Configuring proposal payment terms

Configuring proposal payment terms

The Payment Options tab in the  Services and Pricing area is where you set up your  local tax information and your default payment terms for proposals.

Attention
You must have administrator rights to access the portal areas referenced in this article.
Warning!
The proposal payment terms must be set up before drafting a proposal as updates to Firm Settings do not pull through to drafted documents.

To start, go to Navigation panel > Services & Pricing > Payment Options. 

There are three sections in this tab:
  1. Local Value Added Tax, to input your Tax Description and Tax %
  2. Payment Terms, to set the payment options your firm offers
  3. Payment Settings, including editable default values that are reflected in Payment Terms

Local Value Added Tax


The Tax Description and Tax % pull through to proposals to calculate the tax-inclusive price.
  1. Type your local tax description in the Tax Description input field, e.g. GST or VAT. 
  2. Type the percentage value of your local tax in the Tax % input field.
  3. Click Save at the bottom right of the page.

Payment Terms


Offering clients a choice of Payment Terms in your proposals provides flexibility and makes it easier for clients to accept your proposal.

This section contains seven payment term options; four of them are selected  by default as some options are highly likely to be mutually exclusive . A warning  icon will display if mutually exclusive payment options are selected, e.g. if payment in full on acceptance of proposal with a discount and without a discount are both selected.
  1. Select/deselect the options according to the Payment Terms you wish to offer by clicking on the checkbox to the left of each option
  2. A selected checkbox is blue ; a deselected checkbox is an empty square  
  3. All Payment Terms offered will appear selected in the proposal's Pricing and Payment Terms section, but can be deselected during proposal creation if required
  4. Some Payment Terms have a related payment setting with editable default values
Note
The Payment Terms you choose in this section can be overwritten during proposal creation.

Payment in full on acceptance of proposal

There are two options for Payment in full on acceptance of proposal; one with a discount and one with no discount. Select one of these options as a default Payment Term for your firm; these options can be changed during proposal creation if required, e.g. if you do not wish to offer a discount for a particular proposal, you can switch off the discount option within the proposal and switch on the option without a discount instead.
  1. In the Payment Settings section, the default discount is 5%
  2. Edit the discount percentage in the Payment Settings section > 100% Upfront Payment Discount (%) input field if required
Important info
It's best practice to offer a discount for payment in full on acceptance of the proposal. 

50% upfront and 50% of fee on completion

We recommended that you offer clients an option to pay a portion of the fee upfront, with the balance due on completion of the work.
  1. In the Payment Settings section, the default split for this option is 50/50
  2. Edit the split by updating the Upfront Fee % input field 
  3. The Completion Fee % is a read-only field that automatically calculates the balance due on completion based on the value in the Upfront Fee % field

Monthly fee funding facility 

This option should only be used if your firm uses a third party to provide fee funding finance.
  1. In the Payment Settings section, the default fee funding facility name is SmartAR
  2. Edit the facility's name by updating the Fee Funding Facility Name input field
  3. If your firm offers monthly payments but does not use a third party funding facility, select the Monthly Payments option instead

Monthly Payments (12 month term)

This option should only be used if your firm provides a monthly payment option to your clients. If you charge a fee for this option, specify this amount in the Monthly Payment Loading % in the corresponding input field. This amount will automatically be added to the price next to the Monthly Payment option within each proposal.
  1. The (12 month term) text will not appear next to this payment option in the Services Proposal in the Proactive Onboarding bridge as it's a rolling proposal
  2. The (12 month term) text will appear next to this payment option in all other proposals
Tip
If your Monthly Payment is outputting an unexpected value, review what you have saved in the Monthly Payment Loading %. Remember, if you do not charge a fee for providing this payment option, this field should be set to zero.

Payment following each coaching session

We recommend offering an option for clients to pay following each coaching session where they've committed to an ongoing coaching programme.
  1. This option will only appear on coaching based proposals
  2. To request upfront payments per session instead, amend the text in the Pricing and Payment Terms section during proposal creation, e.g. when creating a Quarterly Coaching Proposal, edit the payment option to say 'Payment prior to each coaching session' instead of 'Payment following each coaching session'

Payment on completion of service

Select this option if you wish to offer payment on completion of a service.

Note
It's not currently possible for clients to make payments through the portal.
Attention
Never ask for a client's credit card details via the portal.

Continue minimum set up: Managing clients and client documents

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