Scenario 3 · Deliverable Verification
Before you pay the final invoice, find out what you are actually paying for.
The vendor says it is done. The invoice agrees. You have a demo recording and a document with a lot of green checkmarks. What you do not have is anyone qualified who has tried to use it. We test each deliverable against the promise, confirm it runs on accounts you control, and put the result in a signed report you can attach to the payment.
Any time money, access, or trust is about to move.
A milestone payment is due
The contract says 40 percent on completion of phase two. Somebody has to decide what "completion" means, and it should not be only the person invoicing.
The final invoice landed
Once the last payment clears, your leverage is gone. This is the moment to test everything, not the week after.
A renewal or retainer is coming
Before you sign for another year of "managed AI," find out what the current year produced when nobody was watching.
You are about to grant more access
They want QuickBooks now. Before you hand over the books, verify what they did with the CRM.
A partner or board wants proof
"The AI project is done" is not an update. A signed acceptance report with a pass and fail matrix is.
You inherited it
New role, new company, or a vendor that rotated its team. You need to know what you have before you can be responsible for it.
Six tests, applied to every deliverable.
Functional: does it do the thing?
We use it the way your team would. Submit the form, send the campaign, call the number, upload the PDF. We use the vendor's own description of what it should do as the test script.
Ownership: whose account is it on?
A deliverable on the vendor's hosting is a demo, not a deliverable. We confirm each component runs on accounts where you are the administrator, or we mark it partial and say what it takes to move.
The "information in a new place" test
Does the system act, or does it display? A dashboard that mirrors Facebook, Mailchimp, and your CRM has not automated anything. We say so plainly, because that is the most common gap between the pitch and the product.
Security and compliance
Keys in code, credentials in messages, customer data in an open sheet, AI reading a mailbox it should not, a public site with no accessibility layer. Each one is a finding with a severity and a fix.
Documentation: could someone else run it?
If the vendor left Friday, could a competent person pick it up Monday from what was delivered? If the only documentation is a planning document written by an AI, that is a fail.
Cost: what did they sign you up for?
Every subscription, hosting plan, and AI credit account started in your name or theirs during the build, with the monthly cost and whether it is needed.
The Acceptance Report.
One page per deliverable, a matrix on the front, evidence behind it, dated and signed.
| Deliverable (vendor's words) | Functional | Ownership | Acts or displays | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twelve service landing pages with lead capture | Pass | Pass, client's GoDaddy | Acts | Accepted |
| Lead database | Pass | Fail, vendor's Google account | Acts | Partial: move sheet |
| AI marketing command center | Displays only | Fail, vendor's Render | Displays | Not accepted |
| Phone system with AI answering | Not built | N/A | N/A | Not accepted |
Example rows drawn from the $900 Handoff case study. Your report uses the exact language of your proposal or contract.
In their words
"You can't recreate it. You can't scale it. If you can't measure it, if you can't touch it, what is it?"
Michael Bowers, on a deliverable that existed only as a description"For 1,800 bucks, I really expected him to just give me this simple little thing that I could start sending out. My pain point was monitoring and measuring. If I can't measure it, I can't manage it."
Gordon, the client. Verification is how you find that out before the last payment instead of after.Per milestone. Fixed fee. Quoted within one business day.
A single deliverable with access in place is verified in 48 hours. A multi-part milestone takes up to five business days. Tell us the payment date and we work to it. Standard hourly is $250 for anything outside the report, such as sitting in on the vendor call with you.
List what they say is done. We will test it.
Questions we hear on the first call.
What if the vendor objects to a third party testing their work?
A confident vendor welcomes it, because a signed acceptance report is the fastest path to getting paid. Hesitation is itself a finding. We keep the tone professional and we test against their own proposal, not against an imaginary standard.
What counts as 'delivered'?
It runs, on accounts you control, doing the thing the proposal said, without the vendor's hands on it. We use their words, not ours. If the proposal said 'AI answers the phone after four rings,' we call the number.
Can you verify work that is still in progress?
Yes. Milestone verification is the most common request. We test what is claimed complete for this payment and note what is scheduled for the next one, so both sides agree on where the line is.
How is this different from an audit?
An audit asks 'is this project going anywhere' and looks at everything. Verification asks 'is this specific deliverable done' and looks at that. Verification is faster and cheaper, and it can be repeated at each milestone.
Do I get something I can attach to the payment?
Yes. The Acceptance Report is a dated document with a pass, partial, or fail on each item, the evidence, and Michael's signature. Clients attach it to the wire, the dispute, or the board update.
How fast?
Forty-eight hours for a single deliverable with access already in place. Up to five business days for a multi-part milestone. Say your payment date in the form and we work to it.