> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/milestones/milestones-and-batches.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

A milestone is a piece of funded work the applicant reports on by completing its deliverables. You can
create one milestone for one application, or a batch that gives the same milestone to many applicants
at once. `Award and pay > Milestones` lists every milestone, each amount with its grant's currency
code, such as `NZD 1,250.00`; `Milestone Batches` lists the batches.

Labels that name `Milestone`, `Application`, `Applicant`, `Contract` and `Grant` use your
organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

## The summary line

Above the list, a summary line shows how many milestones are in each status, across every grant you
can see, and the `Pending payments`: the funding amount still to be paid on milestones that are
`Approved` or `Finance Approved` and not yet paid in full, shown separately for each currency.
Select a status to list just those milestones.

The figures are read when the page loads. To see a milestone that was submitted since, reload the
page. Like the list, the summary covers only the milestones your Data Access Rules let you read. For
due dates, overdue milestones and a twelve-month view, see
[Milestone portfolio](portfolio.md).

`Filters` also narrows the list by `Portfolio set` (`Due in 30 days`, `Overdue`, `Awaiting review`
or `Approved this month`), `Funding Category` and `Contract Manager`. A figure on the portfolio
opens the list with these already set.

## Create a milestone

1. Go to `Award and pay > Milestones` and select `Create Milestone`.
2. On `Milestones`, choose `Create Milestone` to start from scratch or `Import Template` to start
   from a milestone template. Enter the `Title`, `Due Date`, `Funding amount` and `Description`, and
   create or edit the `Deliverables` form. It needs at least one deliverable. For goods or services
   rather than money, choose `In-kind` under `Amount type` and enter what is given, the quantity,
   the unit and the declared value instead of a `Funding amount` (see
   [In-kind grants](../payments/in-kind.md)).
3. On `Application`, choose one application.
4. On `Reviewers`, choose who reviews the milestone once it is submitted. With none, it starts as
   `Not submitted`. For an application that is not yet approved, you can also tick
   `Prepare — issue on approval` (see
   [Prepare milestones before approval](#prepare-milestones-before-approval)).
5. Select `Create Milestones`. The milestone is created and published, or, when you ticked
   `Prepare — issue on approval`, created and prepared.

Backed warns you about a due date in the past or more than five years away.

## Prepare milestones before approval

You can set up an application's milestones while you are still deciding on it, and have them reach
the applicant only once it is approved.

- On `Reviewers`, tick `Prepare — issue on approval`. It's offered only while the application is
  not yet approved, declined or withdrawn. For an application that is, the step says the milestone
  is issued as soon as it is created.
- A prepared milestone shows `Prepared` beside its status on the `Milestones` list and on its page.
  The applicant can't see it and isn't told about it.
- When the application is approved, each prepared milestone is issued: the applicant can see it
  and is emailed, as for any new milestone. With an `Offer & Decision`, that's when the applicant
  accepts the offer; with an `Offer Notification`, it's when the decision is sent.
- If the application is declined or withdrawn instead, its prepared milestones stay hidden.

This works the same whether you start from scratch or from `Import Template`. Milestones in a batch
or a generated schedule aren't prepared this way: each is issued when you send its batch or
schedule.

## Create a batch

1. Go to `Award and pay > Milestone batches` and select `New Milestone Batch`.
2. Work through `Create or import`, `Milestone Details`, `Build the Form`, `Select Application`,
   `Specify Reviewers` and `Create Milestones`. You can select applications across any grant rounds,
   and change the amount for each one.
3. The batch is created `Not Sent`. Its applicants see nothing until you send it.
4. On the `Milestone Batches` list, select `Send Batch` and confirm. The milestones become visible and
   the applicants are emailed. Sending cannot be undone.

Select `Edit/View` to change a batch. Until it is sent, a change to its milestone applies to every
milestone in it, and you can change the selection. A batch can't be deleted once an applicant has
progressed one of its milestones.

