Milestones and escrow
How a contract is paid, one milestone at a time, and what the platform does and does not do with money today.
The model #
A contract is a list of milestones, each with a deliverable and a price. Money moves one milestone at a time:
- You fund a milestone. The amount is held in escrow, not paid to the auditor.
- The auditor works and submits the milestone with the deliverable attached.
- You approve or send it back. Approve when the deliverable is what was agreed; otherwise say what is missing and the auditor revises.
- The money is released to the auditor on approval.
Funding the first milestone is also the moment both sides see each other in full: names, photos and contact details are revealed to each other from then on.
Where the money is today #
The escrow flow above is recorded and shown by the platform: which milestone is funded, submitted, approved, released. What is not connected yet is the payment provider that moves the money. Until it is, funding and release are records of intent, no card is charged and no transfer is made, and the payment screens say so on every line. When settlement is connected the same steps will carry real money; nothing about the process changes for you.
The platform fee #
Auditly takes a percentage of each released milestone; the auditor's price is what you fund and what they receive minus that fee. The rate is published before launch and shown wherever a fee applies.
When you disagree #
If a submitted milestone is not what was agreed and the auditor's revision does not settle it, either side can open a dispute on that milestone from the workspace. Both sides state their case and attach evidence; an Auditly mediator reads both and decides whether the milestone is released, returned, or split. A disputed milestone is not released until the dispute is closed.
Spend #
Spend in the sidebar lists every funding and release across your contracts, with the state of each.