Updated August 2026 · 10 min read
General information for Irish trade businesses, not legal advice. For consumer-law specifics, the CCPC (the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the State's consumer watchdog) is the authority, and its guidance is the source for every rule described below. For the tax side of deposits, your accountant.
There's a version of every trade business where the van is full of materials bought with your own money for a job that might still cancel, and a version where the customer has a stake in the job before you've spent a cent. The difference is a deposit, asked for properly. Plenty of tradespeople still don't ask, because it feels awkward, or they worry it'll scare the customer off. Done right, it does the opposite: a deposit is the moment a maybe becomes a booking.
Why deposits exist (it's not about distrust)
A deposit does three jobs at once. It commits the customer, so your slot on the calendar is a real booking rather than a hope. It funds the materials, so you're not banking your own money on someone else's decision. And it quietly filters out the price-shoppers who were never going to go ahead, before you've ordered anything or turned down other work for them.
None of that is about distrusting the customer. It's how booking works in most businesses, and a customer who understands that the deposit is what secures their date usually finds it the easiest part of the conversation.
How much to ask for
There's no single right number, but there is a right way to decide, and it starts with what the deposit is protecting.
If the job is materials-heavy, the deposit should cover what you'd be left holding if the job cancelled: the boiler, the paving, the fittings you can't easily return. That's not a percentage plucked from the air; it's the number on your supplier's invoice.
If the job is mostly labour, the deposit is about commitment rather than cost recovery: enough that cancelling means something, small enough that paying it is easy. For small jobs, it may not be worth the friction at all; your minimum charge and a confirmed booking may do the work instead.
Whatever you decide, make it a policy, not a mood. A standard deposit approach per job type, written into your pricing, applied every time. Customers accept a policy far more readily than what feels like a personal judgement about them, and it saves you deciding afresh on every quote. One caution: keep the deposit proportionate to the real commitment and real costs involved. A deposit sized like a penalty invites exactly the dispute it was meant to prevent.
When to ask
The natural moment is acceptance: the customer says yes to the quote, and the deposit is what turns that yes into a scheduled job. Before that point, asking is premature; after materials are ordered, it's too late to protect you.
The clean sequence:
Quote, accept, deposit, schedule, order materials.
If you order materials or hold dates before the deposit lands, you're carrying the risk the deposit exists to remove.
How to ask without losing the customer
The awkwardness disappears when the deposit is presented as how booking works rather than as a request. Not "would you be able to pay something up front?", but "a deposit of X books the job; once that's in, you're in the diary for Tuesday". One is a favour you're asking; the other is a normal business taking a booking.
Three things make it land well. Put it in writing on the quote itself, so it arrives as part of the price rather than a surprise afterwards. Make it effortless to pay: a card link they can tap from their phone, or your bank details right there, because every extra step between "yes" and "paid" is a place to stall. And send a receipt the moment it arrives, because nothing settles a customer who's just handed money to a tradesperson like immediate, professional confirmation.
Before you take a deposit: what the quote should state
The CCPC's guidance for businesses expects consumers to get clear information before they commit, and for doorstep and distance sales that explicitly includes deposit conditions. Cover these on the quote and most disputes never start:
- What the deposit secures, and how much it is
- When the balance is due
- What happens if the customer cancels, and what happens if you can't complete the work
- Any cancellation rights that apply (see below)
- How to pay
Five lines on a quote template, written once.
The rules worth knowing before you take a cent
Irish consumer law has real things to say about deposits, and knowing them protects you in both directions. Everything below is from the CCPC's own guidance.
If the customer simply changes their mind, a business generally does not have to refund a deposit. That's your protection for the slot you held and the work you turned down. Whether you refund anyway, in part or in full, is a business decision about goodwill, and it's worth deciding your policy before it ever comes up rather than negotiating it angry.
If you can't deliver what was agreed, the customer is entitled to the deposit back: that includes not being able to supply the service, or missing the agreed date without agreeing a new one. Refund it promptly and cleanly. Beyond being the law, a fast refund from a job that fell through is cheap reputation.
Cancellation rights are the rules most tradespeople have never heard of. When a consumer buys a service online, by phone or on the doorstep, they can cancel without giving a reason: within 14 days of entering the contract, or 30 days for doorstep sales. For trades, that covers a lot of how jobs actually get agreed. The practical consequences:
- Tell the customer about the right in writing with the quote, and provide a cancellation form, on paper unless they agree otherwise. Both are obligations where the right applies, and if you don't inform the customer, the cancellation period extends to 12 months beyond its original expiry.
