Overview
This article shows you how to collect customer deposits for future work and keep the funds tracked as a liability until the job is done. ServiceTitan offers two ways to do this.
The built-in Deposit Workflow (recommended) exports deposits as journal entries to a liability account and applies them to the customer without reducing your Accounts Receivable. The manual invoice-and-task method (legacy) uses a deposit item and task to hold funds—use it only if your account isn't on the built-in workflow. Either way, tracking deposits keeps your Accounts Receivable accurate and holds prepaid funds until you earn them.
Who uses this feature
Administrators, accountants, and bookkeepers
Applies to all business types
Applies to all trades
Feature configuration
Account configuration is required to use the recommended Deposit Workflow. Contact Technical Support for details.
To use the manual invoice-and-task method, you need access to your QuickBooks company file and to ServiceTitan Settings > General Ledger Accounts and Pricebook. This method is written for QuickBooks Desktop.
Recommended: Use the built-in Deposit Workflow
The Deposit Workflow exports deposits as journal entries into a QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, or Intacct general ledger account, so you can apply deposits to a customer's account without reducing your Accounts Receivable.
Before you start
Set up your general ledger accounts in ServiceTitan and map them to items in your Pricebook before you enable the Deposit Workflow.
Set up a liability account to hold deposits.
Enable the Deposit Workflow
Go to the navigation bar and click Settings.
In the side panel, click Invoicing > Payment Collections.
Toggle Deposit Workflow to Active.
In the GL Account dropdown, select an account. The list shows the general ledger accounts from Settings > Operations > General Ledger Accounts. Select a liability account so deposits toward pending work don't reduce your Accounts Receivable.
Click Save.
How the Deposit Workflow behaves
A payment that isn't applied to an invoice is treated as a deposit at the time of export.
When you export the deposit, ServiceTitan debits undeposited funds and credits the liability account you selected.
When the deposit is later applied to the completed invoice, the journal entry debits the liability account and credits Accounts Receivable.
In ServiceTitan Mobile, the technician collects the deposit on the Estimate page, not the Invoice page.
For the full setup checklist and account mapping, see Enable Deposit Workflow.
Legacy alternative: Manual invoice-and-task method (QuickBooks Desktop)
Use this method only if your account isn't using the built-in Deposit Workflow. It applies to QuickBooks Desktop.
Things to know
To hold prepayments for future jobs, create a liability account in QuickBooks.
Create the deposit item in both QuickBooks and ServiceTitan, and link it to the liability account so the item credits the account when collected and debits it later.
A deposit for a future job is the cash portion of the transaction, but you also need to represent the liability in ServiceTitan and keep Accounts Receivable accurate.
If you don't add a task to balance the customer payment, the customer shows a credit balance, which looks like you owe them a refund.
When you accept a deposit on an invoice, add the deposit task from your Pricebook so Accounts Receivable stays at $0 until the final work is invoiced, and the deposit stays in the QuickBooks liability account until the job is done.
When you export to QuickBooks, the invoice debits (increases) Accounts Receivable and credits (increases) the deposit liability account.
When you collect the deposit against completed work, add the deposit task again as a negative value to clear the deposit and reach the customer's remaining balance.
Step 1: Create a liability account in QuickBooks
In QuickBooks, go to the top toolbar and select Lists.
From the Lists dropdown, select Chart of Accounts.
From the Account dropdown, select New.
On the Add New Account: Choose Account Type screen, select the Other Account Types checkbox.
From the dropdown, select Other Current Liability.
Click Continue.
In the Account Name field, enter Deposit on Future Work, then click Save & Close.
Step 2: Create a deposit item in QuickBooks and ServiceTitan
Create the deposit item in QuickBooks:
In QuickBooks, go to Lists and select Item List.
From the Item dropdown, select New.
From the Type dropdown, select Service.
In the Item Name/Number field, enter Customer Deposit.
From the Account dropdown, select Deposit on Future Work.
Click OK.
Create the deposit account in ServiceTitan:
In ServiceTitan, go to Settings.
Search for General Ledger Accounts.
Click Add Account.
Enter the account name.
From the Type dropdown, select Liability.
From the Subtype dropdown, select Current Liability, then click Save.
Next, add the deposit item to your Pricebook in ServiceTitan:
Go to the navigation bar and click Pricebook.
In the side menu, select Services.
Click Add Service.
Enter the service Code, Name, and Item Description.
From the Income Account dropdown, select Deposit on Future Work, then click Save.
Step 3: Collect a deposit
In ServiceTitan, go to the navigation bar and click Search.
Search for a customer and click the customer name.
On the customer screen, click the invoice number.
In the invoice, click Add a payment.
Add the deposit task from your Pricebook:
In the invoice, click Add a task.
In the Name dropdown, select the Customer Deposit task you created. The remaining fields fill in automatically.
Click Save. The invoice balance is now $0.00.
Step 4: Export the deposit invoice and payment to QuickBooks
In the invoice, click Batch.
From the Batch dropdown, select Post the selected batch.
From the Batch dropdown, select Export to QuickBooks Desktop. The invoice debits (increases) Accounts Receivable and credits (increases) the deposit liability account.
To confirm in QuickBooks:
In QuickBooks, go to the top toolbar and click Lists.
Select Chart of Accounts.
Select the liability account you created.
Check the deposit in the Increase field.
Click the account to see the invoice.
In the invoice, check the balance.
Confirm whether the deposit is in the undeposited funds list:
In the top toolbar, click Banking > Make Deposit.
On the Make Deposits screen, click Payments.
On the Payments to Deposit screen, select the deposit you want to fund.
Step 5: Clear the deposit with a negative task
In the invoice, click Add a Task.
On the Add a Task screen, enter the deposit amount as a negative value.
Check the balance.
In QuickBooks, confirm that the negative Customer Deposit maps back to the liability account, debiting (decreasing) the account ending balance back to $0.00.
