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What Are Advance Payments?

Advance payments - also known as proforma invoices - allow you to collect funds from your client before starting work while staying compliant with the Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) rules. When a client pays an advance, the money is held in your trust account and a receipt is issued. You do not create an invoice or transfer the funds to your business account until the work is completed. This ensures you meet your legal obligations: by law, New Zealand immigration advisers cannot invoice or deposit fees into their business account until the service has been delivered.

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Creating an Advance Payment Request

1

Open the Finance tab

From within a case, open the Finance tab and select Advance Payments. Click Add Advance Payment.
Advance Payments tab
2

Fill in the advance payment details

After clicking the Add button, the following screen will appear.
Advance Payment form
  • Set a payment date and choose the currency (New Zealand Dollar is selected by default).
  • Enter a clear description (for example, “Partner visa initial fee”) and, if you wish, add a custom message or select a saved template to pre-fill the wording on the PDF request.
  • Add one or more line items: describe the work to be performed, enter the quantity and price, and choose whether the amounts are exclusive or inclusive of tax. GST at 15% is applied automatically, and the system calculates the subtotal, tax and total for you.
  • Once ready to send, click the Save & Send Email Button

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Record payments and send receipts

1

Enter the amount received

When funds arrive in your trust account, open the advance payment and enter the amount in the Amount Received field.
Amount Received field
2

Send a receipt

Click the Email Receipt to send a receipt to your client. Adviseraide updates the “Amount Paid” and “Amount Due” fields automatically after adding the amount received.

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Convert to an invoice when the work is done

1

Convert to Invoice

After completing the agreed services, open the advance payment and click Convert to Invoice. This will create an invoice, and you can then send it to the client.
Convert to Invoice button