## A milestone's page

The page shows the milestone's `Applicant`, `Application`, `Contract`, `Grant`, `Due date`,
`Funding amount`, `Payment status`, `Paid to date` and `Outstanding`, with tabs for `Details`,
`Deliverables` and `History`. At the foot of `Details`, the `Automations` panel lists the last ten
times an automation fired for the milestone and what each action did; `Show all` opens the full log
filtered to it. See [Automations](../communications/automations.md#log). Its actions include:

- `Review`: see [Reviewing a milestone](reviewing-a-milestone.md).
- `Edit Milestone`. An amount worked out from the deliverables form cannot be changed here. Change
  the `Amount type` between `Cash` and `In-kind` until the milestone has a payment.
- `Complete on Behalf`: complete the deliverables for the applicant and approve them at once.
- `Undo Approval`: the milestone goes back to `Submitted` and is reviewed again. A milestone paid in
  full, or with a payment in a payment batch, cannot be undone.
- `Share Milestone`: see who has access, and, when your organisation allows sharing milestones
  outside the organisation, open the link so anyone with it can complete the deliverables without
  signing in.
- `Export to PDF`, `History` and `Internal Comments`.
- `Refresh commitments`: read the milestone's commitments again from its application and contract,
  until it is first submitted. `History` records each value that changed. See
  [Commitments beside actuals](commitments.md#refresh-commitments).

### When a budget variation holds a payment

While a grantee's budget variation request names a contract milestone and is waiting for a
decision, or for more information from the grantee, the milestone can't be paid. It isn't offered
under `Add Milestones` in a payment batch, a batch that already holds a payment of it can't be
approved, and its page says why with a `View the request` link to the request on the contract's
`Requests` tab. Approving or declining the request releases the milestone. A request still in draft,
and any other kind of request, such as an extension, holds nothing.

### When finance holds a tranche

Finance can hold a milestone from payment with `Hold` in its `Payments` section, giving a reason.
While it is held it isn't offered under `Add Milestones`, a batch holding a pending payment of it
can't be approved, and its tranche shows `Held`. `Release` lifts the hold. See
[Hold a tranche](../payments/refunds-and-corrections.md#hold-a-tranche).

### Linked conditions

The `Linked Conditions` field on a milestone's page links it to conditions of its application,
such as an ethics approval that must be in place before money moves. Choose any of the
application's conditions; editing the field needs permission to create milestones.

While any linked condition is not approved, the milestone is held from payment: it isn't offered
under `Add Milestones` in a payment batch, and its payments area says
`Payment is held until the linked Conditions are approved`. Approving every linked condition, or
unlinking them, releases the hold. A milestone with no linked conditions is never held this way.
See [Funding decisions](../decisions/funding-decisions.md#conditions) for approving a condition.

## See what was submitted each time

Every time a milestone is submitted, resubmitted or completed on behalf, the version submitted is
kept exactly as it was. Changes made later, including a resubmission, never alter an earlier
version.

1. Open the milestone and select the `History` tab.
2. On a `Milestone submitted` or `Milestone completed on behalf` entry, select `View version` and
   its number.
3. The version shows who submitted it and when, the funding amount at that time, and each answer
   with the file it held. A file that has since been removed is still named, marked no longer
   available.
4. Use `Version` to move between versions without closing the window.

The version that was approved is marked `Approved version` and its number, in the history and in the
window. If the approval is undone, no version is marked until the milestone is approved again.

Only administrators who can view the milestone see its versions. Applicants do not.

`Export` on the `History` tab saves the milestone's history as a `CSV` or `Excel` file, using the
filters the tab shows, and the file downloads at once. You need `Can generate reports`. See
[Export one record's history](../audit/audit-log.md#export-one-records-history).

## AI assisted changes

A change made with an accepted or edited AI output, such as an accepted acquittal comparison, shows
`AI assisted` on the `History` tab. Select `View the decision log entry` to open that output's entry
on the `Decision log` tab of [AI assistance](../../integrations/ai-assistance.md#the-decision-log), which names the capability that made it. You need
`Can access Organisation settings` to read the log. It keeps references, versions and hashes, never
the prompt or the output.

## Email the people behind these records

To email everyone on this list, or the ones you tick, select `Broadcast`. See
[Broadcasts](../communications/broadcasts.md).

## See also

- [Milestone portfolio](portfolio.md)
- [Reviewing a milestone](reviewing-a-milestone.md)
- [Milestone templates](milestone-templates.md)
- [Reporting bands](reporting-bands.md)
- [In-kind grants](../payments/in-kind.md)
- [Refunds, repayments, holds and void and reissue](../payments/refunds-and-corrections.md)