Balance 
Deposits for jewellers
A bespoke ring ties up a stone and a week of bench time before the customer has paid for either. A deposit at checkout and an automatic balance fixes both.
At a glance
How a bespoke jeweller usually sets this up.
- Typical deposit
- 50% on bespoke work
- Balance charged
- When the piece comes off the bench
- Outer limit
- 90 to 120 days
- Held until paid
- Yes, the piece stays in the safe
- Per-order fee
- None
- Shopify plan
- Any Shopify plan
One plan on your bespoke products. Ready-made stock, repairs and resizing stay as ordinary products with nothing attached, and your checkout does not change.
Where the money lands
A £3,000 platinum solitaire at 50%, so the deposit covers the stone and the metal.
Enough to buy the stone and the metal before the bench time starts.
The reminder quotes the amount and the date, then the receipt follows the charge.
The price is the product price. Balance Due is not a credit product.
If a customer asks to spread the cost over months, a buy now, pay later method at checkout does that without you carrying the credit. The deposit plan is for the gap between order and completion, not for lending.
The commission, stage by stage
Nothing here needs a diary. The one manual step is marking the piece ready, which you do when it is back from the assay office.
- 1
Customer orders the piece
£1,500 taken
They choose the deposit option on the product page and pay the deposit at checkout. The order lands in Shopify as normal, with the balance recorded against it.
- 2
Stone and metal sourced
Nothing charged
The deposit is already in your account, so the stone is bought with the customer's money rather than yours.
- 3
Bench work and setting
Nothing charged
A week or three depending on the piece. If the customer changes the setting or upgrades the stone, edit the order and the balance follows.
- 4
Hallmarking
Nothing charged
The piece goes to the assay office and comes back when it comes back. Because the balance is tied to the piece being ready, a slow turnaround costs nothing but patience.
- 5
Piece is finished
£1,500 charged
You mark the order ready in Shopify. Within minutes the balance is charged to the saved card and the customer is emailed a receipt.
- 6
Insured shipment or collection
Paid in full
The hold releases itself once the order is paid. The piece appears in your morning digest as paid overnight, which is your packing list.
Which balance rule for which product
Most jewellers sell more than one kind of thing, and they do not all want the same rule.
| What you are selling | Balance rule | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bespoke piece made from scratch | When the order is ready | Sourcing, setting and hallmarking all take as long as they take. Charge on completion. |
| Engagement ring with a proposal date | Exact date | Set the balance a week before the date they have told you about, so the ring is paid for and ready when it matters. |
| Ready-made piece held for collection | A number of days after the order | A customer reserving a stock piece for a fortnight. Fixed and predictable. |
| Resizing, repairs, rhodium plating | No plan | Days of work and small sums. Take payment in full as you do now. |
A product carries one plan at a time, so bespoke, ready-made and repairs are separate products. That is usually how the shop is organised anyway.
Setting it up
About fifteen minutes, most of which is writing the policy sentence.
- In Shopify, check Settings, Payments: capture must be automatic at checkout or manual, not per fulfilment.
- Create a plan in Balance Due: 50% percentage deposit, balance rule when the order is ready, outer limit 120 days to cover a slow assay office.
- Attach the plan to your bespoke products. If you quote by hand first, create one product per piece type with the price set per order through a variant, and send the customer the link once they accept.
- Add the Deposit option block to your product template once, under the buy buttons. It only appears on products that carry a plan.
- Place a test order with Shopify's Bogus Gateway on a development store and watch the schedule email, the hold and the balance charge.
Balance Due does not take deposits on draft orders. The order has to come through checkout, which is also what saves the card for the balance.
Keeping the piece until it is paid
The fulfilment hold makes the rule impossible to forget: the order cannot be marked fulfilled in Shopify until the balance is in. Nobody books the insured courier on an unpaid ring because Shopify will not let them close the order. When it clears, the piece shows in the morning digest as ready to fulfil.
