to bring to my merchant frustration teams. 

 

In your most ideal set up can you list all of the features that you would like this to have? I will then make a ticket for them to review. If you could share the store myshopify.com URL as well that would be great. 

 

I look forward to hearing back from you. 

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

George53
Shopify Partner
11 0 65

Hi guys,

Why can't we get this to work!? How difficult can it be to add the functionality to a draft order (or order) outside any POS app to accept partial payment? Or at least, give us the ability to change the amount a client pays or want to pay when in a draft order when we click on "Pay with credit card". I have been reading about this partial payment stuff on (draft) orders so sooo long and many many people are waiting for it. Since 2015, people have tried to make this happen. Please Shopify, do something!!!!!

Karen-Firsthand
Visitor
1 0 23

I agree with the other Merchants, all payment processing systems I have ever used have a simple system for automated billing for multiple equal payments spread over 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 months.  So, once the first transaction is done, it is agreed with the customer to have the 3 equal payments over 3 months.  Then it just happens in the back-office with no further transactions or double booking.   Customer is notified of each payment by email as is the Merchant / Seller.   It is simple and easy and fits perfectly with an electronic transaction.   Honestly. I can't believe that Shopify does not have this capability - Make it a priority so you don't lose ground to your competition.   This capability has been around for years in much less sophisticated online shopping carts and electronic transaction processors.  

Please make this a Priority and report back.

Multiple Payment Processing with equal monthly payments is customary for any online store.   

Best,

Jeff C.

Matt37
Explorer
65 0 78

Hi Dallas,

 

Here's a little follow up: 

 

1. In the POS it is possible to take multiple payments, and to mark a transaction as partially paid. 

Matt37_0-1600545396590.png

Ideally, in the online checkout our customer with transactions over $1000, would be given the choice to pay in full, or a 50% deposit.  Then be directed to the payment gateway as usual. 

10 weeks later (no one said the Amish were quick) when their furniture is ready, we could send them email from the same transaction number, where they could follow a link to pay the remaining balance, through the standard gateway.

 

 

Anselm
Visitor
1 0 16

I’d also like this feature. I take orders that can take up to 3 months to make, so people pay a 50% deposit and the balance before collection. 

bruceeeee
Tourist
5 0 28

PLEASE FIX THIS!!! CORE FUNCTIONALITY THAT IS MISSING

roundsound
Visitor
2 0 18

I'm having the same issue.

Shopify, please add this functionality. It seems like a very basic concept for ordering of any kind. 

diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

@Anselm If you're still looking, we are building something out and launching soon. Happy to share what we have and see if it suits you! Check us out at hypehound.io and shoot us a message. 

VariousKeytags
Tourist
3 0 3

Would this work on Draft orders?

 

diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

We're still waiting on Shopify to enable partial payments (fixed selling plans) for Draft orders and other channels.  Right now they are only compatible with Online store. Once they do it, we'll be compatible. It could be years until that happens unfortunately. 

Diana
cofounder @ hypehound.io

mbeffa
Tourist
7 0 3

Diana, 

Are you from Deva?

diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

No, more eastern Transylvania but in Canada for decades now 🙂 

Kat25
Tourist
6 0 12

SAME!!!! I take pre-orders & offer my customers a payment option of 50% at time of order and the remaining when their order arrives. I just found out that Shopify does not support this so I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. If I don't offer this payment option, I will likely lose customer to other who are offering this option. I'm hoping Shopify figures it out soon. 

MCH4345
Visitor
2 0 7

So who did you hire for this? We need the same functionality. Our other option is to dump Shopify and go elsewhere. Seems like a simple enough ask to split payments and accept deposits. Scratching my head on why they haven't figured it out. Must be they just don't want to! 

 

roundsound
Visitor
2 0 18
I ended up staying in Shopify in the Shopify POS app. You can make a sale
and allow for partial payment. I then have to manually (set a reminder on
my calendar) email the customer (say once a month) and call them to get
their credit card info and make another partial payment that way on the
same "sale".

By no means ideal, but it has worked for me. Very little of my sales are
done this way, so it's a workaround that I have to be okay with.
tnfisk
Tourist
6 0 14

We did the same thing @roundsound did.  We have been using the POS app on iPads.  It's definitely a wonky workaround and you have to accept the deposit and final payment in the POS app for it to work as intended.  

 

Honestly, I'm not sure why Shopify hasn't replicated their POS app/dashboard functionality into the normal web-based admin side.  It would be incredibly useful and I wouldn't think it would be that har to add in.

 


@MCH4345 wrote:

So who did you hire for this? We need the same functionality. Our other option is to dump Shopify and go elsewhere. Seems like a simple enough ask to split payments and accept deposits. Scratching my head on why they haven't figured it out. Must be they just don't want to! 

