TradeDeckHow TradeDeck works
Escrow is coming soon — posting jobs, applying and messaging are live now.
Five steps from a job posting to a closed-out contract with everybody paid. No lead fees anywhere in the process, and no stage where one side is holding all the risk.
1. Post the job
A posting takes the trade, the city and county, a scope description and a budget or rate. That is the whole form. Posting is free and there is no limit on how many jobs you can have open.
If the job is large enough to stage, add a draw schedule: a list of milestones with a percentage each. TradeDeck requires the percentages to total exactly 100% before the job will post, which is a deliberately annoying check that prevents the most common draw-schedule dispute — a final payment nobody agreed on.
2. Applicants come to you
Workers and crews apply directly. Nothing is sold, auctioned, or distributed to five contractors at once, because TradeDeck does not make money on leads. You see how many people have applied, and you see each applicant's tier.
3. Compare on track record, not on ad spend
Every profile carries a tier built from on-platform history, not from reviews farmed off-platform or a paid placement. The inputs are objective:
- Jobs completed on TradeDeck
- Timeline adherence — did milestones land when promised
- Cost variance against the original bid
- Site cleanliness sign-offs at close-out
Transparency runs in every direction. Homeowners see contractor and worker tiers; contractors see worker tiers; workers see who they would be working for before they commit a week to it.
4. Fund the first draw
The owner funds milestone one into escrow through Stripe. The crew starts knowing the money for that stage already exists and is earmarked. The owner has not handed anything to a stranger — the funds are held, not paid.
5. Submit, approve, release — then repeat
The crew submits milestone photos from the jobsite. The owner reviews and approves. Escrow releases to the worker's connected Stripe account. Move to the next milestone and run it again until the job closes out.
Close-out is three yes/no questions. On time? Site left clean? Would hire again? That is it, and it feeds the tier score quietly. A written review is entirely optional and never prompted for — which is precisely why the written ones that do appear are worth reading.
Questions people ask about the flow
Do I need to use a draw schedule?
No. Milestone draws are optional on every job. Without one you simply agree a price and settle it yourselves; with one, TradeDeck holds each milestone in escrow and releases it on approval.
What happens if a milestone is disputed?
The draw stays unreleased. Funds sit in escrow while the owner and the crew work it out, which keeps the pressure symmetrical instead of landing entirely on whoever paid first.
Who verifies the work?
The job owner approves each draw. A draw schedule can also name an inspector as the verifier for milestones where a third-party sign-off makes more sense.
How fast do workers get paid?
Release is triggered the moment the owner approves the milestone. Payout timing after that follows Stripe's normal transfer schedule to the worker's connected account.