If the customer is collecting and wants to pay at the counter, take the payment in Shopify against the order and the hold releases itself. Balance Due sees the outstanding amount drop to zero and closes the plan, so the saved card is never charged on top.
The ring stays in the safe until the balance is in. Not as a policy you have to enforce, but as something Shopify will not let anybody get wrong.
Sizing, stones and changes
The price moves more often in jewellery than in most trades, and the balance has to move with it.
Stone upgrade
The customer sees the stone in person and wants the next grade up. Edit the order in Shopify and the difference is added to the balance.
Simpler setting
A plainer band than the one quoted reduces the balance. If the deposit now covers the whole order, nothing is left to charge and the plan closes.
Resizing after collection
That is a new, small job. Sell it as an ordinary product with no plan, or do it as goodwill. Do not reopen the original order.
Cancelled commission
Cancel the plan from the order and nothing further is collected. What happens to the deposit is your policy and is handled in Shopify.
The customer's payment page always shows the current figure, so the reminder before the charge quotes the right amount and nobody is surprised at collection.
Consumer law and deposits
Bespoke goods made to the customer's specification are usually outside the 14-day cancellation right in the UK, but only if you say so before the customer buys. Put the deposit terms in the product description and on your policy page: what the deposit is, that it is non-refundable once the stone is bought or the metal is cut, that the balance is taken from the same card when the piece is ready, and what happens if it cannot be taken.
Balance Due repeats your policy text under every payment message and on the customer's payment page, so the terms are in front of them at the point they are paying rather than in a page they read once.
Engagement rings are often bought by one person and worn by another. The person who checks out is the customer as far as Shopify is concerned, and they are the one who gets the reminders and the receipt.
What it costs
Nothing per order and nothing per transaction, which matters when the order is £3,000. The Free plan covers three pieces with an open balance at any one time, which suits a single bench, and Starter covers thirty. The limit counts open balances rather than orders a year, so a ring paid in full stops counting the moment it clears.
Deposits taken through Balance Due are ordinary Shopify payments, so your normal gateway rates apply and nothing is deducted by us. See pricing for the plan limits.
Related
Deposits for art commissions
Another one-off, made-to-order trade.
Fulfilment hold
Why the piece stays in the safe.
How to take deposits on Shopify
Setup and policy wording.
Furniture makers
Deposit on order, balance when the piece is ready, nothing leaves the workshop unpaid.
Upholsterers
Fabric is cut to order and cannot go back: the deposit covers it before you order a metre.
Bridal shops
Dresses ordered months ahead: deposit at order, balance before the fitting.
Questions
Can a customer pay the rest early?
Yes, from the pay now button on their payment page, or you can take it from the order with collect now when the piece is finished ahead of schedule.
Does the deposit cost the customer anything extra?
No. There is no interest or fee. The price is the product price, and Balance Due is not a credit product.
What happens if the card is declined?
It is retried after 1, 3 and 7 days with a payment link each time, so the customer can settle with another card. The piece stays on hold throughout.
Can I set the balance to land before a proposal date?
Yes. Use an exact date on the plan, or move the payment date on the individual order to a week before the date the customer has given you.
Does the hold work with an insured courier?
Yes. The hold stops the order being marked fulfilled in Shopify, which is what stops a shipment being booked. Once the balance clears, book the courier as you normally would.
What if the customer wants to pay the balance in store?
Take the payment in Shopify against the order, on POS or by marking it paid. Balance Due sees the outstanding amount drop and closes the plan.
Do I need Shopify Payments?
For automatic charges, yes, or PayPal Express. On other providers the customer gets a payment link on the due date instead of an automatic charge.
Does the deposit option show on every product?
No. The block only renders on products that carry a plan, so your ready-made stock and repairs look exactly as they do now.
Not on the list?
If your customers commit before the work is done, Balance Due fits. Tell us what you sell and we will suggest a plan.