How we protect our Freelancers and Employers
One of the biggest fear of freelancers is remuneration. Freelancers are afraid that they will not receive their payment. Employers want to make sure that they will receive the completed work after sending the payment. Useme has a secured transaction system and will ease your burden.
Trust, advances payment, or something else?
Every programmer, graphic designer, and copywriter receives at least this advice once in their freelancer career. It is important to have a formal contract before starting to cooperate. The contract should contain all of the details including liability, responsibilities, corrections, and the payments. An experienced freelancer with a high reputation can even ask for the advance payment before beginning to work.
Unfortunately, all of these solutions do not always lead to the intended outcome. The advance payment is only for a huge amount of work. Not all freelancers have the ability to ask for it beforehand. Moreover, it cannot guarantee that freelancers will receive the entire payment even though they receive the advance payment.
It is necessary to sign a contract as the protection for freelancers and employers. This written document which contains all of the required details. Both freelancers and employers have to sign it and exchange the signed copies. For some short-term projects, this process may take more time than the working schedule.
Even though employers who prepare, sign the contract and pay for the advance payment. The whole process does not make any solid promises that the work will be finished on time and perfectly. If the contracts are terminated, then also take a lot of efforts to chase back the payment which means more lost.
Secured transaction system
There is a simple, quick, and effective way to assist you during this challenging situation: secured transaction system. The system will generate an electronic contract for specific work. Moreover, this contract assures freelancers will receive the payment, and employers will receive the final work or get a refund if the contract is revoked.
So, what is secured transaction system?
Secured transactions serve as the endorsement for freelancers and employers. Useme is the guarantor for both sides – also when it comes to hiring and paying international freelancers.
The process begins with a freelancer who wants to issue an invoice. The freelancer can go to our website and use the “issue an invoice without a company” form. The system will generate an invoice base on that information which a freelancer provides (for example description of the invoiced work, employer net amount, day(s) of work)
Useme will send the pre-invoice to the employer and send a VAT invoice after the employer pay for the payment. The remuneration is secured in your Useme account and we will not send the payment until the freelancer completes a job and meet the employer’s requirement.
With this system, freelancers do not have to worry about their wages. Employers are also aware that they will not lose their property if they do not receive the work for certain reasons. Useme will remunerate the freelance upon the employer’s acceptance of the work.
How to settle a secured transaction?
For Freelancer:
Step 1. Log in to Useme account and complete the form “Issue an invoice without a company” In this form, please provide related details of the employer. For instance, employer’s name, description of the work, employer net amount, settlement period, day(s) of work. You also have the option of whether to transfer the copywriter or not.
Step 2: Providing the employer’s data for the invoice. If our database already has your employer’s email, then the data will be downloaded automatically. You can skip the third step.
Note: Paying attention when filling in the “description” column. The work contract will be generated base on that information. Moreover, the information in this column will be taken into consideration for accepting or rejecting the employer’s complaint.
Reminder: The gross amount of a freelancer is the net amount of the employer!
Step 3: We will notify you via email when your employers pay for the pre-invoice. Therefore, you have to finish the work by a specific date. You can upload the final file to our website once finishing the work. (You can use the link in your account. For adding a work can be found Here and Here) Reminder: Mark the uploaded file as the final work. Then, your employer will receive notification from us. He/she can read the final work and confirm upon receipt.
Step 4 Useme will send the payment to you within a maximum of three working days once your employer accepts the final work. You will also receive a confirmation of the work performance and tax.
For Employer:
Step 1: You will receive a pre-invoice from us. Take a few minutes to verify whether all related details and the net amount are correct. If you do not have any concerns, please pay for the pre-invoice. You will get a VAT invoice when the payment is credited to your Useme account. The freelancer will also receive notification and the contract is activated. Reminder: Freelancers will not start to work if you do not pay the pre-invoice within a specific period.
Step 2: We will send you an email when the freelancer uploads the final work on our website. Login to your Useme account, check the final work, and confirm upon receipt. If the definitive work meets your requirement, then please click the confirmation button. If the ultimate work does not meet your requirement, then please contact the freelancer for further corrections. This movement will allow the freelancer to upload the new work to the site. Reminder: the freelancer will only receive the payment once you accept the final work.
Summary of the secured transaction system:
Freelancers and employers use various ways to protect themselves before beginning to work. Both agreements and advance payment cannot ensure that they will receive both the service and remuneration like our secured transaction system.
The secured transaction system is built on the fact that the employer secures funds in their Useme account. Freelancers will receive remuneration once employers accept the work. If the contract is not finalized, the payment will be allocated to the employer’s Useme account.
- Settlement is based on the VAT invoice, which is a cheaper and easier alternative for employers.
- If you have any additional questions about the operation of Useme protected transactions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@useme.eu
