Milestone Payment Instructions
These instructions apply to fixed-price work: single milestones and contracts made of milestones. By approving a milestone you instruct Aiyubot to hold, release and refund the client's funds as described here.
1. Proposing and approving milestones
- Either the client or the expert can propose a milestone or a contract, in reply to a job post or directly in chat. A contract has 1 to 20 milestones whose amounts add up to its total.
- Each milestone is at least US$0.50 and at most US$1,000,000.
- Milestones in a contract run in order: the next one cannot be approved or funded until the earlier one is accepted, released, refunded or cancelled.
- Either party can edit a milestone's title, description and due date. Its amount cannot change. Editing a milestone that is still a proposal resets the other party's approval.
- Only the party who proposed a milestone can delete it, and only before anything has been charged or any time logged against it.
2. Funding
The client funds each milestone before work starts, by paying through Aiyubot's checkout. Funds are not taken from the client's Aiyubot credits. You cannot start or submit work on a milestone until it is funded, and you should not begin work before it is.
3. Submitting work
When the work is done, submit it in Aiyubot with a note, files, or both. Each submission is recorded. Deliver work through Aiyubot; delivering it privately to avoid the platform is circumvention.
4. Client review and release
After you submit, the client has 7 days to review the work. During that window the client can:
- Accept — the payment is released to you immediately;
- Request changes — with a reason; you revise and submit again, and the review window starts again on the next submission; or
- Raise a concern — see below.
If the client does nothing before the window ends, the payment is released to you automatically. Automatically released payments are held for 7 days before you can withdraw them; payments the client accepts are not.
In every case, money becomes withdrawable only after our payment processor has settled the client's payment. A payment that is still being cleared can delay a withdrawal by up to 7 days, and one the processor reports as pending by up to 30 days.
5. Concerns and dispute assistance
A client can raise a concern about a milestone after asking for changes at least once. If nothing has ever been delivered, a client can also raise one once the milestone's due date has passed (from the day after it), or, where there is no due date, 14 days after funding. You can raise a concern once you have submitted, and you keep that right if the client then asks for changes. Concerns can be raised on milestones that are funded, in progress, submitted or awaiting changes. Raising a concern freezes the milestone's funds.
Whoever raised a concern can withdraw it until Aiyubot starts settling it. The milestone then returns to where it was, and if it had been submitted, the client's review window picks up where it left off.
Aiyubot then reviews the milestone, the submissions and files, the work log, the milestone's change history and the messages between you and the client on Aiyubot, together with what each party tells us, and decides to release the funds to the expert, split them, or refund the client, with a written note. Support may add a note explaining the outcome, which is shared with both parties. Any platform fee is prorated to the outcome. You agree to cooperate and provide information we ask for. Aiyubot's decision is final as to the funds it holds; either party may pursue other remedies against the other separately.
Released payments, bonuses and billed daily or weekly periods cannot be disputed through this process.
6. Refunds and abandoned work
Funded milestones cannot be cancelled or refunded by either party on their own; a refund happens only as the outcome of a concern. Abandoning funded work is a serious breach of these terms. If funded work is abandoned or cannot be completed, the client should raise a concern (see above); contacting support is an additional route. Aiyubot may resolve the funds, including by refunding the client, and may take action on the account responsible.
7. Bonuses and expense reimbursements
A client may pay you a bonus, an expense reimbursement or another one-off payment at any time. It is charged to the client when sent and released to you at once, subject to the 7 days holding period. Once paid it is non-refundable and cannot be disputed.