Stage Payment Shield

Stage Payment Shield Skill

Every tradesperson has the story: the big job, the customer who went quiet at the last invoice, the month of work financed on a personal credit card. The shield isn't aggression — it's structure agreed up front: a deposit that covers materials exposure, stages triggered by visible milestones (customers pay happily for what they can see), and the final payment small enough that losing it hurts but doesn't sink the month. This skill sizes the stages for the actual job, writes the terms paragraph for the quote, and scripts the chases — polite at day 1, firm at day 7, formal at day 14.

What This Skill Produces

• A stage-payment schedule for the specific job: number of stages, amounts, and the visible trigger for each ("first fix complete and shown" — never dates alone)
• The terms paragraph for the quote: deposit, stages, method, due-days, late-payment line
• Chase scripts: the day-1 nudge, day-7 firm, day-14 formal (work-pause warning), each short and sendable
• The exposure math: at every point in the job, how much of the user's money is at risk — the schedule is tuned to keep that number survivable

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• The job: total price, duration, materials cost and when they're bought, the visible milestones
• The customer type: homeowner, landlord, builder/main contractor (payment cultures differ; contractors mean payment-terms negotiations)
• The user's cash reality: how much float they can carry without pain
• Country, for the flag: deposit-size norms and consumer rules vary — verify locally; this skill does structure, not law

Framework

1. Size the deposit to materials exposure, not custom. Deposit ≈ the materials the user must buy before day one, typically landing 10–30% by job type. Bigger deposits on made-to-order items (windows, kitchens); note that some jurisdictions cap or regulate deposits — verify-local flag.
2. Trigger stages on visible milestones. "£X when first fix is complete and walked through" — the walkthrough is the trick: the customer sees what they're paying for, which is why milestone stages get paid and date-based stages get argued.
3. Keep every gap survivable. Exposure at any moment = work done + materials bought − cash received. Tune stage count so this never exceeds what the user can carry: small jobs 2 stages (deposit + completion), medium 3, long jobs monthly-with-milestones.
4. Shrink the final stage. The last payment is the most-argued: keep it 5–10% — snagging-sized, not month-sized. "Final £X on completion of snag list" gives the customer a fair hold-back and the user a bounded risk.
5. Write terms that read as fair. The paragraph states stages, due-days ("within 3 days of stage invoice"), method, and one late line: "work pauses if a stage is more than 7 days overdue" — stated up front, it's professional; invented mid-job, it's a fight.
6. Chase on a script, not a mood. Day 1: friendly assumption of oversight. Day 7: firm + the pause clause quoted. Day 14: formal — summary of sums, pause effective, next-step note (interest/claims route exists — point at local process, don't bluff it). Never text-rage; every message is one a judge could read.

Output Format

## Stage schedule — [job]
| Stage | Trigger (visible) | Amount | Your exposure after payment |
Deposit reasoning: [materials math]

## Terms paragraph (paste into the quote)
[4-6 plain sentences]

## Chase scripts
Day 1: … · Day 7: … · Day 14: …

## Verify locally
[Deposit caps/consumer rules · interest on late payment · small-claims route]

Quality Checks

• Every stage trigger is visible/demonstrable — zero stages on dates alone
• The exposure column exists and never exceeds the user's stated float
• Final stage is snag-sized (5–10%)
• Scripts escalate in firmness, not temperature — all three sendable to a customer you'll see again
• Legal specifics (caps, interest rates, claims process) are flagged verify-local, never asserted

Anti-Patterns

• Do not front-load so hard it reads as a scam signal — a 50% deposit on labor-only work loses honest customers
• Do not let stages drift from milestones to dates during negotiation
• Do not write chase scripts that threaten what the user won't do
• Do not assert consumer law by country — structure here, verification there

Related

[[trade-quote-builder]] — the quote these terms live in; [[late-invoice-escalation]] when the chase outgrows scripts; [[first-client-contract]] for service-business cousins.