Payment plans: let clients pay over time

This page is for you if you shoot weddings, or any job where the total is large enough that clients would rather not pay it at once. It covers how to put a schedule of instalments on an invoice and how photographers usually split one. It also covers the automatic gallery release, which is the part that saves you the most trouble.

How a payment plan works

A payment plan is a schedule of instalments attached to a single invoice. Instead of one lump sum due on one date, the invoice carries a few smaller amounts, each with its own due date. The client pays them one at a time by PayID or bank transfer, the same as any other Tellisto invoice, with the same zero commission. There’s no stored card to chase and no autopay to explain. Each instalment gets its own pay link.

Each instalment can also get its own reminder. Reminders are off until you turn them on: open Automations in Tellisto and switch on Unpaid invoice reminders. After that, each instalment is chased off its own due date, in your studio’s name, so you don’t have to send “just a heads-up, the next payment’s due” emails yourself. A paid instalment is never chased, and the reminders stop once the invoice is paid. Anything firmer than that belongs in a conversation with the client, not an automated email.

How to split the payments

There’s no single correct split. A common wedding schedule is a deposit at booking, a larger payment some time before the day, and the balance around delivery, roughly 30/30/40. That keeps your cash flow sensible. You’re paid something to hold the date, most of it before you do the work, and the rest once the photos are ready. The numbers are up to you, though. Half now and half on delivery is normal for a smaller job. A family session you’d rather not invoice in one hit can carry a plan just as easily as a wedding.

Whatever split you choose, write the schedule into the contract as well as the invoice. The invoice is where the money moves; the contract is where the agreement is recorded. If a client ever queries a due date or an amount, you want the signed document to answer it, not a support thread. Tellisto can draft and e-sign that contract under your own brand. That way the schedule the client agreed to and the schedule they’re paying match word for word.

If the booking started as a quote, the deposit is usually already accounted for. When a client accepts or pays a quote, the lead converts to a client, and the booking and first invoice are created in one step. The deposit and balance can sit on that one total from the start. There’s more on that in quotes and deposits.

The gallery releases itself

When the final instalment clears, the gallery releases automatically. You don’t unlock it by hand, and you don’t send a “payment received, here are your photos” email. As soon as the plan is paid off, the gallery opens for the client.

Without this, the end of a payment-plan job is awkward. The work is finished and the gallery is ready, but you’re holding it back over a last payment. At the same time you’re trying not to sound like you’re holding the photos hostage. That email is unpleasant to write and unpleasant to receive, and with Tellisto you never have to send it. The gallery is both the incentive and the reward. The software holds the gallery until the plan is paid, so you don’t have to.

It also means you never hand over a finished gallery by mistake before you’ve been paid in full. The release follows the plan, not your memory of who still owes what.

What your client sees

For the client it’s simple. They get an invoice with a clear schedule on it. When an instalment is due, a reminder arrives in your studio’s colours with a link to pay that one instalment by PayID or bank transfer. They pay it, and the next one waits until its own date. There’s no login to manage, no card on file and nothing to renew.

When they pay the last one, the gallery is there. They don’t wait for you to notice the payment and flip a switch, so there’s no gap between “paid in full” and “here are your photos”. They settle up and the work arrives, which is a good way for a job to end. To see how that gallery looks and works once it opens, read how clients view, favourite and download their photos.

A plan is paid by PayID or bank transfer, which is what most Australian and New Zealand clients use anyway when paying down a wedding balance. Card isn’t offered on an invoice with a multi-payment plan. A card charge takes the whole invoice at once, which defeats the point of a plan. The invoice editor says so next to the card option, so you’re not left wondering where the card button went.

That works in your favour: a plan costs you nothing in processing fees, on any instalment. If you want card in the mix, use it for the deposit. That’s a single payment, and it’s when a fast yes matters most. Charging card per instalment is planned for later, but a plan can’t do it today.

For how invoicing and GST work underneath a plan, see tax invoices, GST and getting paid.