Once a proposal from an expert has been accepted, the project milestones are converted into a checklist that is shared between the project owner and expert. Those milestones can be checked off as they are completed and approved.

As the project owner, you are able to mark a milestone as complete or incomplete, approve or decline a milestone completed by the expert, or unapprove an approved milestone.

Note: Experts may only mark a milestone as complete, or uncomplete a completed milestone that has not been approved.

Marking milestones as complete and approving completed milestones can help to track the progress of a project and aid communication with the expert. Whenever a milestone is marked as complete or approved, a notification is sent to the project chat log. Approving milestones indicates to the expert that you have accepted that part of the project as complete.

Marking milestones as complete or incomplete

To mark a milestone as complete:

  1. Select Projects from the left navigation menu.
  2. Select the My Projects tab. My Projects shows a list of projects for which you or one of your companies is the project owner.
  3. Click on a project name. The project page displays information about the selected project and a list of the experts that have been invited to bid for the project.
  4. Select the Accepted tab to view a list of experts that have had proposals for the project accepted and select the expert to display the project chat log with that expert.
  5. In the project management bar above the chat log, choose Milestones. The Milestones dialog appears. Milestones lists the project milestones in a checklist format, with checkboxes to the left of each milestone name. 
  6. Select the checkbox to the left of the milestone name to indicate that milestone is complete. When you mark a milestone complete as the project owner, it is also automatically approved. A checkmark in a green box is placed in the checkbox.

Note: Deselecting the checkbox marks the milestone as uncomplete and removes the checkmark from the checkbox.

Approving or declining completed milestones

To approve or decline a completed milestone:

  1. Select Projects from the left navigation menu.
  2. Select the My Projects tab. My Projects shows a list of projects for which you or one of your companies is the project owner.
  3. Click on a project name. The project page displays information about the selected project and a list of the experts that have been invited to bid for the project.
  4. Select the Accepted tab to view a list of experts that have had proposals for the project accepted and select the expert to display the project chat log with that expert.
  5. In the project management bar above the chat log, choose Milestones. The Milestones dialog appears. Milestones lists the project milestones in a checklist format, with checkboxes to the left of each milestone name. Milestones that have been marked as complete by the expert and are pending approval show a checkmark in a black box. 
  6. Choose Approve to accept the milestone as complete. The black box turns green to indicate the milestone has been approved.

    OR

    Choose Decline to reject the milestone as complete. The checkmark and black box are removed from the checkbox to indicate that the milestone is not complete.

Unapproving approved milestones

To unapprove an approved milestone:

    1. Select Projects from the left navigation menu.
    2. Select the My Projects tab. My Projects shows a list of projects for which you or one of your companies is the project owner.
    3. Click on a project name. The project page displays information about the selected project and a list of the experts that have been invited to bid for the project.
    4. Select the Accepted tab to view a list of experts that have had proposals for the project accepted and select the expert to display the project chat log with that expert. 
    5. In the project management bar above the chat log, choose Milestones. The Milestones dialog appears. Milestones lists the project milestones in a checklist format, with checkboxes to the left of each milestone name. Milestones that have been marked as approved show a checkmark in a green box. 
    6. Choose Unapprove to unapprove the milestone. The green box turns black to indicate the milestone is no longer approved.

Note: If you also wish to mark the milestone as incomplete, deselect the checkbox.