Elance University

Get Services: Pay for Results

Now that the provider has performed the work to your satisfaction, it’s time to make a payment. 

If you’d like to use your Visa, MasterCard or American Express to pay your provider, you must first authenticate your credit card with Elance.  Credit Card authentication helps reduce online fraud and increases the security of Elance transactions for yourself and everyone in the Elance community. Once your credit card has been authenticated, you will be able to use it to make all future payments in Elance. Click here to learn more about the authentication process.  If you prefer to pay your provider using PayPal, there is no authentication required. 

Clicking on the “Pay” menu will bring you to a list of all your jobs in “Working” status. 

Select the job for which you want to make a payment, and click the “Next” button.  This will bring you to the “Payments” section of the job’s workroom.  

You’ll see the job title, whether it is an Escrow job, the provider’s name with whom you are working, and the status of the job.

If the job is an Escrow job, you will have the option to fund and release the milestones you established and agreed to with your provider.  Remember Escrow is a two step process; it’s important that you fund the milestones in order for the provider to begin the work and release it only when the work for that milestone is delivered. 

If the provider has submitted an invoice on a job, after selecting the job and clicking “next”, you’ll see the invoice date and the invoice amount.  Clicking on “next” will take you to a screen to view and pay the invoice.  You’ll see the items the provider listed in the invoice, the description, and the amounts.  You will then have the option to add in the payment amount and select your payment method.

If you want to pay a provider without an associated invoice, the item drop-down will include the option to select a milestone.  Instead of selecting a milestone, you can include payment for an expense or select other if you would like to pay the provider a bonus.

You can include a description related to the item.  If you selected a milestone, the amount associated with that milestone will be displayed and in the amount field, you’ll have the option to include the amount you are paying. 

The “Payment” link will list all payment-related information for all your jobs. 

You will see invoices, fund and release requests for Escrow jobs, and receipts for payments already made. 

Clicking on the “Account Activity” link will show you your transaction history including all debits and credits on your account.  Click on the line item links to view more information on the transactions displayed. Keep in mind that at any time, you can download your account activity by clicking “Download Data”.

To set up and review your payment methods, click on the “Financial Account” link.  This will show you any PayPal account, credit cards and bank accounts listed on your account. On this page, you can add and delete payment methods and specify your default payment method.

Remember to check your “Inbox” to track and manage day-to-day tasks related to payments by clicking on the “Inbox” tab and filtering by “Payments”. 

Once the job is complete and you have paid for the work, remember to leave objective and complete feedback for your provider.  This step is beneficial not only to the provider, but to the community.  In addition, request feedback in return from the provider.  This will help build your reputation as an employer on Elance for future jobs.