HourlyfloorFreelance deposit: 40% and why
Your inventory is not a warehouse. It is next month on the calendar. A deposit is how you sell that slot without eating the risk of a client who “loves the quote” and then ghosts after you blocked the weeks.
Forty percent is the default on the quote calculator for a reason. It is large enough to hurt if they walk, and small enough that serious buyers still say yes.
What the deposit is buying
Not “trust.” Three concrete things:
- Calendar lock — those weeks stop being available to someone else.
- Start costs — kickoff, research, setup, the first pass that never goes back on the shelf.
- Commitment filter — people who cannot pay 40% usually cannot pay the remaining 60% either.
If work starts on a verbal yes, you are financing their project with unpaid hours. That is not generosity. It is a soft loan you did not underwrite.
Why 40%, not 50% or 25%
50% is fine for short projects and new clients. Use it when the whole job fits in two weeks, or when you have never been paid by them before.
25% looks polite and fails the filter. A buyer who hesitates at 25% will hesitate harder at the final invoice. You also leave yourself underwater if they cancel after you have done a third of the work.
40% sits in the middle for multi-week project fees. It funds the front half of production without asking for the whole cheque on day one. Agencies often ask for more. Independents who ask for less usually regret it once, then raise the number.
When the money moves
Write the sequence into the scope of work, not into a Slack thread:
- 40% on approval — work does not enter the calendar until it clears.
- Remainder on delivery — or a midpoint invoice if the project runs longer than four weeks.
- Change orders — paid (or 50% deposited) before the extra work starts.
Same rule for kill fees: if they cancel after the deposit, the deposit stays. You already spent the slot. That sentence belongs in the scope before anyone is emotional.
The script that does not apologize
Do not explain your rent. Explain the rule:
“Project fee is $X. To reserve the dates, I invoice 40% ($Y) on approval. The remaining 60% is due on delivery. I do not open files until the deposit clears.”
If they push for net-30 on the deposit, the answer is no. Net-30 is for the remainder with a client who has already paid once. A deposit that waits thirty days is not a deposit.
If they ask for 10% “to show good faith,” treat it as a red flag, not a negotiation. Good faith is the wire.
Exceptions that are still rules
- Retainer — bill the month in advance. That is a 100% deposit on the block, every time.
- Day rate — prepaid or same-day invoice before the day starts. Do not “invoice Friday for Monday.”
- Tiny fixed jobs under your minimum project size — 100% up front is cleaner than chasing $400.
- Enterprise procurement — they may only do PO + net-45. Price the delay into the quote, or walk. Do not pretend their AP cycle is your float.
What happens after it clears
Send onboarding the same day. The deposit bought a start date, not an open loop while they hunt for brand assets. If assets are late, the calendar moves — the fee does not shrink.
Build the number with the project quote calculator so the 40% line is not a guess. Then put the same split in the proposal and the invoice. Soft words in email and hard numbers in the PDF is how deposits get “forgotten.”
If you need the paperwork already written — proposal, scope, invoice, late-pay sequence — that is the Client Close Kit.