We provide Cad Crowd Billing Security policy for fixed-rate job contracts for clients with a verified payment method.
The Billing Security policy has escrow payments to facilitate secure payment for your completed work. In addition, the policy ensures clients receive the agreed-upon services, confidentiality, IP assignment, and intellectual property protection. Within the fixed-rate payment system, your client adds a milestone payment to the job contract’s escrow account you start working on the project.
When the client reviews and approves your work, the funds are released from escrow, and the payment is transferred into your pending account balance, which will appear as a pending payment on the weekly timesheet report summary.
🚀 In this article
Defining milestones and client escrow deposit
Before commencing the fixed-rate job contract, you and your client will decide on specific work milestones and the payment you’ll receive upon completing each. Agreeing on deliverables establishes expectations for both parties, creating a foundation for a positive collaboration.
Important points to remember:
- Small jobs: You can outline, submit, and receive payment for individual tasks or plan all milestones.
- Large jobs: For more extensive tasks, starting with a smaller milestone can help you and your client establish confidence before proceeding with the larger tasks.
- Milestone deposit: Your client must deposit the payment into an escrow account before you start work on a milestone.
- Work quality: The escrow deposit confirms your client’s capacity to pay; however, payment relies on your client’s satisfaction with your work.
Keep in mind that only the funds held in escrow are secure. We cannot assist in collecting promised funds not deposited into escrow. As a result, it’s crucial to ensure the amount in escrow is suitable for the work you’ll perform for that milestone. If your client deposits a smaller sum than agreed upon, only start work once they deposit the total amount or the price and work expectations have been renegotiated.
Submit work for approval
Before starting the work, you and your client will decide on specific milestones and the payment amounts for each task. The initial discussion allows both parties to clarify goals and manage the expectations for the job contract.
How to submit a milestone for client review approval:
- Visit job contracts > select a job contract > click Request milestone payment (button)
- Add a message to the milestone request that explains tasks completed for the finished tasks
- Feel free to attach a file or share a link to download the files related to the task. File attachments aren’t mandatory; however, you must share a way for the client to review and assess the assignments completed for milestone approval.
- Click on the Submit work button. Your client will receive a notification about your work submitted for review. You will be informed when they authorize payment or ask for modifications.
Client work review & milestone payment approval
After submitting your task for approval, your client has a 14-day window to approve the milestone or request modifications. The escrowed balance is transferred to your pending payment account if the client approves the milestone. If a client is unresponsive for 14 days, the milestone payment is automatically approved and transferred to your pending payments account. The amount is then released to you following a 5-day security period.
We strive to help you establish solid relationships, but we understand that sometimes things go differently than planned. You can create an escrow dispute if your client refuses to release funds or requests a milestone refund. The funds stay in the escrow account until the conflict is resolved. Please read our article for more information about the escrow conflict resolution process.
📡 Remember: If your work requires modifications and you resubmit a milestone for client approval, the review period is restarted. The new milestone submission gives the client another 14 days to review and approve your new milestone request.
Types of fixed-rate jobs covered by Billing Security
The Billing Security policy for fixed-rate job contracts protects all funds held in escrow. However, there are a few exceptions:
- Milestone payments that exceed the funds held in the escrow account
- Payments from a client that doesn’t have a verified payment method
- Extra sums negotiated or agreed upon between you and your client but were not deposited into escrow for the disputed milestone
Please read our article to learn about escrow payments for fixed-rate job contracts and the dispute resolution process.
Track hours for your fixed-rate job contracts
You can add your manual time entries by downloading the Cad Crowd desktop app.
Steps to add a manual time entry:
- Download app: Download the Cad Crowd app for Windows OS
- Choose contract: Login to app > select the job contract
- Add time: select “+ Add manual time” > choose the start time and end time
