# Deliver and accept

URL: /workflows/lifecycle/deliver-and-accept · Id: `page:workflows/lifecycle/deliver-and-accept`

> How a Startup turns an accepted Offer into the promised result, and how acceptance, disputes and remedies decide when the fee is earned.

Delivery turns an accepted [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) into the result the [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) paid for; acceptance records that the result meets the promise. Done is what the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) claims, and accepted is what the Customer confirms.

## What done means for each Product
The success condition follows the [Product](/business/nouns/product), never the [Interface](/business/nouns/interface) it ships through.

| Product | Delivered when |
| --- | --- |
| [Dataset](/business/nouns/dataset) | It serves records that meet its truth promise, under its access terms |
| [Software](/business/nouns/software) | Its declared operations work on the Customer's records |
| [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) | It acts within its [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) and [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) on the Customer's behalf |
| [Service](/business/nouns/service) | Its warranted outcome passes acceptance |

Data, Software and Agents deliver through [fulfill](/business/nouns/order/fulfill), which grants [Entitlements](/business/nouns/entitlement). A Service delivers work, and work needs acceptance.

## The Outcome Contract
An [Outcome Contract](/business/nouns/outcome-contract) states five terms: what counts as done, who accepts, the assurance, the remedy for a miss, and when the fee is earned. With them, Agents and a [Human](/business/nouns/human) share delivery without hiding responsibility from the Customer.

Take a Startup that translates hardware manuals into five languages for device makers. Done is a translated manual in which every safety warning matches the maker's approved glossary. The maker accepts it, or acceptance follows seven days of silence, and a miss earns one free revision.

## Run the work
[Deliver an outcome](/workflows/processes/delivery/deliver-outcome) runs the work an [Order](/business/nouns/order) bought. Each step leaves an observable result: source extracted, glossary applied, draft translated, output graded. An [Evaluator](/business/nouns/evaluator) grades the output against a rubric before the Customer sees it.

A fluent sentence is not proof of a correct one. A term the glossary lacks stays flagged for the maker to decide and never counts as translated. The [Delivery Manager](/agents/operations/delivery-manager) owns the [Workflow](/business/nouns/workflow) and every exception it raises.

## Accept, dispute, earn
[deliver](/business/nouns/order/deliver) hands the finished work to the Customer and opens the acceptance window. [confirm](/business/nouns/order/confirm) records acceptance, which closes the Order and earns the fee. [dispute](/business/nouns/order/dispute) contests the result and starts the remedy the contract names.

Revenue follows acceptance, not payment. A device maker pays $2,400 up front, but the Startup earns it at confirm; until then the money is a liability on the books.

The same rule feeds the [Lifecycle](/business/nouns/lifecycle). An outside paid Order that ends in a refund counts nowhere, so [Outside paying Customers](/agents/founding#outside-paying-customers) only rises when delivery holds.

## When work fails
Failure paths are part of the promise. A [Supplier](/business/nouns/supplier) may be unreachable, an input incomplete, or an Evaluator may reject the output. Each failure names who holds the next step and its deadline, and [escalates](/business/nouns/task/escalate) when the deadline passes.

A retry never charges twice and never repeats an outside effect. Work the law reserves for a licensed professional routes to a credentialed Human, who performs the [Reserved Act](/business/nouns/reserved-act) and [attests](/business/nouns/action/attest) to it. That is one of the few places a Human sits in the path.

## Next
[Support and retain](/workflows/lifecycle/support-and-retain) keeps the promise after delivery.