Stripe Payment Flow

Our default payment provider is Stripe.

Here’s the payment flow when using Stripe. View the full flow here.

Individual Milestones

1. Customer clicks ‘Pay’.
2. A payment is charged to the Customer’s Card on file for the Milestone Value + any Tax + the Admin Fee.
3. Within Stripe, the Customer Admin Fee, Freelancer Admin Fee, and the Commission are deducted, then the remainder is transferred to the Freelancer’s Stripe Connected Account. The marketplace has control over the funds at this stage and can issue a refund up until the moment when the customer initiates a manual payout.
4. Customer clicks ‘Approve’. This triggers the manual payout of funds within Stripe for the freelancer’s payment to be released.
5. Stripe pays out the funds relating to that milestone, to the Freelancer’s bank account.

Repeating Milestones

1. On Sunday 11pm UTC, the current cycle ends, and the Customer is emailed the number of hours that the Freelancer has submitted for that cycle. Between Sunday 11pm UTC and Friday 11pm UTC the customer has the ability to dispute the work done, which places the payment flow on hold. The admin must choose whether to accept or reject the dispute and consequently allow or stop the flow of funds.
2. On Friday 11pm UTC, the Customer is automatically charged the invoice total, based on the number of hours submitted.
3. Within Stripe, the Customer Admin Fee, Freelancer Admin Fee, and the Commission are deducted, then the remainder is transferred to the Freelancer’s Stripe Connected Account.
4. Immediately after the transfer, Stripe pays out the funds relating to that milestone, to the Freelancer’s bank account.

Notes on timing

=> It can take up to 7 days for Stripe to process the Customer’s initial payment.

=> Once a Payout to the Freelancer’s bank account has been approved, the funds should arrive the same day. In rare cases, it can take up to 5 working days to arrive.

=> Stripe will hold funds in the account holder’s balance (freelancer’s connected Stripe account) until told to pay them out for up to 90 days. The exception to this is in the US where funds can be held for 2 years. Milestones should not have a deadline more than 90 days from the payment deposit date.