Free Tool
Freelance Payment Terms Planner
A fee paid only on delivery is a loan you give the client. This planner splits it into a deposit and dated milestones, so the cash arrives as the work does.
Planning estimate, not financial advice. All figures on this page are estimates or scenarios for planning purposes only, built from the numbers you enter. They are not financial, tax or legal advice, and no earnings are promised. Read the full financial disclaimer.
What this tool does
Enter the project fee, the deposit percentage and how many milestones the rest splits into, with the date the work starts. The planner returns the deposit, the amount of each milestone and the date each one falls due — a schedule you can paste into a proposal or a contract.
Milestones protect both sides: the client pays for progress they can see, and you are never more than one milestone away from being paid for work already done. A project with no deposit and one payment at the end puts all the risk on you, and it is the shape most unpaid-invoice stories share.
Try it
Waiting. Enter the fee, deposit and milestones, then press Calculate.
How it works
The deposit is the fee multiplied by the deposit percentage. The rest is the fee minus the deposit, split equally across the milestones. Each milestone falls due one gap after the previous one, starting from the start date — so a 14-day gap with three milestones means payments roughly two, four and six weeks in.
Equal splits keep the schedule simple enough to state in a contract. If one milestone carries far more work than the others, split the fee by the work instead — enter the fee for that phase as its own project and plan it separately.
Assumptions and limitations
A schedule only works if it is written down before the work starts.
- Milestones are due on dates, not on approval. Tie payment to a date and a deliverable list, not to the client feeling finished.
- The deposit is due before work starts. Work that starts before the deposit arrives is work done on trust, and trust is not a payment term.
- The planner does not model tax, platform fees or late payment. Add the platform fee on top of the fee, or the milestones will come up short.
- A 50% deposit is a common starting point, not a rule. Larger projects and new clients justify a larger deposit; a returning client with a clean payment record may justify less.
Worked example
Example (illustrative inputs, not a real contract). A 3,000 fee, 50% deposit, three milestones 14 days apart from 16 November 2026:
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Deposit (50%) — before work starts | 1,500.00 |
| Milestone 1 — due 2026-11-30 | 500.00 |
| Milestone 2 — due 2026-12-14 | 500.00 |
| Milestone 3 — due 2026-12-28 | 500.00 |
| Total | 3,000.00 |
Frequently asked questions
What deposit percentage should I ask for?
Fifty percent before work starts is a common starting point for project work. Larger projects and brand-new clients justify more; a small job for a returning client who always pays on time may justify less. Whatever you choose, state it before the work starts.
Should milestones be tied to dates or to deliverables?
Both: a date and a deliverable list. A date alone lets a client delay payment by delaying feedback; a deliverable alone with no date lets the schedule drift forever. Name the deliverable and the date it is due.
What if the client wants to pay everything at the end?
That is a loan you give the client, with no interest and no security. A deposit plus milestones is the normal shape of freelance work — if a client refuses all of it, that is information about how the project will go.
Does this replace a contract?
No. A schedule is one clause of an agreement. Scope, revisions, ownership, late fees and what happens if the project stops all still need to be written down — the proposal builder on this site drafts the terms section as a starting checklist, not legal advice.