Projects & Payments

When you’re in a conversation with an agency (through messaging or a project match), the agency can send you a formal proposal. Proposals come in two types: Fixed-Price, which includes defined milestones with deliverables and amounts, and Hourly, which specifies an hourly rate, estimated hours, and a weekly hour limit. When you receive a proposal, you’ll get an email notification and can review the full breakdown -- scope description, total cost, and milestone details -- from your dashboard. You can accept the proposal to move forward, or decline it with an optional reason if the terms don’t work.

When you accept a fixed-price proposal, a project is created and you’ll be asked to fund the escrow. The total project amount is held securely by Stripe until milestones are completed and approved. This protects both you and the agency: the agency knows the funds are committed, and you don’t release payment until you’re satisfied with each deliverable. Your escrow balance is displayed prominently on your project dashboard page. Funds are released milestone by milestone as you approve completed work.

Each project has a set of milestones defined in the proposal. As the agency completes work, they submit milestones for your review. You’ll receive an email notification when a milestone is submitted. From your project dashboard, you can review the deliverable, any attached files, and the agency’s notes. You have two options: Approve the milestone (which automatically releases that milestone’s payment from escrow to the agency’s Stripe account), or Request a Revision with specific notes about what needs to change. The agency will then revise and resubmit.

For hourly-rate projects, the agency submits weekly timesheets detailing the hours worked. You can review each timesheet from the Timesheet tab on your project page, which shows a week-by-week breakdown of time entries. You can navigate between weeks to see the full history. After reviewing, you can approve the timesheet (which triggers payment for those hours), or request revisions if something looks off. Timesheet totals are calculated from the agreed hourly rate and the hours logged.

All invoices for your projects are available from the Invoices section of your buyer dashboard. Each invoice shows the project name, invoice number, amount, and status. You can download any invoice as a PDF for your records by clicking the download button. Invoices are generated automatically when milestone payments are released or timesheet payments are processed.

If you and the agency are unable to resolve an issue directly, either party can open a dispute from the project page. You’ll need to describe the reason for the dispute. Once a dispute is opened, all milestone and escrow activity on the project is frozen until the dispute is resolved. The 50Pros team reviews the dispute and may request additional context from both parties. Possible resolutions include: full refund to you, full payment to the agency, a split of the escrow funds between both parties, or project cancellation. You’ll receive email notifications at each step of the process.

50Pros does not charge any platform fees or commissions on project payments. The only fee is standard Stripe payment processing (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction), which is the industry standard for online payments. When you fund a project escrow, the full amount is held by Stripe. When milestones are approved, the payment is transferred directly to the agency’s connected Stripe account minus the standard processing fee. There are no hidden charges or finder’s fees.