How to set fee stages and a payment schedule

Updated 25 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

Why stage your fee

A single fee at the end puts all the risk on you. A large fee at the start puts it on the client. Stages share it.

Each payment matches work the client has seen, so paying feels fair. You are never far ahead of what you have been paid. And the client always knows what comes next, which makes the money side of the job calmer for everyone.

A typical structure

Here is one way to split a full design project. The shares are an example, not a rule.

Set your own shares to match where your effort really goes. If most of your work is in drawings, weight those stages. If the site stage is long, split it into several payments rather than one.

Tie payments to milestones, not just dates

Dates drift when a project slows down. Then you either chase money for work that has not happened yet, or wait months for money for work you finished long ago.

A milestone, such as “due when the client signs off the concept”, moves with the project. Use dates only for things that really are time-based, like a monthly site fee.

Be precise about the milestone. “When the client approves the concept in writing” is clear. “When the concept is done” invites an argument about what done means.

Agree it in writing at the start

Before work begins, the client should have seen:

• Each fee stage, and its amount or share.
• What makes each payment fall due.
• How long they have to pay once a stage is due.
• How extra work is priced and added. The extra work guide covers this.
• How expenses are handled, if you charge them.

None of this needs to be long. A clear one-page fee schedule that the client has agreed to keeps most money conversations from becoming difficult ones.

Record payments and send receipts

• Record each payment the day it arrives: the amount, the date, how it was paid and which stage it is for.
• Send a receipt every time. It is a courtesy, and it keeps your record and the client's the same.
• Record part-payments against their stage, and show what is left to pay.
• Send a fee statement at each milestone: every stage, what has been paid, what is due. Clients like seeing the whole picture.
• If a payment was recorded by mistake, reverse it with a short reason instead of deleting it, so the record stays honest.

Reminders that work

Most late payments come from forgetting, not from refusing. A calm, early reminder solves most of them.

1. Before a stage falls due, mention it: “Concept sign-off is next week, and the concept fee falls due then.”
2. On the day it is due, send a short, polite note.
3. If it is late, follow up with the fee statement attached.
4. If it is very late, talk to the client before anything else changes, and check what your agreement says first.

Hi Mia, a quick note that the construction drawings fee is now due, as the full set went to the contractor on 3 June. The fee statement is attached. Thank you, Sam.

Extra work and expenses

Approved extra work should become a fee line as soon as it is approved, so the next statement includes it. Savings come off the same way, as a credit line or by lowering a stage that still has that much to collect.

If you charge expenses, say which ones in your agreement, and record each against the project as it happens rather than adding them up at the end.

Keep fees apart from site work

Fees are usually between the studio owner and the client. Your site team does not need to see them, and the contractor never should.

Keep the money side in one private place, next to the project but separate from the shared record. Share fee status with the client when it helps, such as what falls due at the next step, and keep the rest to your studio.

Common mistakes

• Starting work before the fee schedule is agreed.
• Milestones so vague that nobody agrees when they are reached.
• Forgetting to add approved extra work to the fees.
• Waiting weeks before the first reminder.
• Keeping payment records in several places, so nobody knows the real balance.