Insurance payment schedules and milestone draws

An insurance job has two money flows, and keeping them apart is what stops a storm job going
sideways:

• The carrier's four stages — deductible, first check, recoverable depreciation, approved
  supplements. That is the claim paying out, and it is covered in
  /help/estimates/insurance-claim-fields.
• Your payment schedule — the deposit and the milestone stages you bill against. That is
  this article, and it is the same mechanism on an insurance job as on a retail one.

The Payment Schedule panel in the quote builder prices every stage live off the quote's
grand total, so when a supplement moves the total, the milestones move with it. And it is not an
internal note: the schedule prints on the client's proposal page and on the signed PDF, which is
the point — the client agreed to those stages when they signed.

The deposit is the homeowner's, and it comes first

On a claim job the deductible is the homeowner's own money, and it is normally what funds your
deposit. Set the deposit stage so it matches the deductible wherever you can: it is the one
number on the job the homeowner was already expecting to pay, and it collects fastest.

Choosing a schedule

Two presets cover most work, and Custom covers the rest:

• 50 / 50 — Deposit upon signing (50%) and Final Completion (50%). The shape for a short
  job: deposit now, balance at the end.
• 33 / 33 / 34 — Deposit (33%), Rough-in / Drywall Phase (33%), Final Walkthrough
  (34%). The shape for a remodel with a natural midpoint.
• Custom — edit the stage names and percentages yourself: type a name, set a percent, remove
  a stage with the bin icon, and add more with Add Stage.

Each stage shows its amount, worked out as the grand total times the stage's percentage, and its
state: Released once the homeowner has approved it, the state of an open draw request if one
is out, otherwise Not released.

Until you pick something the panel says so: "No payment schedule yet — pick a preset above to
generate deposit & milestone amounts." That is also the honest answer, because a client
proposal with no stages is a client wondering when to pay.

When the carrier's four stages do not add up

Your schedule is priced off the quote's Grand Total, and the carrier's four stages have to
reconcile with that same total — otherwise the client is looking at two different pictures of
the same job. The Insurance & Claim Information panel does that check for you: it prints
Four stages against Grand Total, and when they disagree it says by how much and offers
one click — Set First Check to the remaining balance — which writes the difference into the
first check so the four stages equal the order value.

That button exists because of how supplements move: the ACV figure the carrier paid first is
usually not the figure that stands at the end. Nothing is written until you choose it, and
Clavoz never edits a payment figure on its own. The four stages themselves are explained in
/help/estimates/insurance-claim-fields.

Deposit payment & instructions

The Deposit Payment & Instructions panel underneath is what the client sees immediately
after they sign — the moment they are most likely to pay you. It takes three things:

• Stripe Payment Link (or any checkout URL) — a hosted checkout link, so they can pay by card.
• Venmo handle — for a homeowner who would rather send it from their phone.
• Bank wire details — bank name, routing, account; free text, so type it the way you would
  write it on paper.

Choose Save and they appear on the signed screen: the deposit stage's label, percentage and
amount, then Pay Deposit Online (when you have set a payment link), a scannable QR code that
opens the payment link (or the Venmo app for your handle, if that is all you set), a "Prefer
Venmo? Send to @yourhandle" line, and your bank wire details.

If you leave all three blank the client simply sees the deposit amount — nothing invented, nothing
misleading.

Requesting a milestone draw

Halfway through a job you do not want to send an invoice and wait. You want the stage signed off
while the work is still fresh in the homeowner's mind.

On any stage that is not yet released, choose Request Milestone Draw (the camera button). The
modal names the stage and what it is worth — "Stage: Rough-in / Drywall Phase (33%) — due
$4,125" — and takes:

• Completion photos (up to 3) — pictures of the finished stage.
• Stage notes — for example, "Rough framing & electrical inspection passed."

Choose Create Draw Link and you get a secure link for that one stage. Send it to the
homeowner however you normally talk to them; the builder keeps the request and its status against
the stage, so you can see at a glance which draws are outstanding.

Draws are for live jobs only: the button appears on a quote that has been Sent or Signed
(accepted). A draft with nothing agreed is not something to bill against, and a stage that is
already released cannot be drawn again.

What the homeowner does

They open the link and see a single-stage page: Milestone Draw Request, with the stage name,
its percentage and the amount, your completion photos (or a plain "No photos attached to this
draw request" if you did not add any, which is why you should), and one button — Approve &
Release Payment.

When they approve, the page confirms it: Payment Released — Thank You! with the stage and the
amount restated, and the stage is marked released.

That release is final. It flips the stage to Released in your builder, prints a Released
chip beside that stage on the client's proposal page, and the server refuses a second draw on the
same stage — so nobody can be asked to sign off the same phase twice.

Photos are the whole point

A draw request without photos is an invoice with extra steps. The homeowner is approving work
they cannot see from the kitchen, and the photo is what makes the approval easy — and what
protects you if the answer later changes. Two or three photos of the completed stage take ten
seconds on the way out of the room.

Where to go next

• The four carrier stages, and how they are recorded on the quote:
  /help/estimates/insurance-claim-fields
• Sending the proposal and getting it signed: /help/proposals/sending-and-signing
• What happens on the quote after it is signed: /help/proposals/after-signing