Capture Partial Payment Early

When a pre-order was placed with a partial payment, the customer paid a deposit (or nothing) at checkout and the rest is scheduled to be collected later. If you need that remaining balance sooner, for example because the product is ready to ship ahead of schedule, you can collect it early. This is done in Shopify, on the order itself, not in Timesact.

Before you start

This applies to pre-order orders that have an outstanding balance. On the order in Shopify you will see:

• A payment status of Partially paid (a deposit was taken) or Unpaid (nothing was taken at checkout).
• A Payment pending section on the order showing the amount still owed and its scheduled due date.

If the order is already Paid, there is nothing to collect, it was a full-payment pre-order.

Collect the balance now

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders and open the pre-order.
2. In the Payment pending section, click Collect payment.
3. Choose how to collect it:

• Pay by credit card, enter the card details and click Charge. This requires Shopify Payments.
• Send invoice, this emails the customer a secure checkout link so they pay the balance themselves. Use this when you do not hold the customer's card details, or you are not on Shopify Payments.
• Mark as paid, use this only if you already collected the money another way (for example a manual bank transfer). It records the order as paid without charging anything.

Once the balance is collected, the order moves to Paid and you can fulfill it.

Reschedule instead of collecting now

If you want to move the scheduled charge to a different date rather than collect it right now, go here: Modify Charge Date

Important, read before charging early

• Tell the customer first. Charging a balance the customer is not expecting is the single most common cause of pre-order chargebacks. Send a heads-up before you collect, especially if you are moving the date earlier than what they agreed to at checkout.
• Automatic collection on the scheduled date only works where your payment provider supports charging the stored payment method. If it does not, or no card is on file, the reliable route is Send invoice so the customer completes payment through a checkout link.
• Charging early does not change the shipping commitment, it only collects money. Make sure you are actually ready to ship (or clearly communicate why you are collecting ahead of shipping) so the early charge is justified to the customer.

Related

• For how partial payments are set up in the first place and how the balance schedule is defined, go deeper here: Billing and Partial Payments

Updated on: 07/01/2026