How Do Additional Payments and Retainers Work?
Additional payments—sometimes called retainers or non-invoiced payments—allow clients to make non-specific payments toward their account balance. These payments are stored as credits and can be applied to invoices later, giving firms flexibility in how and when funds are allocated.
Why This Matters
Additional payments help firms accept prepayments, manage retainers, and apply funds strategically without needing to create an invoice upfront. This is especially useful when services are upcoming or when clients prefer the firm to decide how payments are applied.
Table of Contents
Understand Additional Payments and Retainers
Additional payments can be managed in two ways:
Manually creating an additional payment, which stores the payment as a credit
Using the deposit feature on an engagement, which automatically stores the payment as a credit tied to that engagement
Additional payments can:
Be applied directly to an invoice
Be stored as a credit and applied later
Be split across multiple invoices as needed
Create an Additional Payment
Click the Global Add button in the global navigation.
Select Payment.
Choose a client in the Client name field.
Enable the Additional Payment toggle to mark the payment as a credit.
Enter a description (for example, Retainer or Pre-payment for services).
Enter the payment amount.
(Optional) Select outstanding invoices if the payment should be applied immediately.
Click Continue.
Confirm or update the Payment date.
Select a payment method from the dropdown.
Choose a saved payment method, or
Add a new payment method and enter details
(Optional) Click Add a note to include internal notes.
Click Continue to review the confirmation.
Click Confirm and Pay.
Notes
Click Make Another Payment to quickly enter additional payments.
You can print or download the receipt using the icons provided.
View and Edit Credits
Once saved, the additional payment is stored as a credit.
Access Credits
Click Billing.
Select Credits.
Click the credit reference number to open the credit statement.
From the credit statement, you can:
Download or print the credit statement
Edit limited credit details
Edit Credit Details
Click Edit.
Update the description, notes, or terms shown on invoices.
Click Save Credit.
Notes
You cannot change the client, dates, or currency after the credit is created
Apply Credits to Invoices
Open the credit from Billing > Credits.
Select an invoice from the dropdown.
Review the invoice balance.
Enter the amount to apply from the available credit.
Click Apply Credits.
The credit statement updates to show the remaining balance.
View the Applied Credit on an Invoice
Go to Billing.
Click Invoices.
Open the invoice the credit was applied to.
Best Practices for Retainer Management
Always create invoices and record payments in Canopy first, then allow syncing to QuickBooks Online (QBO).
Regularly review synced data to confirm:
Clients
Service items
Rates and tax codes
Use the deposit feature on engagements when retainers are tied to specific services.
Ensure retainer-related service items are properly matched between Canopy and QBO to avoid sync issues.
Summary
Additional payments provide a flexible way to accept retainers and prepayments, store funds as credits, and apply them to invoices as needed. Whether entered manually or through engagement deposits, credits help streamline billing while maintaining accurate financial records.
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