The escrow checklist: what to check before money moves

Escrow is a word that gets used loosely. Sometimes it means a real, neutral account that holds the client's money until agreed conditions are met. Sometimes it means "my partner will hold the fee and definitely send my half." Only one of these protects you.

This checklist is the difference between the two. Run it on every escrowed deal before the candidate starts, because after the start date you have no leverage left to fix anything on it.

Before the invoice goes out

• The account is neutral. It is held by an escrow provider or platform, not by you, your partner or the client. If any party to the deal controls the account, it is not escrow, it is a promise.
• The release terms are written. What event releases the money, to whom, in what shares. "On guarantee clearance, 50/50" is a release term. "When everything is sorted" is not.
• The refund path is written. If the hire falls off inside the guarantee, the refund comes out of the same pot on the same schedule, and nobody has to return money they already spent.
• The remittance block is on the invoice. The client's payables team should be able to pay without asking anyone where the money goes.

Between invoice and funding

• You can see the funding status yourself. Not a screenshot from your partner, a status you can check. On PlaceRail both desks watch the same hold fund in the deal room.
• The funded amount matches the invoice exactly. A partial funding is a conversation to have now, not a discovery to make at payout.
• The start date and guarantee clock are logged. Release timing depends on these dates being agreed before anyone is motivated to argue about them.

The warning signs that mean stop

A partner who says escrow is unnecessary because you should trust them. A client who wants to pay any account other than the one on the invoice. Release terms that changed verbally after the invoice went out. Any sentence containing "I'll just hold it and send yours."

None of these mean the deal is dishonest. They mean the deal is unprotected, which produces the same loss either way. The checklist exists so that the week a deal goes wrong is a process, not a fight.

The honest summary

Escrow that is neutral, funded, visible and tied to written release terms turns the most dangerous month in recruiting into a timer. Anything less is just a nicer word for the old arrangement.