Collect deposits and revise previously authorized work

Two things start happening once a customer authorizes work: money can move, and the job can keep changing. This page covers both. A deposit is any payment recorded on a Repair Order before its Invoice is finalized; there is no separate deposit record or setting. Revising authorized work splits into two cases with different mechanics: new Services found mid-job go out for approval like any other recommendation, while edits that raise the price of a Service the customer already approved are flagged until the customer signs off on the new number. The base authorization flow itself is covered in Send Estimates and Inspections to customers and Record authorizations, declines, and deferred work.

Collect a deposit

Record it on the Repair Order's Payment tab, the same screen used for final payment. The collect-payment card is available whenever the Repair Order has a balance due, invoiced or not. A payment recorded before the Invoice exists shows a Deposit badge in the Payment history list; after Invoice Finalization the same payment reads Invoice payment. That badge is the entire difference. There is no deposit type, no deposit setting, and no separate deposit workflow.

Two consequences follow from deposits being ordinary payments:

• A deposit is capped by authorized work. The Repair Order's total counts only authorized Services (plus their fees, discounts, and tax), and a payment cannot exceed the unpaid balance. Before the customer authorizes anything, the balance due is $0.00 and there is nothing to collect against. There is no field for an arbitrary hold amount above the authorized total. If your policy is "half down on approval," collect it right after recording the authorization; the balance will accept it.
• Only Repair Orders take payments. A payment attaches to a Repair Order or a Counter Sale, never to a standalone Estimate, so you cannot take a deposit against an Estimate the customer just approved. Convert it to a Repair Order first, then collect.

The collect-payment card records cash and check payments; a Card Terminal tile appears but cannot be selected because there is no card processing yet. Check payments always require a reference number, and other methods require one when configured. Both are covered in Payment methods and customer-document settings. The portal's Pay invoice prompt has nothing behind it either, so a remote deposit means the customer reads you a check number over the phone or comes in.

What a deposit does and does not do

A deposit reduces the Repair Order's operational balance due immediately, so the workflow board and the Payment tab both show the real remaining amount. It does not create revenue: sales, tax, and receivables are all established at Invoice Finalization, so a deposited-but-uninvoiced Repair Order contributes nothing to sales reporting. When you finalize the Invoice, every non-voided deposit applies to it automatically, oldest first. If the final total comes in under what was collected (a Service was declined after the deposit, say), the excess becomes an overpayment to resolve as a refund or Customer Credit; that flow is covered in the Payments, Invoicing, and Accounting section.

Recorded the wrong amount? Void the payment from Payment history with a reason. The voided payment stays in the list, struck through, and stops counting toward the balance.

Found more work: send new Services mid-job

The common case. The vehicle is on the lift, the customer authorized the brake job this morning, and the technician just found a leaking axle seal. Adding work after an authorization is the same flow as before one:

1. Build the new Service on the Repair Order's Estimate tab, from scratch or from a Canned Service. It starts undecided and is not visible to the customer, no matter what else on the Repair Order is already approved. See Build an Estimate with Services, labor, parts, Sublets, fees, and discounts.
2. Send again. The same Portal Link the customer already has now shows the new work; there is no second link to manage. Already-authorized Services render as locked, approved cards, and the new Service appears with a checkbox.
3. The customer authorizes from the portal, or you record their decision yourself from a phone call or at the counter; see Record authorizations, declines, and deferred work.

The portal frames a second round as an addition, not a redo. The footer calls out the increment ("+$X beyond what you already approved"), and the confirmation dialog is one receipt for the whole visit: every included Service — already-approved work too — with order fees, discounts, and tax, ending in a single Total that matches the authorize button. Authorizing more work never revokes an earlier approval, and a prior approval can't be un-approved from the portal. As always, submitting the authorization decides the whole presented set: a new Service the customer leaves unchecked is declined in the same Authorization Event.

Each round is recorded as its own Authorization Event, and the finalized Invoice's Customer Authorization section prints one line per event, with a running authorized-work total, so three approval rounds read as a narrative rather than one mystery signature.

This all works identically on an Estimate that hasn't converted yet. An approved Estimate keeps its Approved status when you add a Service and Send again; it does not revert to Sent.

Edit work the customer already authorized

Short of marking the work complete, nothing locks an authorized Service before Invoice Finalization. You can add a part line, change labor hours, or reprice anything, and the edit takes effect immediately. (A completed Service is the exception: its card shows a green Completed badge on the Estimate tab and its labor, parts, fees, sublets, and discounts lock — notes stay editable. Reopen the Service on the Work tab to edit it.) What the system does is watch the money: every authorization stores the Service total the customer signed against, and whenever the live total rises above that snapshot, the Service's Authorized badge is replaced by an amber +$X since authorization badge on the Estimate tab. This is Changed Since Authorization, and it is derived, not recorded — revert the edit and the badge clears on its own.

Only increases flag. Lowering a price, renaming the Service, or editing customer-facing notes raises nothing; only a higher total needs a fresh approval. One related guard: once a Service is authorized, its non-manual part prices stop recalculating when part cost changes, so a vendor price update can't silently move an authorized total (see Labor rates, part markup, fees, discounts, and taxes).

Get the increase re-authorized

A flagged Service needs a Revised Authorization: a fresh customer approval at the new price. Two paths, same as any authorization:

• Send again. On the portal, the flagged Service unlocks. Its card shows "Price changed since you approved: was $X, now $Y" and starts unchecked; a higher price is an explicit opt-in, never pre-selected. In the confirmation dialog the Service contributes only its increase ("+$42.50"), not its full price, since the customer already committed to the rest. If the customer submits without checking it, the Service stays authorized at the old amount and keeps flagging; a price increase is never auto-declined by omission.
• Record it yourself. The Estimate tab's decision actions (Authorize all, Authorize some…) include flagged Services, each showing its increase, and save your record of how the customer decided as authorization evidence.

Either way, the new approval is one more Authorization Event at the new total, and the badge clears.

If the customer balks, revert the edit instead, or use Reset Authorization in the Service's row menu to return it to undecided and renegotiate the whole Service.

One honest caveat: the flag is advisory. Nothing stops you from finalizing the Invoice with an unresolved price increase, and the Invoice will bill the Service at its current, raised price. Getting the Revised Authorization before the customer sees the bill is your policy to enforce, and the shops that skip it tend to relearn why state repair-authorization laws exist.

What can't change after authorization

• An authorized Service can't be hidden from the customer, and a Hidden Service can't be authorized. Decide visibility before the decision.
• Once a Service is marked complete, has completed labor or part lines, or has a technician's timer running on it, it can no longer be unauthorized or declined. Finished work stays on the bill; a pricing dispute on completed work is a discount conversation, not an authorization edit.
• Authorization evidence is append-only. Reset Authorization returns the Service to undecided going forward, but every prior event stays in the record.
• Invoice Finalization locks the Repair Order's financial facts, deposits included. From there, corrections go through invoice reopening; see Complete, cancel, restore, print, or prepare a Repair Order for invoicing.

Where the record lives

The Authorization log panel on the Repair Order lists every decision, grouped into authorized and declined Services, with method, contact, and signature details behind each. Repair Order Activity separately records each approval request sent, each portal decision batch (how many approved, how many declined, for how much), each staff authorization change, and every payment. Line-level price edits are not individually logged; what is preserved, permanently, is the exact total the customer signed for at each event, which is the number that matters when someone disputes the bill.