How do I deduct an advance invoice from my progress claims?

Do you first ask for an advance and then invoice with progress claims? Then that advance has to be deducted somewhere, otherwise your customer pays too much. Robaws can do that automatically for you, or you do it yourself.

Navigate quickly to:

• automatically, with a cumulative invoice
• yourself, with a negative line on the progress claim
• questions

Automatically, with a cumulative invoice

This is the simplest method. Robaws then deducts the advance in full on your first progress claim invoice.

1. Invoice the advance from the financial planning of the quotation or the project, before you create the first progress claim.
2. In Settings > Progress claims, Settings card, set the Phase billing cumulative strategy to Cumulative or Ask.
3. Create your first progress claim and choose the quotation. The advance is now in the Advance payments block of the progress claim.
4. Invoice the progress claim with Make invoice. If the strategy is set to Ask, choose Cumulative.

On the invoice, the advance appears in the Advance invoices and installments block and is deducted from the amount.

Example: your quotation amounts to 100,000 euros and your advance to 20,000 euros. Your first progress claim is at 30%. The invoice shows 30,000 euros, the advance is deducted and your customer still pays 10,000 euros.

What this further means for your next progress claims is explained in What is the difference between simple and cumulative invoicing of a progress claim?

When is the advance on the progress claim?

Robaws automatically puts an advance invoice in the Advance payments block if:

• it was created from the financial planning of a quotation that is on the progress claim
• it already existed when you created the first progress claim, or when you added the quotation to the progress claim via Add
• the Phase billing cumulative strategy for the quotations or for the progress claims is not set to Simple

Is the advance not there, or do you want to deduct another invoice? Then click Add in the Advance payments block and choose the invoice. Robaws carries the block over to every next progress claim, but the advance is deducted only once.

Yourself, with a negative line on the progress claim

Do you not want to deduct the advance in one go, but spread over your progress claims? Or do you invoice your progress claims simply? Then you deduct the advance yourself with a negative line.

1. If the advance is in the Advance payments block of the progress claim, remove it there. Otherwise Robaws also deducts it once more with a cumulative invoice.
2. On the progress claim, click Add line and tick VR. Only then can you fill in Predicted yourself.
3. Fill in a description such as 'Advance deduction', set Predicted to 1 and the Unitprice to the amount of the advance, negative.
4. Then untick VR again, so that the line belongs to the base of your progress claim and not to the change orders.
5. On every progress claim, fill in at % Total how much of the advance may already be deducted.

Example: your advance amounts to 20,000 euros. You deduct it according to the progress: 30% on the first progress claim, 70% on the second, 100% on the third. Your three invoices show −6,000, −8,000 and −6,000 euros respectively.

Do you still want to deduct it in one go? Then set Current to 1 on the first progress claim.

Questions

Why is my advance not deducted?

Robaws only deducts an advance if it is in the Advance payments block and you invoice the progress claim cumulatively. If you invoice simply, Robaws warns you that the advance is not deducted.

Should the advance not be deducted from the first progress claim?

Then remove it from the Advance payments block of that progress claim. Add it with Add on the progress claim from which it may be deducted, or deduct it yourself with a negative line.

The advance is larger than my first progress claim

Then the invoice would become negative. Robaws warns you first. If you do not want that, deduct the advance spread out with a negative line.

I only invoice the advance after the first progress claim

Then it does not end up in the Advance payments block by itself. Add it yourself with Add on the progress claim from which it has to be deducted.

Updated on: 06/11/2026