Escrow & Payments
Money is the part everyone worries about, so we engineered it to be safe by default. Here’s exactly how funding, escrow, payouts, ACUs, fees and refunds work.
Effective 25 June 2026
1. Milestone escrow — how it flows
- Quote & accept. A trade quotes; the client accepts and the job is structured into milestones.
- Fund. The client funds a milestone. The money is held in escrow with our payment partner — committed, but not yet paid out.
- Deliver. The trade completes that stage of work.
- Approve & release. The client reviews and approves; the funds are released to the trade’s connected account.
- Dispute (if needed). If the client isn’t satisfied, they raise a dispute instead of releasing, and our resolution process begins.
2. Payments & payouts (Stripe)
Payments and payouts are processed by Stripe. Trades onboard through Stripe Connect, which performs identity and financial verification (KYC) before any payout can be made. By transacting you agree to Stripe’s terms in addition to ours. Payout timing depends on Stripe’s settlement schedule and your account status.
3. ACUs (AxionOS Credit Units)
- ACUs are platform credits used by trades to preview and unlock leads. The rate is £1 = 100 ACU.
- ACUs are a licence to access platform features. They are not e-money, currency or a stored-value product, and have no cash value off-platform.
- Top-ups are processed via Stripe Checkout. A sandbox flow is used in non-production environments.
- Spent ACUs are generally non-refundable, because they unlock access to information immediately. Unused, purchased ACUs may be refundable where the law requires — contact us.
4. Fees
Applicable platform fees, ACU pricing and any payment-processing charges are shown before you confirm a purchase or transaction. We may change pricing prospectively; changes never affect a transaction you’ve already confirmed.
5. Refunds & cancellations
- Before release: funds held in escrow for a milestone that hasn’t been approved can be refunded to the client where a job is cancelled by agreement or through dispute resolution.
- After release: once a client approves a milestone and funds are released, that payment is final, subject to your statutory rights and any dispute outcome.
- Consumer rights: nothing here removes rights you have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other applicable law.
6. Disputes & chargebacks
If a milestone is disputed, escrow holds the funds while our neutral, AI-assisted resolution process reviews the evidence and proposes a fair outcome — which can include full release, partial (pro-rata) release, or refund. Initiating a bank chargeback instead of using this process may delay resolution; we cooperate with legitimate chargebacks and contest fraudulent ones.
7. Fraud prevention
Transactions are monitored for fraud and money-laundering risk. We may hold, review or reverse payments, and request further verification, where we reasonably suspect a breach of our Acceptable Use Policy or the law.
8. Our role
AxionOS provides escrow and payment tooling and is not a bank, e-money institution or party to the construction contract. Regulated payment services are provided by Stripe. See the Disclaimer for the limits of our responsibility.