Proposals

How much deposit should a builder ask for?

For home building work in Australia, the law answers first: 10% at most in New South Wales, and in Victoria 10% under $20,000 or 5% from $20,000. Across 49 priced quotes and proposals counted here, the building trades ask for a median of 20%, but every large build sits at 10%.

Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder

5 min read · Published 21 October 2026

A builder doing home building work should ask for no more than the state allows: 10% of the contract price in New South Wales, and in Victoria 10% when the price is under $20,000 or 5% when it is $20,000 or more. Outside those rules, the 49 priced quotes and proposals counted on this site ask for a median deposit of 30%, and the building trades a median of 20%.

What was counted

The set is every priced quote and proposal on this site as it stood on 21 October 2026: 31 finished examples (14 quotes and 17 proposals for fictional Australian businesses) and the 18 proposal templates in the product, 49 documents in all. Each one stores its line items, its total and its deposit as numbers, so a script read the deposit due now, divided it by the base total and grouped the documents into seven trade groups. Optional extras are left out of the base, because a client who adds them pays a deposit on a larger sum.

The examples were written to show a realistic finished quote for each trade, and the templates are starting points a user can edit. Neither is a survey of what Australian businesses actually charge. The count says what a carefully written quote in each trade tends to ask for, and where the law caps it.

The law comes first for building work

In New South Wales, the government’s guidance on residential building contracts sets the maximum deposit at 10% of the contract price. In Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria says a deposit can be no more than 10% when the total price is under $20,000 and no more than 5% when it is $20,000 or more, and it tells owners not to pay until the builder has supplied the domestic building insurance policy and certificate of currency. Queensland has its own caps under its building legislation, so check the regulator in your state before you set a figure.

These caps are why the large building documents in this set all sit at the bottom of the range:

The construction estimate for a $179,960 dental fit out asks for 10%.
The renovation quote for a $14,780 bathroom asks for 10%, even though it is under $20,000.
The painting quote for $11,730 asks for 10%.
The construction estimate template also defaults to 10%.

Smaller trade jobs ask for more

The other building and outdoor trades in the set ask for more, because most of the price is materials ordered for one job:

The plumbing quote replaces a hot water unit for $4,640 and asks for 40%, which covers the heat pump unit the plumber has to buy first.
The electrical quote for a $2,820 switchboard upgrade asks for 30%.
The roofing and landscaping quotes ask for 20%.
Two of the eleven building documents ask for no deposit at all: the repair and trades call out templates, which are paid on completion because the job is done in a visit.

Whether a deposit cap applies to a small job depends on the state and on whether the work counts as home building work there, so a percentage that is normal for a supplier of goods can still be over the limit for a builder.

Creative and service work

Every creative and media quote asks for a deposit, and the median is 50%: graphic design, copywriting, videography and the photography and printing templates all ask for half. The wedding photographer is the exception at 22%, a fixed $1,000 to hold the date. Web and software work sits at a median of 30%, and the software development proposal, at $101,145 the second largest document here, asks for 20%.

Professional and advisory work is where deposits disappear. Three of the seven, the accounting engagement letter, the bookkeeping proposal and the managed IT proposal, ask for nothing up front and bill monthly instead. Retainers behave the same way: the marketing retainer asks for 11.6%, a fixed deposit covering onboarding and the first month rather than a percentage chosen for its own sake.

How the deposit is shown

The deposit only works if the client sees it before they agree. 27 of the 31 examples print a Deposit due now line under the total, followed by the balance, and the payment terms repeat when each amount is due. The roofing quote, for example, shows a total of $8,062 including GST, a deposit of $1,612.40 and a balance of $6,449.60, then says the deposit is invoiced on acceptance and the balance on completion on 7 day terms.

For how deposits and balances become invoices, the deposit invoice and progress invoice pages explain each document, and from quote to paid follows one job from the quote to the last payment.

A rule you can use

Home building work: check your state’s cap before anything else. 10% in New South Wales, 10% or 5% in Victoria depending on the price, and the Queensland rules if you work there.
Small jobs where materials are most of the price: a deposit that covers the materials, often 20% to 40% in this set, is easy to explain.
Booked creative time: half up front is the norm here, and clients expect it.
Monthly professional services: bill the first month in advance rather than inventing a deposit.

In the product

The proposals module stores a deposit as none, a percent of the total or a fixed amount, and prints Deposit due now and Balance under the pricing table. With a deposit, acceptance creates an issued deposit invoice due today and a draft balance invoice. The deposit setting page shows where it lives, and the guide to the pricing table covers the lines above it.

Deposits across 49 priced documents on this site, counted on 21 October 2026: the 31 quote and proposal examples and the 18 proposal templates. The deposit is the deposit due now as a share of the base total, optional extras excluded. Median is over the documents that ask for one.
Trade group	Documents	Ask for a deposit	Median deposit when asked	Range
Building, renovation and outdoor trades	11	9	20%	10% to 40%
Creative and media	6	6	50%	22% to 50%
Web and software	6	5	30%	20% to 50%
Events, catering and celebrations	6	6	30%	25% to 50%
Professional and advisory services	7	4	27.5%	24% to 50%
Marketing and coaching retainers	8	5	25%	12% to 50%
Interiors, furniture and cleaning	5	3	30%	30%
All 49 documents	49	38	30%	10% to 50%

A finished example

A renovation quote should price each trade, state any allowances for things the owner still has to choose, and say what contract follows. This example from a Leichhardt builder prices a full laundry renovation at $14,780 including GST, with tiles to an allowance, a 10% deposit, and a note that a written contract follows before work starts.

Read the renovation quote example for a laundry

Questions people ask

Can a builder ask for the deposit before the contract is signed?

Not in a way that protects you. Consumer Affairs Victoria tells owners not to pay a deposit until the builder has given them the domestic building insurance policy and certificate of currency, and a deposit only makes sense against a signed contract that states the price and the payment stages. Paying earlier leaves nothing in writing that says what the money was for.

Is a deposit the same as the first progress payment?

No. A deposit is paid on signing, before any work, and in New South Wales and Victoria it is capped by law. Progress payments are paid as stages are finished, such as base, frame or lock up. The progress invoice example on this site bills the frame stage of a new home after deposit and base claims of 10% and 15%.

Why do creative trades ask for half up front?

Because the work is booked time that cannot be resold, and the client could walk away after seeing drafts. In this set, every creative and media quote asks for a deposit, with a median of 50%. Those jobs are small, usually under $8,000, so half up front is a smaller sum than 10% of a renovation.

Should a deposit be refundable?

Say so either way in the quote. Most quotes here describe the deposit as booking dates or ordering materials, which is a reason it may not come back in full if the client cancels late. Consumer law still applies, so a deposit cannot be kept for work the business never had to do or costs it never incurred.

How do I ask for a deposit on a quote?

Put it in the pricing summary as its own line, with the balance underneath, and repeat it in the payment terms with when each amount falls due. 27 of the 31 examples here print a Deposit due now line under the total, so the client sees the first payment and the remainder before accepting, not after.

Written by

Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder

Works across the builders and the export paths: how a form becomes a PDF, how a flyer canvas becomes a print file, and how a signed document carries its audit trail.

LinkedIn profile

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 21 October 2026.

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