Payment Schedule

Payment Transaction Types, The Hourly Work Week, Fixed Price and Bonus payments, Refunds, Security Period, Deposits and Withdrawals, Account Adjustments

Payment Transaction Types

The oDesk Billing Payment system has three types of transactions

1. Hourly invoices (subject to the oDesk Provider Payment Guarantee)
2. Fixed Price and bonus payments (non-guaranteed)
3. Refunds

    

Each of these transaction types behaves differently in terms of its due date, when the amount hits the user's balance, and whether it carries the oDesk payment guarantee.

Type	Due (Buyer)	Available (Provider)	Guaranteed?
Hourly Invoices	The Thursday after the work week	The following Wednesday	Yes
Fixed Price & Bonuses	Immediately upon submission	6 days after the Buyer's payment clears	No
Refunds	For pending work, the Thursday after the work week. For past work, 6 days after the refund clears	For pending work, refund is deducted from Pending Credit For past work, refund is subtracted from Balance immediately	No

Note: Deposits (buyer payments) and withdrawals are reflected in the user's account balance immediately.

 

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The Hourly Work Week

The hourly work week is the centerpiece of the oDesk system. Here is the calendar:

 

Monday	The work week begins at 12 a.m. GMT
Sunday	The work week ends at 11:59 p.m. GMT The provider receives his/her timelog for review and is responsible for making sure it is accurate. Any offline time should be added All non-work time should be removed
Monday	The deadline for the Work Dairy is Monday 12 p.m. (Noon) GMT. At that time, the final timelog is sent to the Buyer for review and the dispute period begins. The Buyer sees $X in Pending Debit The Provider sees $Y in Pending Credit
Wednesday	The review period ends Wednesday evening, PST
Thursday	The Buyer's invoice is now due. Buyer will see a negative Balance in the "Your Balance" box on the top left of Provider Console Buyer's credit card is charged Thursday evening
Next Wednesday	The provider's earnings become available. Provider will see a positive Balance in "Your Balance" box on the top left of Provider Console After Security Period has passed, provider can withdraw balance.

An Example Situation

Acme, Inc. hires a provider named Paul at $15.00 per hour (including the $1.50 oDesk fee).

Paul works for 9 hours during the first week of the assignment. On Sunday night GMT he receives a reminder to revise his timelog. He adds one hour of offline time, for a total of 10 hours ($150 to be charged to Acme, $135 earned by Paul).

• On Monday at 12pm GMT:
  Acme and Paul receive emails notifying them that Paul's timelog for the week is now final. They see the following in the "Your Balance" box:

Acme: Balance = $0.00 Pending Debit = $150

Paul: Balance = $0.00 Pending Credit = $135

• On Thursday:
  Acme's balance changes:

Acme: Balance = (-$150) This amount will be charged to your credit card within 24 hours.

• Thursday night:
  Acme's credit card is charged $150. The security period now begins, and next Wednesday, the provider's balance will change:

Paul: Balance = $135

 

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Fixed Price and Bonus Payments: Daily Charge

Fixed-price and bonus payments are charged on a daily cycle. Each day, the buyer's credit card is charged for the Balance amount in the "Your Balance" box.  If a buyer submits a $100 bonus on Tuesday, his card will be charged $100 on Tuesday night, even if he has additional pending hourly invoices due on Thursday. The provider's earnings (in this case $90) will become available after the security period (in this case the following Monday).

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Refunds

There are two types of refunds:

• A pending refund happens  when, during the review period, the provider refunds hours worked the previous week. In this case, the amount is simply subtracted from the Buyer's pending balance, to be reflected in his charges on Thursday.
  
  
• A past hours refund, on the other hand, happens when a provider refunds more than the amount worked the previous week. In this case, the buyer's balance will be credited as soon as the provider pays the refund amount out of his account balance. If the provider has enough in his balance to cover the refund, it will be paid immediately, and the buyer will be credited six (6) days later (after the security period). If the provider has insufficient funds to pay the refund, the invoice will remain pending until he does.

   

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The Security Period

To accelerate the payment process while continuing to offer our Provider Payment Guarantee, we are enforcing a 6-day Security Period on all transactions. This enables us to perform some security checks to identify suspicious transactions and maintain the integrity and security of the marketplace for all buyers and providers.

 

• Hourly: The Buyer's invoice is due on Thursday, and the provider's earnings become available the following Wednesday

• Fixed-Price and Bonus Payments: The provider's earnings becomes available six (6) days after the buyer fully pays his invoice. E.g. if a buyer submits a Fixed-Price payment to a provider on Wednesday and pays his invoice Wednesday night, the provider's earnings will become available the following Tuesday.

   

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Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits (i.e. payments) and withdrawals have no security period -- they are reflected in your account balance immediately.

 

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Account Adjustments 

If for any reason an adjustment needs to be made to your account, oDesk will issue an Account Adjustment. The most common adjustment type is a failed payment. If a user makes a withdrawal, and for whatever reason the funds are returned to oDesk (for example, the bank account information was incorrect or the user did not have a valid Moneybookers account), oDesk will return the funds into his account via account adjustment.

Note: there is no security period for account adjustments -- they hit your account balance immediately.