ZAMBO.

Direct answer

They can replace you. They cannot un-deliver your part.

Being replaced mid job stings, and the refusal that follows usually hides inside a blur: the project was never finished, so nothing is owed. That blur is the problem to fix. The project is one thing; your completed stages are another, and they were delivered on dates, in a state anyone can open. Here is how to separate your part from the whole job and collect for exactly what you finished.

See the instrument first: the live demo runs one real call and hands you its verifiable receipt, no signup.

Updated October 24, 2026. The two delivery records quoted below are real and public, with their client decision states read back from the live service on publication day.

Step 1. Stop new work and freeze your record today

The moment you learn someone else is finishing the job, stop producing new work and freeze what exists: every delivered stage, every file as delivered, every message where the client received, commented on, or used your work. Do not revise, improve, or re-export anything after this point; a moving record invites the claim that your part was never finished. What you delivered, in the state you delivered it, on the date you delivered it, is the whole basis of what follows, and it only gets weaker if you keep touching it.

Step 2. Build the completed stages list from the record, not from memory

List your part as finished stages: each stage, what it contained, the date delivered, and its state. The record format is AER-1, published as an IETF Internet-Draft (draft-zambo-aer1-26), and each step carries a verifiable receipt: a receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved. The two public records below show the two states a stage can sit in:

Accepted: the decision is on the record

Pending: checked, and still waiting on a decision

An accepted stage, 4 of 4 steps checked, decided_by client, release_hint ok_to_release, is the strongest line on your list: the client checked it and accepted it before the replacement happened. A pending stage, 5 of 5 steps checked and release_hint hold, is delivered and inspected work still awaiting a decision; it belongs on the list too, described honestly as delivered and checked, not as accepted. The list, not a retelling of the whole project, is what your invoice and every later conversation should point at.

Step 3. Invoice exactly the completed stages, at the agreed prices

Invoice your part and only your part: the stages on the list, at the amounts the agreement attached to them, or at the agreed rate for the time inside them if the job was priced as one sum. If the job was one lump price, state the split plainly: these stages of the agreed scope were completed and delivered, and the amount claimed is that share of the price, no more. Claiming exactly what the record supports, and visibly not a penny of the successor's part, is what makes the invoice hard to refuse with a straight face. Attach the stages list and the delivery links to the invoice itself.

Step 4. Answer the three usual refusal lines from the record

The project was never finished: true of the whole, false of your stages, each delivered on its date. We are paying the other person for the whole job now: that pays for their work, and the record shows which stages existed before they started. Your part was not usable: point at the state, accepted where it was accepted, delivered and checked where it was pending, and ask which step they say failed, in writing. Keep every answer short and attached to a date or a link. You are not trying to win an argument about the breakup. You are keeping the conversation on the one question the record answers: what was delivered before the replacement.

Step 5. Hand over cleanly, and keep the handover itself on record

Once your part is invoiced, hand over what the agreement says the client gets for the stages they pay for, in the form the agreement promises, and record the handover: what changed hands, when, and against which payment state. A clean, recorded handover protects you twice. It removes the claim that you held the project hostage, and it draws the exact line between your delivered part and whatever the successor does next, so later problems with the finished project cannot be laid on work you never did. If final files for unpaid stages are still yours to hold under the agreement, hold those, and say which ones and why in the same message.

Step 6. If they still will not pay, escalate with the packet, not with volume

Send one final message before any formal step: the completed stages list, the acceptance and delivery states, the invoice for your part, and a payment date. That packet is also what any mediator, platform, or court would be shown later, which is the point of building it from records instead of chat screenshots. Keep the tone flat and the packet complete. Most replaced mid job refusals are testing whether the amount will quietly go away; a dated packet that separates your part cleanly tells them it will not, without a single threat needing to be made.

What a record does not settle

A verifiable receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved; it does not prove what your agreement promised about termination, does not set the value of a partly finished job by itself, and cannot make a client pay. The agreement terms, the stage list, and the acceptance states are what a claim stands on. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

My client hired someone else to finish my work and will not pay me for the part I did. What do I do?

Separate your part from the whole project and collect for the part. Stop new work, freeze your record as delivered, and build a completed stages list from it: each stage, its contents, its delivery date, and whether it was accepted or delivered and checked. Invoice exactly those stages at the agreed prices or at their share of a lump price, with the list and delivery links attached. Answer refusals from the record: the whole project being unfinished does not un-deliver your stages, and paying a successor for their work does not erase yours. Hand over what the agreement promises for paid stages on a recorded handover, and if payment still refuses to come, escalate with that packet and a payment date.

How do I work out what I am owed for part of a job priced as one lump sum?

Use the structure the job itself gives you. If the agreement named stages or milestones, their amounts are the answer. If it did not, split the price by the scope: list the agreed deliverables, mark the ones completed and delivered, and claim that share, showing your working in one short paragraph attached to the invoice. A split the client can follow, tied to delivered stages with dates, is far harder to wave away than a round number. Claim only the completed share, never the whole price for a whole job someone else finished.

What if the client says my part was not good enough to use?

Ask them to name the failing step, in writing, and answer from the state of the record. Stages the client accepted before the replacement carry their decision with a date; a quality claim raised only after a successor was hired has to explain that decision away. For stages that were delivered and checked but never decided, offer the honest test: name what fails the agreed brief and you will look at that step. Vague unusable claims with no named step are usually about the invoice, not the work, and the record is what keeps the two separate.

Should I hand my files to the person replacing me?

Hand over what the agreement promises the client for the stages being paid for, to the client, on a recorded handover that lists exactly what changed hands and when. You are not obliged to brief a successor, finish their onboarding, or supply working files for stages that were never paid for, unless your agreement says otherwise in words. Keep the handover clean and complete for the paid part: it protects the client relationship that remains, and it fixes the line between your delivered work and everything done after you.

How do I make the part I finish provable on future jobs?

Deliver every stage as a record the client checks and accepts as it lands, so a job that ends early already has its completed part decided and dated. When the work runs through Zambo, each stage is a handover with a verifiable receipt for every step under AER-1, published as IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26, and new users get 20 free calls per day, then they upgrade when the job needs more. For $0.99, deliver the next job that way, so being replaced mid job could never blur what you finished: get the Day Pass. A Day Pass covers 24 hours, no subscription. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 for 30 days (one payment) or $290 for 365 days, and $19 for 30 days for $ZAMBO holders, which adds private handover links, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON files.

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