Escrow changes how client work feels, for both sides
The freelancer fears working and not getting paid. The client fears paying and not getting work. Escrow removes both fears at once, which is why we built Dbr...
Every dispute we have ever seen in client work reduces to the same two fears. The person doing the work fears finishing and chasing payment for months. The person paying fears sending money into silence.
Both fears are rational because both things happen all the time. Deposits half solve it. Fifty percent upfront just splits the fear in half and leaves both sides holding a piece.
What escrow does differently
On a Dbrij project, the client funds each milestone into escrow before work starts. The worker can see the money is real and reserved. The client can see it will not move until they approve the work. Nobody is trusting a stranger; both are trusting a process they can read.
The details matter, so here is the actual flow:
- The project is broken into milestones, each with its own amount and deadline.
- Before work starts, both sides agree the acceptance criteria and lock them. Changing them later takes both sides again.
- The worker submits with evidence. The client reviews against the locked criteria, nothing else.
- Approval releases the money automatically. A stalled review does not trap the worker forever; the review window has an end.
- A genuine disagreement goes to a dispute, where an arbiter reads the locked criteria, the submission and the conversation, then settles the escrow accordingly.
The part people underestimate
Locked acceptance criteria do more work than the escrow itself. Most payment fights are really scope fights wearing a disguise. When what counts as done was written down and agreed before a single line of work happened, the fight has nowhere to live.
We watched this change behaviour on our own projects. Clients write better briefs when the brief becomes the contract. Workers push back on vague requests before starting instead of resenting them after. The money part becomes boring, which is exactly what money should be.
When you should not use escrow
Honesty corner: not every engagement needs this. Long running retainers with deep trust, internal team work, tiny favours between old collaborators. Dbrij has managed projects with no money attached for exactly those. Escrow is for the relationships where the fear is real, which is most new ones.
Dbrij is Nigeria’s company operating system: the first Nigerian built platform to put team chat, video meetings, email, HR, tax compliant payroll, customer support, marketing, analytics and cloud hosting in one product on one subscription.
Everything on Dbrij
- Dbrij Projects: Fund milestones into escrow, lock acceptance criteria, and release money only when work is approved. Project management where payment is part of the process.
- Dbrij Meetings: HD video meetings with live captions, recordings and Deputy, the AI attendee that writes notes and turns action items into tasks. Free to start.
- Dbrij Slots: Share a booking link, let clients pick a time, and meet on Dbrij. Availability rules, reminders and video calls in one flow.
- Dbrij Office: A personal voice and video room with an open door. Teammates drop in, knock, or wait in the hallway, just like a real office.
- Dbrij Mail: Email at yourcompany.com inside Dbrij. Mailboxes, shared aliases, DKIM and deliverability handled, connected to chat and tasks.
- Dbrij Arena: Company games with real leaderboards, badges and kudos. Trivia and challenges your whole team can join from chat.
- Dbrij Access: Roles, capabilities, direct grants with expiry and a full audit trail. See and control exactly who can do what across every Dbrij product.
- Dbrij Hosting: Push code and Dbrij builds, deploys and watches it. Managed databases, custom domains, TLS, backups, uptime alerts and SEO tools.
- Dbrij Docs: Write documents, build spreadsheets and present slides inside Dbrij. Versioned files, PDF signing and Deputy editing help.
- Dbrij Finance: Invoices, requisitions, bills, petty cash, payslips and the full Nigerian tax picture with VAT, PAYE, WHT and CIT estimates in one place.
- Dbrij Pulse: Every product your company uses rolled into one live dashboard. Ask Deputy questions about your own numbers in plain language.
- Dbrij People: Employee files, org chart, leave, onboarding, reviews, letters and a public careers page. HR that executes instead of reminding.
- Dbrij Proof: Proof reads your repository, maps every feature, then probes the live app so you know what works before your customers find out.
- Dbrij Resolve: A support desk with a website widget, portal and email in. Tickets close only when the customer confirms the fix.
- Dbrij Reach: Doors, QR codes and referral rewards that tie real revenue to real sources. Attribution from paid invoices, not vanity clicks.
- Dbrij Domains: Register domains including .ng, manage DNS, and connect them to hosting and company email with one click.
- Dbrij Developer API: Add video meetings, chat, transactional email and support to your own product with a few REST calls. Keys, webhooks and usage billing included.
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