Getting paid before the date

Short, practical pieces on deposits, balances and payment schedules — written for the people who chase them.

• How to set up a payment plan for customers, step by stepA plan is three decisions and one page: what is due today, when the rest lands, and what the customer sees before they agree.October 18, 2026
• Who owns the payment schedule in a small events teamIn a team of four the schedule belongs to whoever answered the enquiry. Here is how to split the job on purpose instead.October 15, 2026
• Refunds and cancellations when only part of the price has been paidA cancellation mid-schedule is two jobs: stop the dates that have not happened, then work out what of the money already in your hands goes back.October 14, 2026
• What a customer should see before they agree to a scheduleThe screen where someone signs up for four dated payments is the whole arrangement. Here is what belongs on it, and what belongs behind a toggle.October 13, 2026
• Custom orders with a lead time: taking money before the work startsOn a made-to-order job the customer pays weeks before anything exists. Here is how to split that money so neither end of the job is awkward.October 12, 2026
• Wedding venues: the fourteen-day rule and why it existsAlmost every venue contract says the balance is due fourteen days before the day. Here is what that gap is actually made of.October 11, 2026
• Season passes and memberships sold months aheadA renewal arrives as one large number long before anyone uses anything. Where to split it, and why the schedule should finish early.October 10, 2026
• Equestrian and motorsport entries: fees paid long before the gateEntries close weeks before anyone turns up, and the whole fee is asked for at once. Where to split it, and where to put the last payment.October 9, 2026
• Why a payment schedule is not debt, explained for your accounts teamNobody pays you the full price up front, so nothing new appears on the liability side and nobody arrives later to recover a shortfall.October 8, 2026
• Retreats and multi-day workshops: pricing the first paymentThe first instalment is not a round fraction of the price. It is whatever you have already spent on that person, plus the runway you have left.October 7, 2026
• What to do when an instalment is declinedA declined card is rarely a customer refusing to pay. Sorting declines into three kinds tells you who has to act, and when.October 6, 2026
• Group travel: one organiser, twelve payers, one dateThe operator wants one balance by one deadline. Twelve households pay at twelve different speeds. The organiser is what sits in between.October 5, 2026
• Camps and programmes: collecting fees before the first morningA place is taken months before it is used, and families enrol at different times. Here is how to shape a schedule that survives both.October 4, 2026
• Deposits for conference and summit registrationsA deposit on a registration does two jobs: it marks the seat as taken and it covers what you commit per head. Here is how to size it and date the rest.October 3, 2026
• What to put in writing before the first paymentA booking paid in parts needs one record both sides can point at. Here is what belongs in it, and which line is always the one missing.October 2, 2026
• How far before the date should the last payment landThe final payment is the only date in a schedule that can cost you the event. Here is how to pick it by working backwards from your own cutoff.October 2, 2026
• Chasing a balance is a process, not a personIf one coordinator holds every due date in their head, the process leaves when they do.October 1, 2026
• What "pay over time" means when nobody is lendingThe difference between a loan-funded checkout button and a payment schedule on your own merchant account.September 30, 2026
• Deposit and balance, without the spreadsheetMost venues already sell in two payments. Here is what the manual version costs, and what a schedule replaces.September 29, 2026