How an engagement runs
From a described scope to a certified milestone.
Six steps, in order, with nothing hidden between them. Both sides work from the same record: milestones, change orders, clarifications and the escrow ledger live on one project page.
Illustrations of live FindPE surfaces
Six steps you can audit afterwards.
Each step leaves a record — the RFQ version that was published, the match signals, the bid as submitted, the award timestamp, the funding reference and the certification.
- 01
Scope
The RFQ wizard captures the service category, NCEES discipline, expertise tags, the state where the work happens, the funding context and up to three key dates. Nothing is published until you choose to publish.
- 02
Match
Eligibility runs first — active licence in the project state, discipline fit — so unqualified professionals never enter the list. What remains is scored, and every score shows its signals.
- 03
Bids
Proposals arrive in one structure: price, milestone plan with deliverables and acceptance criteria, assumptions and exclusions, and the review window they propose.
- 04
Award
You have 48 hours to accept. A lapsed award reopens the project to the runner-ups instead of stalling it, and either side can still walk away before funding.
- 05
Fund
The award is deposited with Escrow.com before work starts. Milestone releases are triggered by your approval — or by the contractual review window lapsing.
- 06
Certify
Approving a milestone generates the certification record. Public-sector projects use fixed fees and a formal Certification of Acceptance instead of escrow.
Change is expected. Untracked change is not.
Scopes grow, drawings get revised, hourly work needs a different shape. Every change is a numbered request with a cost impact — firm or capped — and a schedule impact in days, against the contract baseline.
The change log rolls up to a net impact on the project, so both sides always know what the original agreement is and what has been added to it.
The end of a project is a document, not a conversation.
The final milestone closes the True-Up, the retention clock starts, and every record — revisions, certifications, payment history — stays available to both parties.