My client cancelled halfway through. What should the final invoice include?

The client stops a $4,000 project after you have done part of the work. Should you invoice 50%, keep the deposit, charge the whole fee or send nothing?

There is no reliable universal percentage. Reconstruct what the agreement says happens when the project stops, then connect every amount to work, cost or an express cancellation term.

Freeze the project record

Save the cancellation message and note its effective date. Preserve the accepted scope, schedule, milestones, time records where relevant, change approvals, expenses and deliveries. Do not continue substantial work after a clear stop instruction merely to increase the invoice.

Check:

• who has the right to cancel and what notice is required;
• whether termination is for convenience, breach or a missed dependency;
• whether fees are milestone-based, hourly, fixed or described as non-refundable;
• what happens to the deposit or advance payment;
• whether committed third-party costs are recoverable;
• whether booked capacity or an express cancellation fee is addressed;
• which files, access or unfinished material must be handed over;
• when licences or ownership transfer, especially if payment is outstanding.

Build the calculation in visible layers

Here is a fictional example, not a statement of what is legally recoverable:

Do not mix a deposit credit with an extra charge. If you say a cancellation fee also applies, show it separately and cite the clause. If an expense can be refunded or reused, account for that honestly.

Fixed-fee work can be harder to divide. Use the contract’s milestones or a documented allocation made before cancellation. Inventing a completion percentage after the relationship breaks down is weaker than showing actual agreed stages.

Separate completed value from future loss

These are different questions:

• payment for work already completed;
• reimbursement of an approved cost already committed;
• keeping or crediting an advance;
• an express cancellation or kill fee;
• compensation claimed for capacity you cannot refill;
• payment of the remaining project price.

Do not describe all of them as “work done.” Their contractual and legal bases may differ. A term calling money “non-refundable” also does not end every legal question; applicable consumer, penalty, unfair-terms or mitigation rules vary by jurisdiction and relationship.

Send the invoice with a reconciliation note

You cancelled the project effective 24 September. Under the agreed scope, discovery was completed and the first design stage included 10 approved hours. The attached final invoice shows those items and the approved stock licence, then credits the $1,000 deposit already paid. I have stopped further work. Please confirm the handover contact for the listed files and revoke my access after receipt. If you disagree with a line, please identify the item and contractual basis so we can address it separately.

If the contract requires a formal termination notice, follow that procedure rather than relying only on an informal project message. Keep operational handover safe: do not delete files, retain access indefinitely or hold credentials hostage.

Improve the next project before it starts

Write down milestones, deposit treatment, client dependencies, cancellation notice, approved expenses, booked-capacity terms and handover. Define what happens to incomplete drafts and licensed third-party material. For a project paused by silence instead of expressly cancelled, use the client-disappeared restart guide.

A clear final invoice should let another person reproduce the number. If it cannot, the first task is not sending it faster; it is rebuilding the calculation from the agreement and project record.