Milestone payment clauses ruined a 3 month project for me last summer

I got into a gig with a client in Portland back in June. We agreed on 50% upfront and 50% at the end. Three months later they said the work wasn't complete because they kept asking for revisions. I had no contract language about what counted as done. Now I always break payments into three stages with clear deliverables listed. Has anyone else had a client stretch out milestones like this to avoid paying the final chunk?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray_hall422d ago

Ah man, that's a really good point. Even with three stages, a stubborn client can still just claim the milestone isn't "done" to hold things up. I guess having the contract is step one, but having a deadline for feedback is just as important so they can't drag it out forever.

beng5122d ago

Honestly, I started putting a "3 business days or it's approved" clause in my contracts and that fixed it. One time a client ghosted me for two weeks after I sent the final files, then came back with a full page of changes. Told them sorry, the timeline passed and the deliverables were already considered accepted per our agreement. They weren't thrilled but I had the contract to back me up. Now I always include a specific feedback window and a clear definition of what counts as a revision versus new work. That alone stopped most of the stall tactics cold.

flores.mark23d agoMost Upvoted

Is it really that deep though? I mean yeah having money held up sucks but you straight up admitted you didn't have a contract that defined what done meant. Thats kind of on you. Clients will ALWAYS push for more revisions if there's no clear line in the sand. Three stages sounds better but honestly even that wont stop a bad client from dragging things out if they want to. Ive done tons of projects with just a simple final deliverable sign off clause and never had this problem. Maybe its just that one client was a jerk and not some big industry issue.