Send proofs, get paid, then release the files

Send proofs, get paid, then release the files is the order studios already want. What they have is three tools: a preview gallery, an invoice, a transfer. Each wait is a chance for the job to stall. A priced Spike folder is one wait. They look. They pay. They take.

Photographers know this as a client gallery. Designers know it as PDF proofs. Filmmakers know it as a review cut. The extra Spike adds is that checkout can live on the same URL as the proof, so you are not the person standing between the bank and the ZIP.

What a proof should be

A proof is readable and obviously not the master. Watermark or blur stills. A low-res PDF for layouts. A watermarked review H.264, not the ProRes. If they can hang it, you already delivered. The photo gallery piece is the photography-shaped version of this.

Payment as the release

Get paid before sending files is the rule. The proof page is where it happens. They are already looking. Asking them to open an invoice in another tab is how proofs get forwarded and bills do not.

1. 01

   Upload the proof treatment

   Or upload the masters and let Spike treat the unpaid view. Do not email a second "clean" set.

2. 02

   Password the link if it is a named client

   Proofs are not a storefront. Password the share so the set is not a public page.

3. 03

   Turn selling on when money is due

   If the job is already paid, a free passworded share is enough. If it is not, the proof is the till.

After they pay

Leave the share on so they can re-download. Free links last three days; Pro and Business until you turn them off. If you still owe retouching, replace files in place and tell them the URL did not change. That is the library extra: the proof and the finals are chapters of one folder, not two transfers.

When the proof is a design

A marked PDF plus source files behind pay is share design files and get paid. Use this article when the ritual is "look at the sheet, then we release." Use that one when the ritual is "here are the artboards, here is the pack."

Proofs ask the question. Payment is the answer. The files should already be on the page.

If several people need to sign off, send the password to one named person and let them pass it on. Do not put the passphrase in the same SMS as the URL if the set is easy to forward. Small habits keep a proof sheet from becoming a public gallery. The client sharing playbook is the wider model when money is already settled.

If the job is a wedding or a portrait, the proof sheet is often the gallery they will also buy. Skip a separate invoice if you can. The photographers use case is that hand-off in product form. Designers who are sending options, not a gallery, stay on this page.