A milestone is a phase of work with its own deliverable, deadline and fee.
The cycle
- You fund the milestone. The money is held in escrow.
- The expert works on it.
- The expert submits the deliverable. It is screened before you see it.
- You review, and may request revisions within the agreed allowance.
- You approve. The fee releases to the expert.
- The next milestone is funded and the cycle repeats.
Why split at all
You are never exposed for more than one phase. If something goes wrong at milestone two of five, the remaining three were never funded.
It also gives both sides an early checkpoint. Problems surface at the first deliverable rather than at the end.
Changing scope mid-project
Extra work needs a new milestone. Asking for something the accepted proposal did not cover is a scope change, not a revision. See How to request revisions.
The review window
Each milestone has a review window shown on it. If you neither approve nor raise a revision or dispute within that window, it may auto-release to the expert. This stops an expert being left unpaid indefinitely for delivered work.