Who holds the money? Escrow, paymaster and payment discipline

Every cross-border deal has the same tension at its core: the seller does not want to ship before being paid, and the buyer does not want to pay before receiving. Everything else — escrow, paymasters, milestones, letters of credit — is machinery built to resolve that tension.

The toolbox

Milestone payments split the deal into stages: a percentage at signature, a percentage at shipment, the balance on delivery or inspection. Simple, no third party needed — but each side still carries risk on its slice.

Escrow puts a neutral third party between the money and the goods: funds are deposited up front and released when the agreed conditions are met. The buyer proves solvency, the seller ships knowing the money exists.

A paymaster is a trusted professional — often a law firm — that receives and disburses funds between multiple parties in a transaction. Common in deals with several intermediaries who each get a defined share.

Which one fits?

The honest answer: the one both parties understand and the contract spells out. A mechanism nobody reads is a dispute waiting for a date. On IGT, the payment plan lives inside the partnership contract with numbered clauses, and the workspace tracks each invoice against it — whichever mechanism the parties chose.

The one rule that never changes

Whatever the mechanism: the money moves the way the contract says, or it does not move. Side arrangements, verbal amendments and "we will fix the paperwork later" are how good deals become bad stories. Payment discipline is not bureaucracy — it is what lets two companies that met online trust each other with six figures.