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Every other app promises to get you paid faster. Stagex makes sure you get paid, full stop — the customer’s money for each stage is held in a regulated Australian trust account before you start, and released the moment the stage is signed off.
No credit card. No lock-in. Funds held by a licensed Australian trustee.
The old way
The Stagex way
Same job management you’d expect — quoting, scheduling, invoicing — but the payment is secured before the work, not requested after it.
Break the job into milestones — deposit, rough-in, fit-off, completion. Your customer sees exactly what each stage covers and what it costs before anyone commits.
Your customer funds the first milestone into a regulated Australian trust account (Zai Pty Ltd, AFSL 461841). The money is ring-fenced and out of their reach the moment you pick up a tool.
Complete the stage and log the proof — photos with timestamps, notes, sign-off. That contemporaneous record is exactly what any dispute process would want if it ever came to it.
Your customer signs off and the funds release within 7 days — typically 1–2 business days via NPP. No invoice to send, no reminder to chase, no 60-day wait.
Trustee-held escrow
Zai Pty Ltd · AFSL 461841
7-day payouts
After milestone sign-off
Dispute cover
Funds already set aside
No lock-in
Month-to-month, cancel anytime
Stagex is a financial-technology product, not a legal service. Escrow protection comes from how funds are held under an Australian Financial Services Licence — it complements, and does not replace, your statutory rights.
Every other tradie app promises “faster” — a slicker invoice, a payment link, an automated reminder. But the customer still decides whether and when to pay. Stagex is about certainty, not speed: the money for each stage is funded into a regulated Australian trust account before you start, so getting paid is the default, not a chase.
Funds sit in a regulated Australian trust account operated by Zai Pty Ltd (AFSL 461841) — a licensed payments provider — not with Stagex and not with your customer. Stagex is the software that funds, tracks and releases each milestone; the money itself is ring-fenced by a licensed trustee.
A milestone releases within 7 days of your customer signing off — typically 1–2 business days via the New Payments Platform (NPP). Because the escrow is pre-funded, there is no invoice sitting in someone’s inbox waiting to be actioned.
The funds for a completed stage are already set aside, so you are not out of pocket while it is resolved. You upload your evidence — photos, timestamps, the agreed scope — and a structured dispute process determines release. You are arguing over money that already exists, not chasing money that might not.
Most homeowners prefer it — their money is protected too, held by a licensed trustee and only released when each stage is genuinely done. We give you a one-page handout that explains it in plain English. If a client flatly refuses to fund a stage before you start, that is usually a signal worth listening to.
No. Security of Payment legislation is a statutory right you keep no matter what — Stagex sits alongside it. The difference is timing: Security of Payment helps you pursue money after non-payment, while Stagex ring-fences the money before the work starts. See our Security of Payment Act guide for how the two fit together.
Stagex Professional is $59/mo. The first $30,000 funded into escrow on each job is fee-free; above that a flat 1.6% escrow fee applies only to the amount over $30,000. No lock-in, month-to-month.
Run one staged job through Stagex this week and feel the difference between getting paid faster and getting paid, guaranteed.
Stage by stage. Always paid.