Last updated 15 September 2026. Written in plain English rather than boilerplate. If anything here reads as unclear, ask before you pay — that is what it is for.
How payment is structured
Project work is paid in milestones by default: a deposit to begin, one or more payments at agreed points during the build, and a final payment on delivery. The exact split is agreed on our call and written into the email you receive before any payment is requested.
You can always choose to pay in full up front instead. That is never required, and it never changes the scope or the timeline.
Refunds
All milestone payments are non-refundable once paid. There are no exceptions and no partial-delivery carve-outs.
The reason is straightforward: the moment a milestone is paid, I clear my schedule and start work on your project instead of someone else’s. That time is the product, and it cannot be recovered or resold afterwards. A policy that allowed a refund up until delivery would let a client consume that time for free and walk away from it. This is standard for custom agency and freelance work, and it is disclosed here and in your invoice email before you pay.
What this does not mean: it does not mean you are stuck with work that does not match what we agreed. Scope is written down before payment, you see the work as it is built, and anything that genuinely departs from the agreed scope gets fixed as part of the milestone, not billed again.
Ongoing and recurring costs
Some projects carry ongoing costs — hosting, third-party services, API usage, maintenance. Where they exist, they are identified on the call, listed in your invoice email with the monthly figure, and charged as their own recurring subscription rather than buried in the build price.
A recurring subscription can be cancelled at any time. Cancelling it stops future charges; it does not refund charges already taken, and it ends the maintenance or service those charges pay for.
If a project cannot go ahead
If I cannot deliver a milestone I have been paid for — for any reason on my side — I will either complete it, or refund that specific milestone. That is the one circumstance in which money comes back.
If you decide to stop a project partway, work stops at the end of the milestone you have paid for, and everything produced up to that point is handed over to you.
Questions
Ask before you pay, not after. Every invoice email is a live address that reaches me directly — reply to it.