For large corporate gifting orders, customers may want to commit to products and quantities well in advance, or pay in stages. This guide covers two workflows for handling deposits with Send To Many, depending on your Shopify plan.
Option 1: Collect a deposit on your Send To Many invoice (Shopify Plus)
If your store is on Shopify Plus, you can use payment terms with a deposit requirement directly on the aggregate invoice that Send To Many creates. This is the simplest approach and works with Send To Many's automatic order generation.
How it works
Create your Send as normal: upload the recipient spreadsheet, map columns, validate addresses, and select shipping rates
Walk through the Send wizard to the Finalize step and generate the aggregate invoice
From the Finalize page, click through to the aggregate draft order in Shopify admin
In the draft order editor, add payment terms (e.g., Net 30) and click + Require deposit to set a deposit percentage (e.g., 50%)
Send the invoice to your customer. They'll be required to pay the deposit amount immediately, with the remaining balance due per the payment terms.
Note on deposit calculation: The deposit is a percentage of the order subtotal only. It does not include taxes or shipping.
How this works with order generation
When your customer pays the deposit and accepts the payment terms, Shopify marks the draft order as completed. If your Send type is configured for automatic order generation (orders generate when the invoice is paid), Send To Many will begin generating recipient orders at that point. This is usually the desired behavior: your customer has committed to the order, and you can start fulfillment while the remaining balance is collected on the payment terms schedule.
If you'd prefer to wait for full payment before generating orders, set your Send type to manual order generation and process orders yourself once the balance is fully collected.
Option 2: Collect a deposit upfront, then credit it on the Send To Many invoice (any Shopify plan)
If you're not on Shopify Plus, or if you need to collect payment for product well before recipient addresses are available, you can collect the deposit as a separate transaction and apply it as a credit when you're ready to invoice.
This workflow is a good fit when:
A customer commits to a large order (e.g., 600 gift boxes) months before they'll have recipient addresses
You want to collect payment for product upfront, then invoice for shipping and any adjustments later
You're running early bird pricing or seasonal promotions where customers lock in pricing ahead of fulfillment
Phase 1: Collect the deposit
Before your customer has their recipient list ready, create a draft order in Shopify to collect payment for the product commitment.
In your Shopify admin, go to Orders → Drafts → Create draft order
Click Add custom item (don't add your actual catalog products — custom items won't reserve inventory or trigger fulfillment)
Enter the product description (e.g., "Custom Deluxe Box — Early Bird Deposit"), set the quantity (e.g., 600) and unit price (e.g., $25.00)
Make sure "Product is physical" is unchecked — this keeps the item out of your fulfillment workflow
Set the customer on the draft order so the payment is tied to their account
Collect payment: click Send invoice to email the customer a payment link, or if you have their credit card number, click Collect payment to charge it directly
Note the draft order number (e.g., #D1234) — you'll reference this later
At this point, your customer has paid for their product commitment and you have a clean record of that payment in Shopify.
Phase 2: Create the Send
When your customer provides their recipient spreadsheet (with shipping addresses), create a Send in Send To Many as you normally would.
Upload the recipient spreadsheet, map your columns, validate addresses, and select shipping rates
In the Send details, add a note referencing the deposit order (e.g., "Product deposit collected on #D1234")
Walk through the Send wizard to the Finalize step and generate the aggregate invoice
Phase 3: Apply the deposit credit and send the final invoice
Before sending the invoice to your customer, apply their deposit as a credit on the Send To Many aggregate draft order.
From the Send's Finalize page, click through to the aggregate draft order that Send To Many created in Shopify
In the Shopify draft order editor, add a discount: enter a fixed dollar amount equal to the deposit they already paid (e.g., $15,000)
In the discount reason field, note the original payment (e.g., "Deposit paid on #D1234")
The draft order total will now reflect only the remaining balance: shipping, tax, and any adjustments to products or quantities since the original commitment. The customer will see the deposit credit applied as a discount on their invoice.
Send the invoice to your customer — they only pay the remaining amount
Tips for this workflow
Why custom items for the deposit? Using custom items instead of your actual catalog products means no inventory gets reserved on the deposit order. The real products are only pulled from inventory when you create the Send and generate recipient orders.
Keep a clear paper trail. Reference the deposit draft order number in both the Send notes and the discount reason on the final invoice. This makes it easy for your team and your customer to reconcile the two payments.
Product or quantity changes are handled naturally. If the customer adjusts their order between the deposit and the Send (e.g., 650 boxes instead of 600, or a different product mix), the aggregate invoice will reflect the actual totals, and the deposit credit reduces what's owed on the remainder.