Wiktionary
n. The part of a contractually due sum that is paid or received in advance for goods or services.
Wikipedia
An advance payment, or simply an advance, is the part of a contractually due sum that is paid or received in advance for goods or services, while the balance included in the invoice will only follow the delivery. It is called a prepaid expense in accrual accounting for the entity issuing the advance. Advanced payments are recorded as assets on the balance sheet. As these assets are used they are expended and recorded on the income statement for the period in which they are incurred. Insurance is a common prepaid asset, which will only be a prepaid asset because it is a proactive measure to protect business from unforeseen events.
Usage examples of "advance payment".
In fact, why don't you take a couple of the magic crabs with you now as advance payment?
You could even argue that taking Strangs advance payment was a perfectly legitimate tactical move, designed to lull the quarry into a feeling of false security, thus making him easier to get to.
Most of these are long-term purchase items for which advance payment was necessary, as is normal in the international arms business.
If I bounced, then it would signify that the Thousandstar host had not been adequate, and the advance payment would forfeit to Jesse.
Presumably satisfied that Clive had a satisfactory medium of exchange, the noseless man brought it without advance payment.
When Komi rejoined them at the agreed-upon meeting place, and handed over the purse of his master's money, Wen Chang had to lighten that purse by a good many coins to make the required advance payment to the innkeeper.
I am a science fiction writer who has accepted a large advance payment for a yet unwritten novel and who must now come up with that novel before a deadline.
His thoughts at first were sad, but after a few minutes he remembered that he still had quite a lot of money left from the draconians' advance payment, and he did still have the plans for that new drilling machine, the one that made the triangular holes.
With every hotel in Ingolstadt bursting at the seams, it had taken a huge advance payment to bring this off.
Steward stopped by a delivery service, wrapped the flask in a package along with instructions and a spike with advance payment, then mailed it to him.
The advance payment had been for two reasons that had outweighed Kuat's innate desire to build such a ship: given the amount of time and resources that would be required to prototype, test, and finalize some of the unit's engine and maneuverability components, all the way from scratch to end product, and given the hazardous nature of the customer's line of work, said customer might well have been dead by the time Slave I had been ready to leave the docks.