- Starting early doesn't erase the right. If the customer asks you to start during the cancellation period and then cancels partway, they can still cancel, but they must pay you for the period during which the service was supplied. Put the early-start request in writing and keep it, because that record is what lets you show what was asked for and when.
- Once the service has been fully performed, where it was started with the customer's consent and their agreement that completing it would end the right to cancel, the right is gone. Both conditions matter: finishing the job on its own does not remove the right if you never got that consent and agreement, which is another reason to have the early-start request in writing.
- Urgent repairs and maintenance are on the CCPC's list of services with no withdrawal rights. The emergency callout to the burst pipe is treated differently from the bathroom, which is exactly the distinction you'd want the law to make.
Keep the records. The quote, the acceptance, the deposit receipt, the early-start request, the messages. Every deposit dispute is ultimately a dispute about what was agreed, and a clear paper trail makes those disputes far easier to resolve, whichever way they go.
One more thing deposits touch, and it now has its own guide: VAT. In Revenue's words, where you receive a payment in advance a supply is deemed to have taken place at the time of receiving the payment, VAT is chargeable on the pre-payment, and you must pay that VAT to Revenue in your VAT return. Separately, where a payment was made before the supply, its date goes on the invoice if it differs from the issue date. What a valid VAT invoice has to show is the fuller treatment, alongside the rest of our Money and VAT guides. This is general information rather than tax advice, so tell your accountant you're taking deposits and let them tell you what it means for your returns.
Where JobFlow fits
Deposits are built into how JobFlow quotes. Set your policy once, a percentage or a fixed amount, with a minimum job size below which deposits don't apply, and every quote carries it automatically: the customer accepts online and pays the deposit in the same motion, by card through your own Stripe account, by bank transfer, or recorded as cash. The payment link expires after 14 days, so a deposit request doesn't sit open indefinitely.
You choose how firmly the deposit holds the diary: a warning your office can override with a reason kept on the record, or a hard block until the money lands. That turns the clean sequence above into how the system simply works. Receipts go out automatically, the deposit is deducted from the final invoice on its own, and if a job cancels you choose to refund or retain, with the records kept either way. The policy conversation happens once, in your settings, instead of on every doorstep.
Questions tradespeople ask about deposits
How much deposit should a tradesperson ask for in Ireland?
There's no single percentage that suits every job. Size it to what it protects: on materials-heavy jobs, enough to cover what you'd be left holding if the job cancelled; on labour jobs, enough to make the booking real without making it hard to say yes. Make it a standard policy per job type, and keep it proportionate to the genuine commitment involved.
Can I keep the deposit if the customer cancels?
If the customer simply changes their mind, CCPC guidance is that a business generally does not have to refund a deposit. But consumers who agreed the job online, by phone or on the doorstep usually have a cancellation period of 14 days, or 30 for doorstep sales, so tell customers about that right in writing and take it into account before treating any deposit as yours to keep. If you're the one who can't deliver the job as agreed, the deposit goes back.
Do customers have a cooling-off period on trade work?
Usually yes, when the service was bought online, by phone or on the doorstep: 14 days from entering the contract, or 30 for doorstep sales, and the customer must be informed of the right. Urgent repairs and maintenance are among the cases the CCPC lists where consumers cannot cancel. Its guidance covers the detail.
Can I ask for a deposit before scheduling a job?
Yes, and it's the cleanest way to run it: make the deposit part of accepting the quote, and only confirm the date once it's paid. That way you're never holding a slot or ordering materials for a customer who hasn't committed. JobFlow can hold scheduling until the deposit lands for exactly this reason.
When should I take the deposit?
On acceptance of the quote, before you order materials or confirm the date. The deposit is what converts a yes into a booking; taking it later means carrying risk it should have removed, and asking earlier is premature.
Sources
- Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, "Selling services" (information for businesses). The cancellation periods, the information and cancellation-form obligations, the 12-month extension, payment for a service supplied during the cancellation period, loss of the right on full performance, and the services with no withdrawal rights.
- Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, "Deposits" (consumer rights). When a deposit is and is not refundable.
Practical guides for Irish trades. Related: how to price a job and getting paid faster. For how deposits work in JobFlow quotes, see quoting.