 




diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

Hey @Matt37 I know it's been years but I wanted to let you know we're building an app to do this and launching in January. We'll support partial payments in one order and automatically charge the remainder to the saved payment method.  If you're interested, I'd love to hear about your use cases and make sure we have the capabilities to support you. Check us out here: hypehound.io

iramccully
Excursionist
11 1 34

This is most certainly NOT solved.

The ability to draft invoices with multiple payments is the very FIRST need I have for my very first product. It is the root of the business logic of credit, deposit, reservation and layaway.  It would be an easier problem if we could ONLY accept multiple recurring  payments with incrementing invoice lines. 

 

...

 

Look, I'm new here. My first shopify website is coming up on 4 days old. I have ONE item for sale. If I cannot partial invoice, accept partial payment, deposits increment an invoice and properly track inventory using this system I'm taking my business elsewhere. 

sbponson
Visitor
2 0 28

Any updates on adding this functionality to draft orders?? Seems silly not to have it. Shopify has introduced a slew of new functionality the past year, this should have been at the top of the list. For those of us operating in primarily B2B spaces especially. The "incremental order" approach is a poor solution because it destroys reporting on profit margin and sales... Makes it look like we're selling twice as many goods at half the price.

To have to pay for yet another app to achieve this very basic function is kinda ridiculous.

Gist
Tourist
6 0 4

Hey @sbponson,

I'd be happy to discuss solutions with you if interested. Please feel free to reach out to us at support@gist-apps.com if you would like a demo of our product.

Wholster does not work with incremental orders, but rather, real partial payments on individual orders, applying the appropriate transaction types to the order in Shopify as payments are applied.

Hope to hear from you!

katie_leary_seb
Excursionist
11 0 53

I just want to chime in and stress the importance of having this feature. It is very clunky and confusing to the buyer to have different invoices for the same order. It's hard for them to track and hard for us to track. Shopify - if you're listening - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add a partial payment option in its Draft Orders. I have had to add so many apps to do things Shopify doesn't do & I really don't want to have to add and pay for another. This is not a complicated feature. And there would be a lot of happy merchants. 

 

Steven_Mathews
Tourist
3 0 22

Yeah one more demand for this feature. When you manually accept a payment outside Shopify (eg someone sends a wire transfer, as many of our international customers do for big orders) there's nothing forcing it to be the exact same amount that's outstanding. If a customer accidentally over or under pays, that needs to be able to be fixed in Shopify by specifying not just that "payment was collected" but by specifying the amount of payment that was collected.

Not "it should be able to", it NEEDS to be able to because there isn't another way to fix it that actually reconciles with a bank account.

HugoJolliffe
Visitor
2 0 22

Also requesting this feature. This should be a basic functionality. We sell higher value items that are not usually ready for immediate shipment and many customers would rather pay a deposit with the balance payment at a later date. There is no sufficient way to handle a transaction like this within Shopify.

diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

Hey @HugoJolliffe, we're working on something to help you with this and launching in January. You'll be able to take a fixed or percentage based deposit and automatically charge your customer on a specific day or x days after checkout. This is not a draft orders feature (as Shopify doesn't support partial payments there yet). If you're interested, check us out here: hypehound.io. Would love to chat and hear your use cases!

George53
Shopify Partner
11 0 65

Why this post is marked as solved is a mystery to me. Please @Dallas @Shopify make this happen!!

katie_leary_seb
Excursionist
11 0 53

I posted this initially a few months ago and never heard a word from Shopify about it. I did hear from a lot of other people who agree & would like the same functionality. 

You are correct ... this should NOT be marked SOLVED! 

katie_leary_seb
Excursionist
11 0 53

This is not a solution to the problem. It is a clunky workaround that messes up bookkeeping & isnt' intuitive to the purchaser who is being invoiced.

Levi5
Tourist
5 0 13

We really need this functionality as well. The work around hack is not a viable solution for us.

Tim_Gist
Explorer
92 2 8

@roundsound @George53 @katie_leary_seb @Levi5 @gio-novo 

Hi there!

I found this thread, and wanted to let everyone know about our application, called Wholster, which allows for true partial payments to be made on draft orders using the payment terms features.

You can check out an overview of how this works here:

https://docs.wholster.com/article/payment-terms-overview/

For more general information about the app, please visit the app listing page in Shopify

https://apps.shopify.com/wholester.

If anyone is interested in this solution, please feel free to reach out to us any time at support@gist-apps.com.

Hope this helps, and looking forward to hearing from you!

sbponson
Visitor
2 0 28
Not interested in an app. Other hosting sites have this functionality built in. The price we pay for Shopify, this should be built in, too.
Geof_Ochs
Visitor
2 0 10

UPVOTE UPVOTE UPVOTE!!! NEED THIS FUNCTIONALITY. 

 

Backend split/partial payments for online orders purchased with a manual payment method. 'nuff said.

 

Use case - I want to be able to "send invoice"/partial payment for a specific $$ amount to two different email addresses.

ElanaSadler
Tourist
3 0 9

This seems super basic. I need a partial payment option as the 1st installment thing doesn't work with taxes etc. 

