Casework

Guides / Design agreement

Mark the design fee paid

One press, once the money is in your account. It moves the job to Deposit paid, closes the client's link and records the date the fee arrived.

3 min read · checked against the product 19 September 2026

What you need first

  • An approved design agreement on the project
  • The payment already in your bank account

Casework has no card processor in it. The fee lands the way it always has, and this press is you telling the app it arrived, which is the moment three other things move.

Wait for the money, not for the signature

The client agreeing and the client paying are two separate events. Agreeing is recorded on the client's page; paying is recorded here, by you, and only once the funds are in the account. Nothing in Casework watches a bank.

Open the job and find the design agreement card

Documents tab, the second card. While the fee is outstanding the card footer reads "Mark paid once the payment has landed. Moves the project to Deposit paid," which is the whole of what the button does, written next to it.

The approved design agreement card, with the copy control, the closing date and the button that marks the fee paid
  1. 1Mark the design fee paid, in the card footer

Click Mark the design fee paid

The stage moves to Deposit paid, the card turns to Paid, and the client's link closes itself, because an agreement is a single-use surface and there is nothing left on it to do.

The design agreement card marked Paid, reading that the fee was received and the link closed itself
  1. 1The card's status, now Paid
  2. 2The date the fee was received, kept on the job

Check the job moved

The stage rail at the top of the project now shows Deposit paid with today's date under it. That stage is what the dashboard filters on, so the job leaves "Waiting on client" without you touching it.

Know what the date is for

The day the fee arrived is kept on the job. It is what the proposal reads later when it takes the fee off the first payment, so a fee that was never marked paid is never credited against a contract. That is deliberate: crediting a fee you did not collect takes money off your own price.

What happens next

Nothing in the product stops you drawing before the fee lands. The next guide, what the fee gate does, is exactly what Casework does and does not enforce about that.