When we speak to the most active Elance users, we often hear comments about a common theme. Clients say: “Help me stay organized in making payments.” While providers ask: “Help me collect payments for the work I deliver.”

We’ve listened, and are now releasing some new features to address these requests.

Improvements To Fixed Price Payments



Elance’s Escrow payments system builds trust between clients and providers who work together online. We’ve now added "Pay for Results" functionality to Elance Escrow to ensure that providers get paid on time for work completed, while making sure clients retain control in paying only for verifiable results delivered.

On Elance, clients are already able to safely release payment from escrow as they review and approve the work. The updated process helps clients and providers exchange payment on a timely basis. When milestones are marked complete in the weekly status report, the escrow release request is issued automatically to the client. Clients have up to 15 days to review and approve the work and release payment. In the event that a client does not take any action by day 30, the milestone is deemed to be approved and funds are released from escrow.

Improvements To Hourly Payments



When using Elance for hourly work, providers track hours and submit weekly Elance timesheets. The updated process automatically delivers timesheets to clients every Sunday and reminds clients to review and approve for payment by that Friday. Additionally, clients now have an option to pay timesheets automatically.

Remember, this auto-pay feature is completely optional for the clients. This is a handy feature for longer term engagements, where both parties want the regular payment cadence of predictable cash flow for the provider, and painless payment processing for the client.

Note these features apply only to jobs awarded after November 12, 2009.