If Squarespace has this, how can Shopify not have this??? Ugh I just switched four days ago from Squarespace and now I'm upset that I did! 

 

larapretorius88
Tourist
5 0 3

I will literally pay for this, my store in South Africa is not compatible. Is there a way to work around the credit card option and only accept bank transfers. My wholesale customers never pay using a credit card.

diana_birsan
Explorer
46 1 10

Hi @larapretorius88 ! I saw your uninstall if Downapy, sorry about these limitations. Do any of these options work?

1. Enable Paypal with automatic payments and take a small % upfront, then get the bank transfer as the final payment and mark the order as paid

2. Enable Paypal with automatic payments, offer 0% upfront and then mark as paid after the bank transfer final payment.

I'm always available to chat through these two options or we can try and think of another one. Shopify Payments or Paypal have to be turned on for any of our blocks to even appear on the theme. This is a Shopify limitation unfortunately. Email me anytime to discuss further!

Diana
Co-founder @hypehound.io 
diana@hypehound.io

tnfisk
Tourist
6 0 14

Hey guys!  Chiming in to say the same thing.  This is not solved.  We're wanting the same functionality to allow multiple cards to pay per order or partial payments.  We can do it via the POS hack, but it is just that a hack.

 

We sell high-dollar value orders with our greenhouse kits.  Often we'll have customers need to split this over multiple credit cards.  Please fix this partial payment issue.  This seems like a very basic and HIGHLY requested feature.

Kat25
Tourist
6 0 12

May 30, 2023 and I'm sitting here reading all of these posts trying to figure out how to accept a deposit on an order. I assume it still isn't "fixed". Lovely. 

katie_leary_seb
Excursionist
11 0 53

This hasn't been addressed since my original post almost 2 years ago & MANY people are asking for this feature. I ended up taking my wholesale ordering out of Shopify in terms of invoicing. I just do it all in Quickbooks now. Basically write the order in Shopify for inventory purposes and mark it as 'collect payment later' or 'paid outside of shopify' and then invoice the buyers using Quickbooks. It's clunky but for me easier than figuring out a work around in Shopify. It's also easier for my bookkeeper. Alas.

 

jarrodb291
Tourist
3 0 19

I'm sorry, that is not a valid solution to this problem.  Using x2 draft orders means the subsequent orders are not at all connected to the original one, fake items need to be created for the instalment payments.

This is totally unacceptable with Shopify Plus. The reality is that Shopify at it's core is really a very basic, low end ecommerce platform that is perfect for entry level stores.  The 'promise' of Shopify Plus is that it's better suited to larger stores, but it's really just the same basic system with a much higher price tag.  The only real benefit is lower merchant fees, the so called better reporting and other features are a joke.

dopher
Tourist
4 0 8
Agreed. They seem complacent with what they have. We will stretch this a
bit longer, but we have started to investigate solutions from NetSuite or
Magento.

If we sold candles or mugs this might work.


jarrodb291
Tourist
3 0 19

Exactly, well suited to basic things but beyond that it's a pain.  The only reason we haven't moved is the time and cost currently is too significant, but the cost of managing around 20 add-on apps plus a lot of manual processing is getting higher and will soon outweigh the change over cost.  It's such as shame as these things seem easy for Shopify to sort out

Jcvr1920
Visitor
2 0 8

This is an unacceptable response.  You are asking this gentleman to create multiple invoices to handle one transaction.  What can't shopify create an option for a customer to partially pay an invoice and the invoice stay open and when the remaining payment is due, the vendor can resend the invoice to the customer.  The option of keeping one invoice open is very valuable to many merchants.  

EllinonK
Tourist
5 0 13

Absolutely correct!!! VERY valuable to many merchants!

Kat25
Tourist
6 0 12

THIS!!!!!

tahirb7
Visitor
1 0 4

Hello, I am also here as another voice to mention that this is not an accepted solution, and Shopify needs to prioritize this.

 

That said, with the help of the comments in this thread I was able to come up with this solution, which works as a workaround:

1. Create draft order 

2. Check Payment due later

3.  Select due on receipt

4.  Open up POS on mobile device

5.  Go to Orders

6.  Select Online

7.  Select the created order

8.  Split payment

9.  Collect initial amount of payment

10.  Go back into the backend dashboard, where the order now shows partially paid

11.  Edit the payment due date to what you would like it to be for the remaining payment

12.  Collect payment at a later date either through the backend dashboard or POS

 

This works for us as we have a 2-part 50 advance, 50 net 30, payment policy for large wholesale orders, but don't think it would work for multiple monthly payments.

 

It's a lot of steps, but was pretty quick, and will work until Shopify decides to actually figure this out.  Hope it helps you too

EllinonK
Tourist
5 0 13

Hey Tahirb7,

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to post this solution, convoluted as it is. You must have spent a lot of time trying to figure it all out. It is, though, the proof that Shopify MUST address our concerns.

 

Will try it next time we need to.

 

EK