Clients - Milestone Payment

The Milestone Payment^® System is a special feature that allows controlled payments to be made for the awarded freelancer on a project.

When a freelancer requests for a Milestone Payment^®, the client can create one by depositing funds for it. The funds will be held until the client decides to release the Milestone Payment^® to the freelancer or until both parties have concluded the process of the Dispute Resolution Service.

Once a client releases a Milestone Payment^®, the client acknowledges that their awarded freelancer has completed the work fully and most satisfactorily. 

If a client does not approve of the freelancer's work or the freelancer requests payment to an unwilling client, the parties can access the Dispute Resolution Services.

For more information about Milestone Payments^®, please click here.

We highly recommend using Milestone Payments on projects because of the following:

• It is very risky for clients to pay outside of Freelancer.com.

• Freelancer.com offers protection if something goes wrong with the project.

• Freelancers' reputation (feedback and ratings) will increase if projects are paid through Milestone Payments.

• Clients will be able to entice more freelancers to bid on their projects by using Milestone Payments.

• Both gets an invoice for every Milestone Payment^® created and released which can be used for taxation purposes.

To know more, click here.

To send money to your freelancer using a Milestone Payment^®, follow these steps:

• Log in to your Freelancer.com account.

• Click My Projects. 

• Click your project's title to go to its main page.

• Click the Payments tab.

• Click Create Milestone.

• Enter the amount of the payment and the task to be done for it. 

• Click Create Milestone.

• Confirm the payment, which may come from either your available balance or verified payment source, whichever has sufficient funds. 

Alternatively, you can create a Milestone Payment by going to your Finances page. To know more, click here. 

To release a Milestone Payment^®, you can follow these steps:

• Log in to your Freelancer.com account.

• Click My Projects. 

• Click the title of your project to go to its main page. 

• Click the Payments tab.

• Click Release next to the Milestone Payment^® you wish to transfer to your freelancer.

• Specify the amount you want to release. You can release the full or a partial amount of the payment.

• Click Release.

• Confirm the release if you agree that any released funds can no longer be returned. 

Once the Milestone Payment^® is released, there's no way for us to recover the funds. Make sure that the project has been completed and you are 100% satisfied with the results before releasing your pending Milestone Payment^®.

You can also release a Milestone Payment^® by going to the Finances page. To know more, click here.

A pending Milestone Payment^® cannot be divided to multiple Milestone Payments, but it can be released in partial amounts. Note that partial releasing of Milestone Payment^® only works on manually created Milestone Payments. 

To release a partial amount of a pending Milestone Payment^®, follow these steps:

• Log in to your Freelancer.com account.

• Click My Projects. 

• Click the title of your project to go to its main page. 

• Click the Payments tab.

• Click Release next to the Milestone Payment^® you wish to transfer to your freelancer.

• Specify the partial amount you want to release.  

• Click Release.

• Confirm the release if you agree that any released funds can no longer be returned. 

Do not release the payment if you are not 100% happy with the agreed deliverables or not satisfied with the development of the project. If you decide to finish the payment before the whole project or task for the milestone is complete, you will be responsible for any loss of funds.

For the protection of freelancers, a Milestone Payment^® cannot be cancelled by the client. If you feel a freelancer isn't entitled to a Milestone Payment^®, you should first contact the freelancer to request the Milestone Payment's cancellation.

If an agreement cannot be reached, please consider using Freelancer.com's Dispute Resolution Services.

Creating one Milestone Payment^® or more upon awarding a freelancer makes your project start faster. Freelancers will be motivated to start work immediately knowing they'll get paid once you're happy with their work. What's great is that the Milestone Payment^® will remain pending until you release it upon project completion.

A Milestone Payment^® that is created upon award can be cancelled before the award gets accepted. Clients can do this, but we don't recommend doing so because it may delay your project's start date.

While it is not unusual for freelancers to request an advance payment, particularly on large-scale projects, clients are under no obligation to provide one and should only consider this option with well-trusted freelancers. Freelancer.com assumes no responsibility for any loss of funds due to advance payments.

If an advance payment is agreed upon, we highly recommend using our Milestone Payment^® System to transfer funds to the freelancer.

We generally recommend releasing Milestone Payments to freelancers only when you are satisfied with the submitted output.

Once the Milestone Payment^® is released, there's no guarantee we can recover the funds. We still recommend you to discuss any project issues with your freelancer first.

If no agreement can be reached, don't hesitate to contact our Support team by clicking the Chat Now! button at the bottom of this page: What if a Freelancer Fails to Complete My Project?