Deposits & Split Payments for Large Shopify Gifting Orders

Two approaches for collecting deposits on large corporate gifting orders: Shopify B2B payment terms or a manual credit workflow. Works on any Shopify plan.

For large corporate gift orders, you may need to collect a deposit before starting fulfillment. We support two approaches depending on your Shopify plan.

Option 1: Deposit via B2B Payment Terms (Shopify Plus)

If your B2B customer has payment terms configured, you can use Shopify's built-in deposit feature on the aggregate invoice. Deposits and partial payments require Shopify Plus, even though other B2B features are available on all plans.

Steps:

1. Create your Send normally: upload recipients, map columns, validate addresses, select shipping.
2. Progress to Finalize and generate the aggregate invoice.
3. From the Finalize page, navigate to the aggregate draft order in Shopify admin.
4. Add payment terms (such as Net 30) and enable the deposit requirement, setting a percentage (for example, 50%).
5. Send the invoice. The gifter pays the deposit immediately, with the remaining balance due per the payment schedule.

warning

The deposit is a percentage of the order subtotal only. It does not include taxes or shipping.

When the gifter accepts terms and pays the deposit, Shopify completes the draft order. If you have automatic order generation enabled, we start creating recipient orders immediately so you can begin fulfillment while collecting the remaining balance.

Option 2: Upfront Deposit with Credit Applied Later (All Plans)

This approach works on any Shopify plan. It's also useful when customers commit months ahead without recipient addresses, or for early-bird pricing.

Phase 1: Collect the Deposit

1. In Shopify admin, go to Orders → Drafts → Create draft order.
2. Click Add custom item (this avoids reserving inventory for products you haven't assigned to recipients yet).
3. Enter a description (for example, "Custom Deluxe Box - Early Bird Deposit"), quantity, and unit price.
4. Uncheck Product is physical so it doesn't show up in your fulfillment workflow.
5. Assign the customer.
6. Send the invoice link or collect payment directly.
7. Save the draft order number for reference.

Phase 2: Create the Send

1. When you have recipient addresses ready, create your Send normally: upload spreadsheet, map columns, validate addresses, select shipping.
2. Add a note in the Send details referencing the deposit order number.
3. Complete the Send wizard to Finalize and generate the aggregate invoice.

Phase 3: Apply the Credit

1. Open the aggregate draft order from the Finalize page.
2. Add a discount as a fixed dollar amount matching the deposit already collected.
3. Reference the original payment in the discount reason field.
4. The invoice now shows only the remaining balance.
5. Send to the gifter for payment of the remainder.

tip

Using custom items for the deposit prevents inventory reservation. Actual products only deduct from inventory when you generate recipient orders in Phase 2.

Keep Documentation

Maintain a connection between both transactions for reconciliation. If quantity or products change between deposit and Send, the credit still reduces the new total.

Related

For invoicing and payment basics, see Invoicing and Payment Collection.

For B2B payment methods and terms, see Using Shopify B2B for Corporate Gifting.