Collecting a fee deposit online before work starts
How a law practice invoices a fee deposit, sends an online pay link, and sees the client's payment recorded against that invoice in its own books.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Legal businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A new client agrees on the phone to pay a deposit before you start drafting. Then nothing arrives. They meant to make the transfer that evening, used a reference nobody can match, or paid into the account number on an old letterhead. A fortnight later the practice is either still waiting to begin or has started work with nothing in hand.
An online payment link closes most of that gap. The client gets an e-mail, opens a page in your practice's name, and pays with a method they already use. The bigger benefit is behind the page: the payment lands against the right invoice in your own books, without anyone retyping a bank line.
The deposit starts life as an invoice
In Achekam a pay link always belongs to an issued customer invoice. There is no link for a draft and none for a voided invoice. So the first step is to raise and issue an invoice for the deposit, described plainly, for example "deposit on account of fees" with the matter name.
Two consequences follow. The deposit shows in receivables like any amount owed, appears on the client's statement, and turns up in the age analysis if it is not paid. And issuing an invoice posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. If the practice would rather not treat a deposit as income on the day it is requested, settle with your accountant how deposits should be invoiced before the first link goes out.
Making the link
From the issued invoice, create the payment link. You can copy it into a message of your own or e-mail it with the invoice. A few details are worth knowing:
- A link lasts 14 days by default; the practice can set any lifetime from 1 to 720 hours.
- If an open link already exists for the same amount, Achekam reuses it rather than creating a second, so the client is never holding two live links for one deposit.
- The client pays on a public page that shows your practice's name and branding.
Before any link works, an administrator enters the practice's own payment gateway credentials in Settings under Payment Gateways & Checkout. The screen can test the connection with a real call to the gateway, which is worth doing before the first client tries to pay. Staff who are not administrators can view those settings but cannot save them.
How the client can pay
What the client sees depends on the gateways you have set up and the invoice's currency.
| Country and currency | Ways to pay a deposit invoice |
|---|---|
| South Africa, rand | PayFast, Ozow, Peach Payments, Stripe, Paystack or Flutterwave, or EFT to your bank account |
| Nigeria, naira | Paystack or Flutterwave, or bank transfer |
| Kenya, shillings | M-Pesa, Pesapal, Paystack, Flutterwave or Peach Payments, or bank transfer |
A gateway that does not settle the invoice's currency is refused. In Kenya the practice can also send an M-Pesa payment prompt to the client's phone for a shilling invoice; only whole shillings are requested, and any cents stay due on the invoice.
For EFT or bank transfer, the pay page can show your bank details and a payment reference. There is no automatic confirmation on that route: a staff member marks the payment received once it appears on the bank statement.
What the books show once it is paid
When a gateway payment is verified, Achekam records it as a receipt against the deposit invoice. The journal debits that gateway's clearing account and credits trade receivables, and the invoice shows as paid, or part-paid if the client paid less. The amount is checked against what the link asked for, and a repeated notification from the gateway never pays the invoice twice.
Because it is an ordinary receipt, the rest of receivables follows on: the client's statement shows the deposit as paid, and anything paid over the invoice amount is held on the client's account.
When the matter does not go ahead
Sometimes a client changes their mind after paying. Achekam does not send refunds of online invoice payments through the gateway. The refund is made in the gateway's own dashboard, and a person records it in Achekam, where administrators can refund or reverse the receipt so the books match what happened. Decide who may do each half of that job, and keep the gateway's refund confirmation on the client's file.
A fee deposit is not trust money
Settle this before you send a single link. A pay link records the payment as a receipt in the practice's own books, through trade receivables. That suits money that belongs to the practice once received under its arrangement with the client.
Money that the rules governing your practice require you to hold in trust for a client is a different thing, and it does not belong on an invoice-and-pay-link route into your own debtors. In South Africa, section 86 of the Legal Practice Act sets out a law firm's statutory duty to keep client money in a trust bank account. Decide, under the rules that apply to you in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya, which advance payments the practice may take into its own account and which must go to trust. Keep the two apart in your procedures and in the wording you send clients.
Before the first link goes out
- Gateway credentials entered by an administrator and the connection tested.
- The deposit invoiced and issued, with your accountant's agreement on how deposits are treated.
- A link lifetime that matches how long you will hold the offer of work open.
- Bank details on the pay page checked if you accept EFT or transfers.
- A named person who marks bank payments received and records refunds.
- Your trust rules checked for this kind of payment.
If a deposit is never paid and the account goes stale, the steps in writing off legal fees a client will never pay apply. For the gateway set-up itself, see setting up your payment gateway.
Choose one gateway that settles the currency your clients pay in, set it up and test it, and send the next deposit request as a link.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
