How Do FreeUp Freelancers Get Paid? A Quick Guide to Tipalti Payments

When it comes to directly billing clients, 59 percent of freelancers are owed 50,000 or more dollars by their clients. These are huge numbers and one of the reasons many freelancers head to freelancer platforms to get paid. 

One of the huge benefits of working with a freelancer platform is that you’re not waiting exorbitant amounts of time to get paid. But you also want to understand the payment methods available through the platform and how their pay works. 

Whether you’re a current freelancer with FreeUp or looking to join the top 1%, this guide will answer the questions you have when it comes to getting your money. Keep reading to learn more. 

The FreeUp Work Week

The FreeUp work week looks a little different than your standard work week. The billing period runs from Wednesday to Tuesday. The billing period closes at 12am EST. 

Once the billing period closes, you’ll get paid ten days later. Freelancers are paid every Thursday. 

The Rates

How much do our freelancers get paid? It depends on what you set your rates at and agree on with the client. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind when you’re discussing rates with clients. 

We do charge a 20 percent or 2-dollar minimum fee. When discussing rates with a client, you should be discussing numbers in their terms so that they’re not surprised by a 20% increase in the rate they agreed to. 

That’s where things become fun (or not, it depends on whether or not you like math). What’s the client fee versus your fee? We’re going to take an example straight from our Freelancer Terms of Use. 

Rate Guidelines & Examples

For Hourly Rates: the rates display differently inside the Ticket. You will see your Freelancer hourly rate, while the Client will see the overall hourly rate. The difference is FreeUp’s Service Fee.

The correct way to compute the Client rate is to take the Freelancer’s desired rate and divide it by 0.80. This sum equals the Client’s rate. 

The incorrect way is to take 20% of the Freelancer’s rate and add it to the Client’s rate. That will not get you the correct rate. 

For example: The correct way to calculate the Client’s rate based on Freelancer’s desired rate is as follows: $80/hour Freelancer rate divided by 0.80 = $100/hour Client rate. ($100- 20% is $80)

The incorrect way is: $80 X 0.20 = $16.00…$16.00 + $80 = $96.00. As you can see, it does not come out to $100.

Be sure to provide the Client with the total rate (Hourly or Fixed Pricing), not the Freelancer’s rate.

The Money: Get Paid With Tipalti

In the fall of 2022, FreeUp shifted to a new payment platform, Tipalti. Tipalti has the added benefit of being more flexible with how you receive your payment. However, there are some frequently asked questions we want to cover. 

How Can You Get Paid With Tipalti?

When it comes to getting paid with Tipalti, you’ll have a few options. However, once again, your options may be limited depending on where you live. The potential options include the following:

• PayPal 
• Direct Deposit
• Prepaid Debit Card
• Wire Transfer

You can also set a payment threshold. Tipalti does have some fees depending on where you live and the payment method you choose. 

Setting a payment threshold can reduce fees by not paying out your work until the amount of money reaches a certain number. 

When Will You See Your Money With Tipalti Payments? 

Every week your funds will be submitted to Tipalti. You can check your payment status here.

From here, you’ll see that the status of your payment has changed to “submitted.” This means that FreeUp has submitted your payment to Tipalti. 

From here, Tipalti has to run its own processes and security or risk checks. Payments are typically available within one to two business days. 

After the submitted status, you’ll see the status change to “paid;” this means that Tipalti has sent the payment to your financial institution successfully. How soon that reflects in your account will depend on the financial institution you use. 

Keep in mind; bank holidays can delay payments. Payments that fall on holidays will be sent the following business day. 

To sum it up, these are the two payment statuses you’ll encounter: 

• Submitted – Payment has been submitted to Tipalti for processing. It may take 1-2 business days for the funds to be available in your account.
• Paid – Tipalti has successfully transferred the funds to your account. If you still haven’t received it, you can download the receipt and share it with your financial institution to check the status.

When Should I Reach Out to FreeUp for Help?

It’s Thursday, and you don’t see your money. Should you reach out to ask where it is? Probably not; remember, it can take one to two business days for the payment to process. 

But when should you reach out?  

If it has been over 48 hours, you can reach out to see what’s going on. Keep in mind that these 48 hours are business days. It does not include weekends or holidays. 

You can also reach out at any time with payment-related questions to: payouts@freeup.net. 

Get Paid: Freelance With FreeUp

Working with a freelancer platform helps provide security to freelancers. You don’t have to worry about chasing down clients to get them to pay your invoices. 

Are you ready to get paid? Find your next gig with FreeUp. Apply to be a freelancer today.