For fixed-price contracts, you have 14 days to review submitted work before payment is automatically released. You can accept, request changes, or pay early. Milestones help structure payments. You may pay the agreed amount, add a bonus, or reduce payment if needed. Communication is key for revisions outside the workroom.
When your freelancer or agency submits work for your approval on a fixed-price contract, you have 14 days to review it. This is your chance to review and accept or request changes from the freelancer. If you do not take action within that time, that’s considered approval, and we automatically release the funds to the freelancer or agency.
Milestones
Fixed-price contracts are often divided into milestones to help keep projects organized. Milestones outline the work you expect at a specific checkpoint and how much you’ll pay for it.
When a freelancer submits work for a milestone, you need to review it within 14 days and either accept and pay or request changes. Learn more about milestones.
Review and pay for work
You and your freelancer should decide how you'd like to exchange files and deliverables. Depending on the size and nature of the files and deliverables you need to exchange and any associated security considerations, you could share files using your contract’s workroom, in Messages, or any third-party solution.
Either way, your freelancer can still request payment for the contract or milestone through the workroom by choosing the Submit Work button. When they do, you’ll see a Review & Pay button. However, you don’t have to wait for the freelancer. If you have reviewed the work and are ready to pay, you can choose the Pay Now button to release payment.
Here’s a summary of how these two processes work:
Review & pay:
Locate the contract and choose Review & pay.
You’ll see any deliverables your freelancer has included in their workroom submission. Review the work, whether it is in the workroom or you received it elsewhere, and be sure you’re satisfied before you make payment. Remember that the 14-day review period starts automatically when the freelancer submits.
You can also request changes from the workroom. If you do, the payment will not be released until the freelancer resubmits the work and you’ve had a chance to review again. When the freelancer submits the revised work, a new 14-day review window starts.
Before you pay, review the work that the freelancer submitted outside of the workroom, and be sure you’re satisfied before you make payment. If you need to request changes, you’ll need to communicate that to your freelancer through whatever communication methods you are using. You won’t have the option to request changes in the workroom, since the freelancer hasn’t submitted anything there.
If you’re ready to pay, locate the contract, and choose Pay now.
Options when reviewing and paying for work
When you review a freelancer’s work and release payments for a fixed-price contract, you have several options. You can:
- Pay the exact amount of the contract or milestone, — choose Review and pay > Approve payment in the contract workroom or Pay now directly from the contract, then follow the steps to finish payment
- Release more than the milestone or contract amount — When you're approving and releasing the payment, select the Add a bonus checkbox and enter an amount
- Pay less than the contract or milestone amount — while you're approving the payment, select the pencil icon to edit the amount. You can add a message explaining why the amount is less (optional)
- Request changes — If the freelancer submitted the work through the contract workroom, you can select Review and pay, then Request changes. If the freelancer submits the work outside the contract workroom, like if they're working directly on your website, you'll need to message the freelancer to request changes.
If the work is not going as planned and you wish to end the contract without additional payment, you can cancel the contract. Your freelancer or agency will then have seven days to respond to the cancellation and dispute non-payment on any work they have already submitted.