Intro Box
The top box displays the most simple information about the project.
Basics - The project title, client's profile photo, and the client's name.
Started Date - The day the project proposal was accepted.
Due Date - The client has the option to include a due date for the project. This date is not binding, but ideal.
Budget - The hourly fee the client has agreed to.
Total Hours Worked - Number of hours you're worked on the project so far.
Total Earnings - The total amount you've earned so far.
Milestones Tab
In this tab, you'll see the status of all of the invoices you've sent for this project so far.
Submit Hours Buttons
When a freelancer submits an invoice for an hourly project along with the work they've done, we call that "Submitting Hours." Every time you want to send an invoice, click the "Submit Hours" button (found on every tab) and fill in the details of the work you've recently completed. For more on this, see this article.
Below the "Submit Hours" button is the "Submit Hours and Complete Project" button. Use this button to submit your last invoice, your last work for the project, and to start closing the project with the client. For more on this, see this article.
Milestone Banners
When you make an hours submission, a white banner with all of the submission's details will appear in your milestone tab. Here's what you'll find:
Submission Number and Title - Every milestone is automatically numbered in the order that it is submitted, to help you keep track. You should also give each milestone a title that makes clear what you did during those billed hours.
Invoice total - This is how much you're asking the client to pay, based on the hourly rate you agreed upon for this project.
Dates - The date that the milestone is submitted will appear on the right side of the banner. After it's paid, the "Paid on" date will appear below it.
Hours Submission Description - This is an in-depth description of what you did during these work hours. Especially when the hours didn't result in a finished product that you can hand over, it's important to explain to the client how you've been furthering the project.
Attachments - If you're going to add any attachments - specifically, the work you completed - it will appear below the description.
Edit/Cancel Submission - Before a submission is paid by the client, you still have time to go back and change some of the details if you made a mistake. You can also cancel the submission. (Canceling does not mean giving up on the money owed to you - it just means you don't want to be sending this submission at this time.)
Status Boxes - Hour submissions have two statuses:
Waiting for Payment - This means that the hours have been submitted but the client hasn't accepted and paid them yet.
Paid - The client has accepted and paid for these hours. Your fee is now on its way to your bank account.
Messages & Project Details Tabs
There are two other tabs found on each project page.
Messages Tab
This tab offers the primary way for users to communicate during a project. You can search within your message history from the "Search Messages" bar at the top. You can share attachments by clicking the stylized paperclip icon on the bottom-right of the screen, next to the yellow "Send" arrow. This project's message history can also be accessed on the Messages page.
Project Details Tab
This tab displays all of the details of the project that you listed in the original post, plus any changes you accepted from the freelancer's project proposal. This tab is here primarily for reference, so both parties have in mind what was agreed to.
Of course, it will sometimes be appropriate to change some of these details during the course of the project, (i.e. the delivery date, expected hours, etc). As long as those changes are discussed and confirmed in the messages tab, they will be considered binding for any issues that could arise in a dispute.
That means, for example, that if the project was originally supposed to take a week, but then the users discussed extending the due date - neither user could later file a dispute based on the original agreement of one week. (As always, this is only as long as it was discussed on the ZehMizeh website... see our dispute policies for more on this.)