Deposits and partial payments on draft orders
Deposits for draft orders
Take a deposit on quotes, phone orders and custom work without sending customers to checkout. Save a card on file to a draft order, then charge the deposit and remaining balance from the order page.
On this page
Get notified when a payment method is added to a draft order
How payments appear on the Shopify order
Shopify Plus: Using Shopify's deposit feature
Shopify Plus: Charging deposits without Shopify's deposit feature
Large orders and plan differences
How it works
- You create a draft order with payment due later and turn it into an order.
- Downpay emails your customer a secure Shopify link to add a payment method. No checkout is needed.
- Once the card is saved, you use the Collect partial payment action to charge the deposit, then the remaining balance when it's due.
Every payment stays on the same Shopify order, with the same order number, from deposit to final payment.
Create the draft order
- In your Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts and click Create order.
- Add your products, custom items, discounts and shipping.
- Assign the customer.
- Check Payment due later, then choose when the balance is due:
- Due on fulfillment if you want to collect the balance when the order ships.
- A specific due date if you want to automate the balance charge with Downpay's Shopify Flow actions.
- When your customer has reviewed the quote and you're ready, click Create order.
Shopify sends your customer the standard order confirmation email, which may differ from the example below based on your own customizations.
Request a payment method
- On the order details page, click More actions.
- Under Apps, click Request payment method.
- Review the details in the popup and click Send request.
Your customer receives an email with a secure link to add a payment method to the order.
Customize the request email
The email your customer receives is Shopify's Customer payment method add request template. To find it, go to Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications > Accounts and outreach > Customer payment method add request.
By default, it looks like this:
To change the wording or design, edit the template's HTML.
What your customer sees
When your customer clicks Add payment method, they see a secure Shopify page where they enter their card details.
After they click Add, they see a confirmation.
Get notified when a payment method is added to a draft order
When a customer adds a payment method to an order, Downpay emails you automatically. The notification goes to the email address in your Downpay settings.
To change this email address:
- In Downpay, go to Settings.
- In the Account section, update the email address.
- Click Save.
This notification can be disabled from the Downpay settings page.
Charge the deposit
- On the order details page, click More actions.
- Under Apps, click Collect partial payment.
- Choose a quick selection percentage or enter a charge amount.
- Review the charge summary and click Charge.
Charge the balance
When the balance is due, repeat the steps to charge the deposit to charge the remaining amount.
In the customer account
Your customer can log in to their customer account at any time to:
- Pay off the order using the Pay now button. This supports manual payment methods as well as credit cards and PayPal.
- Update their card on file using Downpay's Manage order block, if you've added it to your theme.
How payments appear on the Shopify order
Downpay never creates a second order for the balance. The deposit, any further partial payments and the final balance are all transactions on one Shopify order, with one order number.
One order, multiple transactions
Each time you click Charge, Shopify adds a new payment transaction to the same order.
- Deposit. The order moves to Partially paid.
- Each further partial payment. Adds another transaction. The order stays Partially paid.
- Final balance. The order moves to Paid.
The order timeline shows each charge with its amount and date.
Reporting
Shopify's reports don't all treat these orders the same way.
- Sales reports don't split the deposit and balance. When the first payment is made, Shopify records the order as if it were fully paid. This is a long standing Shopify limitation.
- Payment method by order shows each deposit and balance as its own row, so you can see the actual transactions processed.
- Order exports show the correct paid and outstanding balance for each order.
Shopify Plus: Using Shopify's deposit feature
On Shopify Plus, draft orders can require a deposit natively. With this option, your customer pays the deposit through a Shopify invoice first, and you request a payment method afterwards.
- Create the draft order, add your items and assign the customer.
- Check Payment due later and choose when the balance is due.
- Check Require deposit and enter the percentage to collect.
- Click Send invoice.
- Your customer opens the invoice and pays the deposit. This creates the order.
- Request a payment method so a card is stored on file for the remaining balance.
- When the balance is due, charge it with Collect partial payment.
Shopify Plus: Charging deposits without Shopify's deposit feature
You don't have to use Shopify's deposit feature. Leave Require deposit unchecked and follow the standard steps:
- Create the draft order with payment due later.
- Request a payment method.
- Once the card is on file, charge the deposit with Collect partial payment.
This gives you more flexibility:
- Charge multiple partial payments. Shopify's deposit feature collects one deposit. With a card on file, you can charge as many partial payments as you need until the order is paid.
- Skip the invoice checkout. Your customer only adds a card. They don't need to complete a checkout to get started.
Large orders and plan differences
Downpay doesn't set a maximum order value. What changes on large orders is how Shopify authorizes each charge, and that depends on your Shopify plan.
