How credits get assigned and spent
Each design type — a social media graphic, a landing page mockup, a brochure — requires a specific number of credits, scoped to the typical effort that design type takes. You request a task, credits are deducted against it, and the clock on that specific task's 15-day validity window starts once the credits are assigned, not once you first make the request.
The 15-day window: why it exists and how to not lose credits to it
Once credits are assigned to a task, you have 15 days to provide all feedback and materials needed to complete it. This isn't an arbitrary cutoff — it exists because an open-ended task with no deadline tends to stall indefinitely on the client side, tying up a designer's allocated capacity against work that isn't actually moving. The practical fix is simple: have your brief, brand assets and reference materials ready before you request a task, and respond to draft reviews within a few days rather than letting a task sit. Tasks requested with a complete brief and fast feedback turnaround rarely come close to the 15-day mark.
What happens if credits expire
Expired credits are forfeited without a refund — this is the one genuinely unforgiving part of the system, and it's worth planning around rather than being surprised by. If you know a task is going to stall (waiting on brand guidelines from another team, say), it's worth holding off on assigning credits to it until you're actually ready to move, rather than starting the clock prematurely.
Prepurchased bundles vs single-task credits
Prepurchased bundles carry longer validity than credits assigned to one specific task — the 15-day clock only starts once a bundle credit gets assigned to an actual task, not from the moment you purchase the bundle. This makes bundles the better choice for ongoing, unpredictable design needs where you don't yet know exactly when the next task will come up, versus a single-task credit purchase for a known, immediate need.
What we do differently in client accounts
We flag early if a brief looks incomplete enough to risk the 15-day window, rather than letting a client discover the forfeiture after the fact — the goal of the credit system is fast, predictable design turnaround, not a mechanism for losing paid work. It sits within our broader design package service.