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How much to ask for before touching the first material

You'll know how to set your deposit based on what you risk from day one, not a percentage that happens to work for someone else's business.

By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 13, 2026

When a big job gets paid in installments, the first payment, the one you ask for before starting the work, is the deposit. A customer orders a custom walnut cabinet. Quote: $3,200. Before picking up the saw, you have to buy the wood, and the supplier won't extend credit: either the customer pays for it, or the woodworker does. How much deposit should you ask for? Ask for too little, and you're financing the wood out of your own pocket, hoping the customer doesn't back out halfway through. Ask for too much, and the quote sounds like you don't trust them, so the job goes to another shop.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. A photographer who blocks off a Saturday in June for a wedding isn't buying wood, but she's risking something just as costly: that Saturday can't be sold to anyone else. Each business risks something different, and the deposit is calculated on that.

What you're putting on the line, not the size of the project

You already know a phase gets paid for what's been done, not for the date on the calendar. The deposit is different: it's what you ask for before any phase exists, when all there is is the professional's word and commitment. That commitment costs real money from day one, even if the customer doesn't see it.

There are two ways to take on risk. One is money that leaves your account before you get paid for anything: materials, fabric, glass, concrete. The other is the open slot on your calendar while you turn down other jobs for that same slot. A business can have one, or both at once, and the deposit is calculated on whichever weighs more.

When materials call the shots

The walnut cabinet maker knows what the wood costs: $1,100, plus the hinges and handles, which are also custom-ordered. That number comes straight from the supplier's quote. The minimum deposit is that figure, not a dollar less: dip below it, and they're putting up their own money so someone else gets to decide whether they still want the cabinet. On paper, the law already protects them: Spain's Civil Code lets whoever commissioned the job back out even after work has started, but only by "compensating the contractor for all expenses, labor, and profit the contractor might have made from it" (Article 1594). With the deposit in hand, at least what's already been spent on materials is covered, no need to chase it down later.

The usual percentages are a helpful reference, but they don't always cut it: for home remodeling jobs, which is where on-site carpentry work comes in, companies typically ask for a first payment "of 30 to 40 percent to cover travel costs or materials," according to the Community of Madrid. For this cabinet, 30% comes to $960, which doesn't even cover the wood; 40%, or $1,280, gets closer to the actual material cost. Customers get it when you explain it this way: it's what's already been spent or set aside for them, not a percentage pulled from some general price list.

When the calendar calls the shots

The wedding photographer isn't buying anything for that Saturday in June. She turns down three other couples who asked about that exact date, and that empty slot is her real cost. If the couple cancels a year out, there might still be other couples looking for a photographer for that Saturday. If they cancel in May, there won't be. The deposit covers that growing risk, which is why it makes sense for it to go up the closer the date gets to the booking.

Picture a $1,500 wedding package booked eight months out: a 30% deposit, $450, might be enough, because there's still time to rearrange things if something falls through. If the same package is booked six weeks out, ask for a lot more, because at that point there's no time left to book that Saturday with another couple. And if you're working with an individual customer, like this couple or the cabinet client, put in writing what happens to the deposit if someone cancels, and make the rule apply both ways: Spain's consumer protection law treats it as unfair "to withhold amounts paid by the consumer upon cancellation, without providing for equivalent compensation if the business cancels instead" (Article 87.2). And the amount has to be in proportion to what you'd actually lose: the same law treats as unfair "clauses that impose a disproportionately high penalty on a consumer or user who fails to meet their obligations" (Article 85.6).

Now you have a way to put a number on the deposit instead of copying a percentage from another business: look at what you spend or block off before you touch the first material, and ask for that as a minimum. The next lesson takes that same number and uses it to divide up the weight of the installments that come after.

The deposit already has a number. What's left is deciding how much weight each payment after that carries: they're not split evenly, they're split based on what you've already put in out of pocket.