How to agree a payment plan on an invoice

Split an invoice into installments with due dates. Payments you record fill them in order, and late ones can be chased from Reviews.

Updated 2026-10-25

When a customer pays an invoice in parts, e.g. a $3,000 job in three monthly payments of $1,000, record the plan on the invoice. Nothing is charged: you record each payment as it comes in, and Otto marks the installments paid in order.

Where

Invoices, open the invoice, Payment plan. You need to be able to write invoices.

Steps

1. Open the invoice and press Split into installments.
2. Choose how many, the first due date and how often: every week, every 2 weeks or every month.
3. Press Save plan. The total is split evenly; any odd cents go on the last installment.
4. When a payment comes in, press Record payment as usual. It fills the oldest installment first, then the next.

Each installment shows Paid, Part paid, Due or Overdue.

Late notices

With Follow up invoices switched on in Follow-ups (see How to send reminders and follow-ups), an installment past its due date gets its own reminder on the same days after it as an invoice would, e.g. 1, 7 and 14 days late. Each one waits in Reviews; nothing is sent until you approve it. Recording the payment for that installment withdraws its waiting reminder.

An invoice with a plan is chased by installment only, never by its own due date as well.

Good to know

• Press Change to replace the plan, or Remove to take it off. The invoice and its payments stay as they are.
• The customer sees the installments, and which are paid, on the invoice's own page.
• A voided invoice has no plan.

If it doesn't work

• "Add lines to the invoice before splitting it into installments." The invoice has no total yet.
• "A plan has 2 to 24 installments." Pick a number in that range.