Where your money is at every step
Money does not move when a project is agreed, or when work starts: it moves per milestone, and each one is funded before it begins and released only when the client accepts it. Between those two events neither side can spend it. Here is every place your money can be, and what moves it.
Last reviewed 18 October 2026 · 6 minute read
Most of the anxiety in freelance work is about timing: who is holding the money right now, and what would have to happen for it to move. This page answers that for every step, including the steps that are inconvenient.
The short version
A milestone is funded before it starts and released when the client accepts the work. In between, the money sits in escrow and neither side can spend it. Nothing is charged until money is released to a freelancer, and a refunded milestone returns its full amount to the client.
What a milestone is
A project is split into milestones, and each one is a piece of work with a price. Money is held per milestone rather than per project, which is why a project can be half-paid and still be honest: the part that was accepted has been paid, and the part that was not has not.
Every place your money can be
| Where it is | How it got there | What moves it out |
|---|---|---|
| With you | Nothing has been funded yet | Funding a milestone |
| In escrow | The client funded the milestone before it started | The client accepting it, or a refund |
| With the freelancer | The client accepted the milestone | Nothing — it is theirs |
| In the freelancer's balance | Earnings waiting to leave | A withdrawal to a bank account |
| In the client's balance | A milestone that was refunded | A withdrawal to a bank account |
| Being withdrawn | A withdrawal was requested and the money is held | The payout completing, or the request being refused |
The rule that makes it work: funded first
- A milestone cannot start until its money is in escrow. The work is not expected before the money is there, and the money is not released before the work is accepted.
- The client is charged at funding, not at the end. That is deliberate: nobody should be working against a promise.
- Any fee is taken when money is released, never when it is funded.
What happens at release
Approving a milestone is the moment money stops being held and starts being someone's. The fee is taken at that moment, from the released amount, so what reaches the freelancer's balance is already net of it.
A milestone of this size, released in full:
- Contract value
- ₹60,000.00
- Platform fee (10%)
- ₹6,000.00
- Reaches the freelancer
- ₹54,000.00
A refunded milestone is the other case, and it is not the same arithmetic. Nothing is deducted from a refund, and the whole amount returns to the client.
Refunds, and the part that surprises people
A refund becomes balance, not a card refund
When a milestone is refunded, the money returns to the client's balance here rather than to the card or account it came from. That balance can be withdrawn to a bank account, and it cannot currently be spent on another milestone — a balance on this platform has one door, and the withdrawal is it. We would rather say so here than have somebody discover it at the end of a dispute.
What escrow does not promise
- It decides when money moves, not whether the work was good. Quality is the client's judgement, and a rubric is what makes that judgement explainable.
- It cannot protect anyone who takes the work off the platform. Arranging or paying for work outside the app is a breach of the terms and removes every protection described on this page.
- It is not insurance. A dispute is reviewed by a person against written rules, which is more than a promise and less than a guarantee.
The client's half of the same page
If you are the one doing the work, the money is described from the other side: what has to be true before you can withdraw, and what the platform does not check for you. That is the getting paid page, and the two are meant to be read together.
Questions people ask
When is the client actually charged?
When a milestone is funded, before work on it starts. Not when the project is agreed, not when proposals arrive, and not at the end.
Can a client take the money back mid-milestone?
Not unilaterally. Money in escrow leaves it in exactly two ways: the client accepts the milestone, or a dispute resolves as a refund. Either way the outcome is recorded.
What happens to the fee if a milestone is refunded?
Nothing is charged. The fee is only ever taken from money actually released to a freelancer, so a refunded milestone returns its full amount.
Why does a refund go to my balance rather than my card?
The refund credits your balance here, and you withdraw it to a bank account. Balance cannot be spent on milestones today, so the withdrawal is the only way out — that is the surprising part, and it is written down rather than discovered.
Can the freelancer see that the money is really there?
Yes, the milestone shows as funded. That is the point of funding before work starts: it is the difference between a promise and a commitment.
What happens to the rest of the project if one milestone is disputed?
Nothing. A dispute freezes the milestone it names. Other milestones can be funded, worked on and released as normal.
Ready to see it from the other side?
Post a project with a rubric, or browse the freelancers and squads who are already working this way.