A milestone plan built around reviewable progress.

Copy-and-fill milestone worksheet

Duplicate this block for each stage of the project.

MILESTONE NAME:
[Short name]

PURPOSE:
[What this stage is meant to prove]

DELIVERABLE:
[What must be delivered]

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA:
- [Requirement 1]
- [Requirement 2]
- [Requirement 3]

TARGET DELIVERY DATE:
[Date]

BUYER REVIEW WINDOW:
[Number of days]

INCLUDED REVISIONS:
[Number of rounds or revision rule]

PAYMENT AMOUNT:
[Amount or percentage]

DEPENDENCIES:
- [Buyer input, asset, approval or prior milestone]

WHAT UNLOCKS THE NEXT STAGE:
[Condition that must be satisfied]

HANDOFF / FILES FOR THIS STAGE:
- [Files, access or documentation]

A milestone should describe a reviewable state of the project, not simply a date when another payment is due.

For each milestone define

Example structure

Discovery → first reviewable concept → approved working version → final production → handoff.

Keep stages meaningful

Do not split projects into tiny administrative checkpoints that create overhead without reducing uncertainty.

Adjust stage size with confidence

Early milestones can be smaller. Once a freelancer demonstrates reliable performance, later stages can reasonably become larger.

After the milestone plan is written, milestone payment infrastructure can carry those stages into the actual payment workflow.