# Deadline clocks

URL: /products/service/deadline-clocks · Id: `page:products/service/deadline-clocks`

> How a Service's deadline counts only the Startup's time, when an Order is at risk, and how rate terms judge a standing Service over a month.

A deadline is a term of the [Outcome Contract](/business/nouns/outcome-contract), counted only while the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) holds the next move. A miss is checkable from the clock alone, so its remedy runs without the buyer asking.

## When the clock runs
The clock starts when [`Order.start`](/business/nouns/order/start) finds every input the brief promised, never at the order. It stops while the [Order](/business/nouns/order) waits on the buyer and runs while it waits on the Startup's own people.

| The Order is | Reason | The clock |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Waiting for an answer from the buyer | `awaitingInput` | Stops; `dueAt` moves later by the wait |
| Waiting on an outside system the buyer controls | `awaitingSource` | Stops, when the contract lists it in `clockExcludes` |
| Waiting for a free [Supplier](/business/nouns/supplier) or reviewer | `awaitingWorker` | Runs |
| Being redone after a failed check | `retrying` | Runs |

`clockExcludes` lists the pending reasons that stop the clock. A reason the Startup controls never belongs there, because the clock exists to charge the Startup's own delays to the Startup.

## At risk, then missed
`atRisk` is the share of the deadline after which an Order shows as at risk, 0.8 by default. Catalogmend's 48-hour deadline marks an Order at risk after 38 hours and 24 minutes, while there is still time to add a reviewer.

A missed `dueAt` is a miss, judged from the clock. Its remedy, such as a credit on the next Order, runs with no claim from the buyer, and the buyer reads it in its [Portal](/business/nouns/portal).

## Rate terms for standing work
A standing [Service](/business/nouns/service) is judged over a period, not per item. Its rate terms each hold a metric to a target over a week, a month or a quarter, with a credit for each band below.

| Rate term | Target | Below target |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New listings checked within 24 hours | At least 95% each month | 10% of the month's fee back below 95%, 25% below 90% |

`creditCap` bounds what a period's credits return, half the period's fee by default. Rate terms hold only on a `standing` Service; a `once` audit is judged by its deadline.