Stage invoices, deposits and retention for builders in Mauritius
Builders and contractors in Mauritius: bill deposits, stages and retention, track materials and see what each client still owes. Try Envoice.mu for 14 days.
Imagine a house going up in Mahébourg. The slab for the first floor went in last week, the client is pleased, and on Saturday morning he calls with a simple question: how much has he paid so far, and how much is left? You know the deposit came in. You're fairly sure he paid the foundation stage in cash, half to you and half to your foreman. Then there was the extra retaining wall he asked for in July, which you agreed on site and never wrote down. You tell him you'll check and call back, and you spend Saturday afternoon with a calculator, the bank app and a folder of hardware-shop receipts.
Invoice Blindness on a building site
Invoice Blindness means the work is done and invoiced, yet you can't say right now what's been paid and what's still owed. On a building job the amounts are large and the timeline runs for months, so the blind spot grows quietly. A missed stage payment on a house can be worth more than a month of a small trade's turnover.
The usual suspects are familiar. Variations agreed by voice on site, payments split between people, retention that everyone forgets until the final account, and material costs nobody ties back to the job that used them. Your client isn't trying to get away with anything; he simply can't see the full picture either, and neither can you.
How a building project runs in Envoice
Envoice treats a building job as a contractor project, with the money following the same path as any job: quote, project, invoice, paid, proof. Here is an illustration with made-up figures, for a contract of Rs 2,400,000 where the agreement holds back 5% retention until handover.
| Stage | What you bill | What the client pays now | Retention held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit on signing | Rs 480,000 | Rs 480,000 | None |
| Foundations | Rs 480,000 | Rs 456,000 | Rs 24,000 |
| Ground-floor slab | Rs 480,000 | Rs 456,000 | Rs 24,000 |
| First-floor slab | Rs 480,000 | Rs 456,000 | Rs 24,000 |
| Finishes and handover | Rs 480,000 | Rs 456,000 | Rs 24,000 |
| Retention release | Rs 96,000 | Rs 96,000 | Released |
(Example figures only; your own stages and retention terms come from your contract.)
The quote is where it starts, and your client can accept it on his phone, which gives you a dated record of what he agreed to. The deposit goes against the project as a part payment. Each stage invoice comes from the project, so the totals always add up to the contract, and Envoice keeps track of the retention so it doesn't vanish into the final account.
When the client asks for that extra retaining wall, you quote it as a separate item and he accepts it the same way. If a stage invoice needs correcting, you issue a credit note; issued invoices stay locked, so the history is never rewritten. Every payment, whether cash, cheque, bank transfer or Juice, goes against the right invoice and produces a numbered receipt showing the balance before and after.
On the cost side, purchase orders and supplier records track what you've ordered from the quarry or the hardware shop, expenses with AI receipt reading pull the amounts off a photographed receipt, and job costing on the Business plan shows whether a project is still making money. Bank matching works by importing your bank statement as a CSV file, not through a live bank feed.
What to look for in contractor software
Many invoicing tools assume one invoice per job. A builder needs more than that, so check:
- Can it bill deposits, stages and retention against one project, and show what's left to bill?
- Does each payment go against a specific invoice, with a receipt that shows the remaining balance?
- Can you quote a variation and get it accepted before the work starts?
- Are issued invoices locked, with corrections through credit notes?
- Can you see costs against each project, not only sales?
- Does it prepare VAT? Above Rs 3m turnover, VAT registration is compulsory from 1 October 2026. Envoice prepares the monthly worksheet and the VT03 annex; you file on the MRA portal.
Getting started this week
- Start the free trial and add your company details, BRN and VAT number.
- Pick your busiest live project and set it up as a contractor project, with the contract value and the stages you agreed.
- Record every payment already received against it, deposit first.
- Quote any variation agreed on site this month, and send it to the client to accept.
- Raise purchase orders for the next materials delivery through Envoice.
- Give your site supervisor their own login with the technician role, so nobody on site needs your password.
Run one project through it
You get a free trial on the Business plan without entering a card, which is enough time to put one real project through deposits and a stage invoice. Go to www.envoice.mu, or WhatsApp +230 5881 9999 and we'll help you set up the stages for your first project.
Know who owes you. Keep the proof.