Deposits and payment terms that keep a production company solvent

Production companies fail on timing, not margin

The costs land before the revenue does. Crew get paid for the show, subrental vendors invoice on their own terms, the truck is hired for the dates, and the client pays thirty or sixty days after an invoice you could only send once the job was done.

A profitable company can run out of money in a busy season purely on that gap. Which is why deposit structure is not an administrative detail; it is the thing that decides whether growth is survivable.

Common deposit structures

The deposit percentage that gets quoted most often in this trade sits around a third to a half on approval. What matters more than the exact number is that it covers the money you have to spend before the show, which is mostly subrentals, transport and any crew paid on the day.

Tie the deposit to a decision, not a date

A deposit due on a calendar date is a deposit that gets chased. A deposit that is the thing which confirms the booking is a deposit that gets paid, because the client understands what it buys: the dates come off hold and the gear is committed to them.

That framing is also more honest. Until the deposit lands you are carrying the risk of holding capacity for a job that may not happen.

Make paying easy and the terms unambiguous

• Put the payment terms on the quote the client approves, not only on the invoice that follows.
• State when the clock starts. On invoice date and on completion are different, and clients read whichever suits them.
• Give a card option. The fee is almost always cheaper than the finance cost of waiting an extra three weeks.
• Send the invoice the day the job wraps. Every day you delay is a day added to their terms, not taken off.
• Put the balance owing where the client can see it without emailing you.

Chase early, chase small, chase on process

The first chase should be short, friendly and automatic, and it should go out the day after terms lapse. Waiting three weeks to send a stern email is the pattern that damages relationships, because the first thing the client hears about it is annoyance.

Most late payment in this industry is not a refusal to pay. It is an invoice sitting with the wrong person, or waiting on a purchase order nobody mentioned. Asking early surfaces that while it is still trivially fixable.

Know what is outstanding without assembling it

If answering how much is owed and by whom takes an afternoon with a spreadsheet, the answer will be requested rarely and acted on late.

Flightcase converts an approved quote into an invoice with the agreed pricing intact, supports deposits and balance invoices against the same job, takes card payment, and keeps outstanding balances and payment history on the dashboard rather than in a reconciliation exercise.