Bill a big job stage by stage
Bill by project milestone.
Part of invoicing & payments in Gaffer, which replaces a separate invoicing app and a folder of unpaid PDFs.
Invoice from the driveway. Get paid before you leave it.
One tap turns the job into a branded invoice with a Pay Now link — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Direct Debit. Reminders chase politely on your behalf. Xero or QuickBooks are updated for you.
The chasing happens on a schedule instead of when you finally get round to it, and nobody has to make the awkward phone call.
Milestone billing is one of the 20 things in invoicing & payments. See the rest →
- Break a large job into named milestones, each with an amount, a percentage and a due date
- Invoice a milestone in one click, with the VAT and the balance due worked out properly
- Invoiced milestones lock, so the same stage cannot be billed to the customer twice
- The invoice it raised stays linked to the milestone, with its status and total in view
- For staged work where waiting until completion means financing the job out of your own account
Step 05 of the job: invoice
Marking the job complete raises the invoice from the accepted quote, nets off the deposit, attaches the certificate and sends it with a Pay Now link — before the van has left the drive.
Invoicing & Payments is where milestone billing sits, and that is the step it shows up in most. The rest of the job — quoting, scheduling, certificates, invoicing and payment — runs in the same system, on the same record. See the whole job →
What is milestone billing for?
Break a large job into named milestones, each with an amount, a percentage and a due date Invoice a milestone in one click, with the VAT and the balance due worked out properly
When does the money actually reach my account?
Card payments go to your own Stripe account on Stripe’s normal payout schedule, and Direct Debit through your own GoCardless account. Gaffer never holds your money and takes no cut of it.
Does it handle VAT and CIS properly?
Yes. VAT is per line with your rates and the invoice is a valid VAT invoice. Returns are worked out across all nine boxes from your own invoices and expenses, ready to check and hand to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage to file. Direct submission to HMRC under Making Tax Digital is built but not switched on yet — we will say so here the day it is. CIS deductions are recorded per subcontractor with the monthly return totalled for you.
Which plan is it on?
Every paid plan. Milestone billing is included for unlimited users at no extra cost — the monthly, annual and lifetime plans differ only in how you pay.
The rest of Invoicing & Payments
All 20 →- Every subcontractor’s CIS deduction ready for the monthly return
- Chase the oldest, biggest debts first
- Credit an invoice without leaving it short-paid
- A PDF statement for the customer querying their account
- Take a deposit and credit it properly later
- Set up a Direct Debit once and stop asking
- Expenses captured against the job, with an approval step
- Polite chasers that stop the day it is paid
- Invoice a finished job in one tap
- Invoice in the currency your customer actually uses
Put milestone billing to work.
Full platform, 14 days free, no card needed. Set up in an afternoon, import your customers in a few clicks, and send your first quote today.
Founding members: first 100 businesses get 50% off every paid plan, for as long as they stay subscribed.