Share design files and get paid

Sharing design files and getting paid is two jobs that should not live in two tools. The client needs to see the look. You need the invoice to clear before the .ai walks out the door. A transfer plus a PDF plus Stripe in email is how files leak and invoices stall.

Put the deliverable in a Spike folder. The unpaid view can be mockups. The paid view is the pack: outlines, fonts you are licensed to pass on, exports, a license note. Designers already work this way when the job is a file, not a Figma seat.

What to share unpaid

Unpaid should answer "is this the direction?" Flattened PNG, a marked PDF, a logo on a fake bus rear. Not the outlined-and-editable pack. If a screenshot of the unpaid view is as good as the delivery, censor the preview.

What to put behind pay

• Layered PSD, AI, or Affinity files.
• A font only if your license allows passing it to the client.
• Exports at the sizes you promised.
• A one-page license so they still know the terms in six months.

A simple hand-off

1. 01

   Export finals out of the workbench

   Figma, Drive, and the shared artboard stay internal. The client folder holds only what they paid for.

2. 02

   Enable the link and set the preview

   Password it if the work is not public. Price it if money is still due. How to sell a folder online is the generic version.

3. 03

   Send one URL

   Not a Drive, a transfer, and an invoice. If they pay and then ask for a missing export, add it to the folder. They still have the link.

The mockup is the conversation. The pack is the product.

Templates, preset packs, and one-off jobs

A one-off brand job and a template you sell fifty times use the same door. The template wants a public sample and a price. The brand job wants a password. Selling PDFs, ebooks, and templates covers the catalogue case. This article is the client send.

If the review is a proof sheet of options, send proofs and get paid. If the product is already a ZIP, sell the ZIP.

Agencies often need two doors: Figma or Drive for the team, a client link for the brand. Do not mix them. The client should never land in a file tree that also holds next year's pitch. Export, price, send. If several people at the company need the pack, one passworded link is usually enough. If departments should not see each other's jobs, use one folder per department.

Fonts and stock you are not allowed to pass on do not belong in the paid folder, even if they sat in the working file. Put a note in the unpaid view listing what they must license themselves. That saves a refund and an awkward email after they open the ZIP.

Night sends are where a library earns itself. The art director is new. The printer is in another city. You point at the same URL. You do not rebuild a transfer at midnight. Keep a short note in the folder of what the pack contains so the new person does not guess.