Shopify Plus | Basic, Shopify and Advanced | |
|---|---|---|
What Shopify authorizes when you charge a deposit | Only the deposit amount | The full remaining balance |
What your customer sees on their card | A hold for the deposit only | A hold for the full balance, then a capture for the deposit |
Can a large order fail at deposit? | Only if the deposit is more than the card's available credit | Yes, if the card's available credit is less than the full remaining balance |
Multiple partial payments | Supported | Supported |
Example
A customer orders a $20,000 piece and you charge a $10,000 deposit.
- On Shopify Plus, Shopify authorizes $10,000 and captures it. Your customer never sees a hold for the full balance.
- On Basic, Shopify and Advanced, Shopify first authorizes the full $20,000. If the card has less than $20,000 of available credit, the deposit charge fails, even though you're only charging $10,000. If it succeeds, Shopify captures $10,000 and releases the rest of the hold.
Workaround for large orders on non Plus plans
To work around the full authorization, temporarily discount the order by the remaining balance amount so the order total equals the deposit.
In this example, a $1,500 custom ring needs a 30% deposit.
- On the order details page, click Edit.
- Apply a 70% discount to the ring. The order total is now $450.
- Uncheck Send invoice to customer, then click Update order.
- Click More actions > Collect partial payment, select 100% and click Charge. This collects the $450 deposit.
- Once the charge succeeds, click Edit again and remove the discount so the order total matches the real balance.
- When the balance is due, click More actions > Collect partial payment, select 100% and click Charge to collect the remaining $1,050.
Considerations
- Full authorization on non Plus stores. Shopify authorizes the full remaining balance before capturing each charge. On Shopify Plus, only the amount you charge is authorized. See Large orders and plan differences.
- Temporary discounts. When using the workaround, always uncheck Send invoice to customer and remove the discount after the deposit is collected.
- Sales reports. Shopify's sales reports don't split the deposit and balance. Use Payment method by order or an order export to see actual payments. See How payments appear on the Shopify order.
- Request email content. The payment method request email can't show order details. Reference the order confirmation email or customer account instead.
- First card on file. Customers must add their first card through the Shopify email. The Manage order block only updates an existing card.
- Automating the balance. Set a specific due date on the draft order if you want to automate balance collection with Shopify Flow.
- B2B orders. B2B orders aren't supported. Contact us with your use case so we can submit a feature request to Shopify.
FAQ
Does Downpay create a separate order for the deposit or the balance?
No. The deposit, any further partial payments and the final balance are all transactions on one Shopify order, with one order number. The order moves from Partially paid to Paid, and the timeline shows each charge.
Do both payments show up in Shopify's reports?
In some reports. Shopify's sales reports don't split the deposit and balance, and record the order as fully paid once the first payment is made. Payment method by order shows each transaction, and order exports show the correct paid and outstanding balance.
Is there a limit on order value?
Downpay doesn't set one. On plans other than Shopify Plus, Shopify authorizes the full remaining balance before each charge, so your customer's card needs that much available credit. On Shopify Plus, only the amount you charge is authorized.
Why did my deposit charge fail on a large order?
If you're not on Shopify Plus, Shopify authorizes the full remaining balance before capturing the deposit. On a large order, the customer's card may not have enough available credit for that authorization, so the charge fails even though you're only collecting a percentage. This doesn't happen on Shopify Plus.
The workaround is to temporarily discount the order so the total equals the deposit, collect it, then remove the discount.
Can my staff enter the customer's card details over the phone?
Yes, with a small adjustment to the flow. The payment method request email goes to the email address on the order, so you can set that to one of your sales team's addresses. Your team receives the secure Shopify link, opens it while still on the phone, and enters the card details the customer reads out. You can then update the order with the customer's own email address.
This is useful when a customer can't reach their email, for example while driving, or simply wants your team to handle everything on the call.
How does Downpay bill me for these orders?
Downpay bills on the full order total, counted once a deposit has been successfully collected. It's the same as an order placed through your online store, where usage is based on the total value of the order rather than the deposit amount.
Do my Downpay purchase options apply to draft orders?
No. Purchase options attach a deposit at checkout through a selling plan, and Shopify doesn't support selling plans in draft orders. You choose the deposit amount yourself when you charge it, which means your percentage settings and balance due dates aren't applied automatically.
Can I collect more than one partial payment?
Yes. Because the card is stored on file, you can charge as many partial payments as you need until the order is fully paid. Every payment is added to the same order.
Are B2B orders supported?
Shopify B2B (company) orders aren't supported. Contact us with your use case so we can submit a feature request to Shopify.
Updated on: 12/10/2026
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