I kept starting jobs on a promise. The promise was that the client would pay when the work was done. The freelance deposit percentage you ask for is where that promise gets tested, before you have spent the month.
I used to treat the deposit as cash flow. It is a filter. Clients who object to paying something up front are usually the clients who object to the final invoice.
A freelance deposit percentage that matches the risk
The number follows how much trouble you are in if they never pay the rest. A repeat client who pays on time can sit low. A stranger who wants custom work you cannot resell sits high. I pick the percentage before I get keen on the job, because once I am excited I bargain against myself.
Low risk is a short job for someone you already trust. Twenty or twenty five percent is enough, and sometimes nothing up front is fair if they have earned it. Write that choice down. Do not slide into zero because asking felt rude.
Medium risk is a new client and a defined project of a few weeks. Half up front is the ordinary ask. You will spend real days before they have anything to hold. If they go quiet in the middle, you are not carrying the whole loss.
High risk is a long build, a rush, or work that is useless to anyone else. Half is the floor, not the ceiling. On a small fixed job I ask for the whole fee before I start. Two invoices for a single day is admin, not protection.
| Situation | What I ask for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Repeat client who pays on time | 0 to 25 percent | They have already passed the filter |
| New client, defined project | 50 percent | You spend real time before delivery |
| Long custom work you cannot resell | 50 percent or more | Nobody else can buy the leftover |
| Small fixed job | 100 percent | Splitting it costs more than it saves |
| They cannot pay a deposit | Stages, or a higher fee | You still should not fund the whole job |
Work starts when the money is in your account. Payment sent is not the same as cleared funds. If they offer less than you asked, agree only when the rest gets tighter: shorter terms, smaller stages, or a pause when an invoice slips.
When 50 percent is the right ask
Fifty percent is reasonable when the job has a start and an end, the work is made for them, and you have no payment history yet. Half books the time. The rest is due when you hand it over.
It is a clumsy number on a retainer. Do not ask for half of a year in January. Bill a month at a time, or bill the month ahead. The risk you are covering is the next few weeks, not the whole relationship in one transfer.
Fifty percent also fits when your costs land early, such as travel, a tool, or weeks you cannot sell twice. If the scope is still foggy, do not take half of a guess. Price a small first piece, then price the rest when you can see it. I use 50 percent as the default for a new project, and I move off it only for a reason I can say out loud.
How to write the deposit into the terms
Say it before you start, on the estimate or the short agreement. If they first see a deposit after you have begun, you turned a term into a surprise. Surprises get argued. Terms get paid, or they get refused while you can still walk away.
- A deposit of 50 percent of the fee is due before work starts.
- Work starts when the deposit has cleared in my account, not when it is promised.
- The balance is invoiced on delivery and is due within 14 days of that invoice.
- If the project stops after work has started, the deposit covers time already spent and the rest is returned.
The deposit is part of the fee, not a charge on top. Say what happens if they cancel after you have started. I keep the part that covers time already spent, and I return the rest. Put the amount on the estimate as its own line. People read the total and skip the paragraph.
Send a real invoice for that amount, with its own number, date, and due date. A chat that says to transfer half gets lost. Due on receipt is fine, or seven days if their accounts team needs it. The fields are the same ones in how to write an invoice. Wording for the balance or a pause can come from payment terms wording you can paste.
The final invoice shows the full fee, the deposit already paid, and the balance. Same project, new number. If the deposit arrives late, the start date moves. Do not begin as a favour.
Three options when a deposit is impossible
Some clients cannot pay a deposit. Public bodies and large companies often pay against a purchase order, after the work, on a cycle their system already has. You will not change that software by repeating yourself. You can still refuse to carry the whole project. There are three ways.
Staged invoicing
Break the work into pieces you can finish and bill, and do not start the next piece while the last invoice is unpaid. Each stage needs a thing they can accept, with a review window. I treat silence after that window as acceptance for billing, and I say so before I start. Otherwise you wait unpaid because you were being patient.
Shorter terms on a smaller invoice
If they will not pay anything up front, do not also give them a month. Use net 14, or due on receipt, on the smaller bill, and print the calendar date. A big company may still pay on its usual run, so read how net 30 vs net 14 actually behaves before you agree. If the date slips, the next stage waits.
Price the wait, or shrink the first piece
Say both prices once: the fee with a 50 percent deposit, and a higher fee if everything is due at the end. Some clients find the deposit possible when the other option costs more. Some pay the higher fee. You can also shrink the start to a paid first week, a real invoice for a defined piece, not a free sample.
If they want the lower fee, no deposit, and a long payment term, you already have your answer. Send the two prices once, then wait for a choice.
What to do this week
You do not need a new policy document. You need a number you can say without flinching, and a sentence that stops you starting on a promise.
- Write down two levels: one for a new project client, and one for people who have paid you on time more than once.
- Add the deposit lines to the estimate you send before work starts, including the line that work begins when the money has cleared.
- For any open job with no deposit and a client you do not know well, split the rest into stages before you do more unpaid work.
Change the next job, not your personality. The one already started is a lesson. The next estimate is the filter.
Frequently asked questions
For a new client on a defined project, 50 percent before the work starts is a normal freelance deposit, with the rest due on delivery. Repeat clients who pay on time can sit lower, including nothing up front, if you choose that on purpose. Very small fixed jobs are often paid in full before you start, because splitting them creates two invoices and almost no protection. The normal figure follows the risk of that job, not one number you reuse forever.
Ask before the work starts, in the estimate or the short agreement, in the same plain tone you use for the deadline. State the percentage, when it is due, and that work starts when the money has cleared. You do not need to apologise, and you do not need a story about your bills. People who hire freelancers have seen a deposit before.
Send a proper invoice for the deposit amount, with its own number, date, and due date, and wait until the money has cleared before you start. Due on receipt, or due within seven days, is enough for that first bill. The final invoice later shows the full fee, minus the deposit already paid, and the balance still owed. A chat message that says to send half is not an invoice.
Yes. A client can refuse a deposit, and you can refuse the job or change how the job is billed. Large organisations sometimes truly cannot pay one, because their system pays after a purchase order for work already done. That is a fact about their process, not a reason for you to fund the project. You then use staged invoices, shorter terms, or a higher fee.
Refund what you have not earned, and keep the part that covers work already done, if your terms said that before you started. If you have not started, return the money. If you have started, a full refund means you worked for nothing, which is a different deal from the one you both signed. Write the rule down so you are not inventing it in the cancellation email.
Charge a new client 50 percent on a project made for them, and the full fee up front if the job is small and the scope is fixed. Go above 50 percent when the work is long, custom, and useless to anyone else if they disappear. Do not open at a token amount to seem easy to hire. You can relax the number after they have paid you on time. Raising it later is the harder talk.
Do not start the full project. Offer staged invoices, a shorter payment term, or a higher fee that prices the wait, and let them pick one. If they refuse every option, decline the job. A client who will not pay anything until the end, will not pay faster, and will not pay extra for that wait has already told you how the final invoice will go.
Ask for the full fee up front when the job is small, the scope is fixed, and you will finish it in a few days. Also ask for it when this same client has paid you late before and still wants more work. Full payment is a calm way to sell a short piece of work. It is a clumsy way to sell a long retainer, which should be billed month by month instead.
Keep reading
- Read how to ask for payment politely if the deposit invoice goes overdue.
- Use payment terms wording you can paste in beside the deposit clause.
- Compare net 30 vs net 14 when a deposit is impossible and you still have to bill the balance.