Best Practice for Pre-payments in Aspire

I agree that discounts, pre-payments, and deposits aren’t handled well in Aspire. It is easiest when you discount the entire opportunity for pre-payment up front instead of individual services. 

I know there are companies much larger than ours that use this software and I would love to hear how they keep track of prepayments, and what services each customer prepaid for.  Right now, I have to look in our previous CRM (service auto pilot) to see exactly what each client paid for….

Common Solution I recommend to Clients:

I recommend handling prepayments is by using a combination of Opportunity Tags and Credit Memos. This method is best for situations where a client is prepaying for an entire contract or a broad set of services though, not for individual services within a contract.

Walkthrough:

1. Tag the Opportunity: Once a client provides a prepayment, immediately add a "Pre-Paid" opportunity tag to their main contract. This tag is your key to quickly identifying these clients for invoicing.

2. Record Payment and Credit Memo:

   • Enter the payment received from the client. For example, if a client pays $4,750 for a $5,000 contract with a 5% discount, you'll record a payment of $4,750.

   • Create a credit memo for the discounted amount ($250).

   • Tie both the payment and the credit memo to the main opportunity.

3. Invoice with the Invoicing Assistant: At the end of each billing period or the first day of each month, use the Invoicing Assistant to filter by the "Pre-Paid" tags to see all the relevant opportunities.

4. Apply Credits and Send Invoices:

   • Generate the invoice for the services that were completed.

   • Apply the pre-existing payment and credit memo to the new invoice(s)

   • The invoice will show a $0 balance, and you can send this to the client as a record of services completed.

Recommended Solution for Your Specific Scenario (Specific Services Pre-Paid)

Based on your need to track prepayments for specific, individual services (e.g., fertilization and weeds but not mowing), I’d recommend creating separate opportunities for prepaid services. This "silos" the prepaid services and their associated finances, preventing confusion and ensuring accurate tracking.

Walkthrough:

1. Create Initial Opportunity: When a client chooses to prepay for a service or services, create a new, separate opportunity just for that specific service (e.g., "2026 Prepaid Fertilization").

2. Adjust the Main Contract: On the original, main contract, remove the services the client is prepaying for. This ensures they don't get invoiced for the same services twice.

3. Apply Tags and Discounts: Add the "Pre-Paid" tag or tags to the new, prepaid opportunity. You can then apply the discount directly to the total cost of this new opportunity.

4. Enter Payment and Credit Memo: Record the client's payment and create a credit memo for the discounted amount. Tie both of these to the new prepaid opportunity only.

5. Invoice with the Invoicing Assistant: When it's time to invoice, filter your Invoicing Assistant list by the "Pre-Paid" tags. This will show you all the invoices for prepaid services. Generate these invoices and apply the payment and credit memo.

This method keeps everything clean and organized. The client's prepaid services are in their own "container," so there's no risk of accidentally applying their fertilization prepayment to a mowing invoice.

Additional Note: Use Notes for Added Clarity

You should also leverage notes within Aspire to provide an extra layer of detail for your team.

• Payment Notes: When you record the initial prepayment, use the Payment Notes field to specify what the payment is for. For example, "Prepayment for 2026 Fertilization." This note is visible in the Invoicing Module.

• Collection Notes: These are great for adding reminders for your team. For example, you could write, "Client prepaid all fertilization services. No payment due on this contract." These notes are visible in the Properties module and on the Receivables tab of the Invoicing Module.

I guess it boils down to, this is a software FOR landscaping companies built BY landscaping companies.  Why are prepayments like reinventing the wheel?  It’s pretty standard practice to do prepays, particularly for fertilization services.  Why does this software act like this is not a standard practice in the industry?   And quite frankly, for what we pay for this software each month, I shouldn’t have to keep spreadsheets of information outside of Aspire.  If I’m going to do that, I might as well just go back to what we were using before.  Sure, it didn’t offer a lot of the backend stuff that Aspire does, but I could keep track of who owed me what.