5 ms·

I have a real-life scenario that applies to my business: we employee 50+ freelancers ee pay every month. I dread when it comes time to pay them, because I have

I have a real-life scenario that applies to my business: we employee 50+ freelancers ee pay every month. I dread when it comes time to pay them, because I have to log into multiple bank account and manually send each transfer using clunky web UIs. I am just copy-pasting all this data from a spreadsheet where it's already been verified. If I could automate payments to a sizeable portion of the freelancers, it would save me a lot of time and reduce potential for mistakes during data entry

ronakdesai 4y ago
Check out mallo.io or feel free to email me ronak [at] mallo.io
swyx 4y ago
ah ok. so this is a workaround of the traditional banks having crappy UI/APIs? what about using Stripe/Braintree/Paypal/etc (i know those are not exact matches, but just enquiring about the general problem space)
- chocolatkey 4y ago
  This is completely different. Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website, completely unwieldy for paying freelancers. You'd have to have freelancers set up Stripe merchant accounts and receive card payments, that would be very weird and broken use case, especially considering Stripe's fees. I can send a freelancer an ACH transfer for $0, why would I want to pay 3+%? As for PayPal, some freelancer (especially outside US) do get paid using it, but paypal's fees are outrageous and we try to get anyone we can on an alternative like zelle, ach etc.
  - adventured 4y ago
    > Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website Stripe has a banking as a service segment now - https://stripe.com/treasury https://stripe.com/treasury
    - chocolatkey 4y ago
      That looks reasonable, having worked with Stripe's APIs before I know that part would at least be nice. But I am worried about pricing with the "contact sales". If they charged per transfer initiated that would be a dealbreaker.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
Have you seen https://www.deel.com https://www.deel.com? Might be a solution for this problem.
- pen2l 4y ago
  That, Payoneer (which has a sufficiently extensive API), and I think Stripe can also handle payouts: https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces (possibly I'm misreading Stripe marketplaces' offerings, please correct me if I am)
  - chocolatkey 4y ago
    Payoneer is one of the options we use to pay freelancers, in fact many of them quite like it, but for the freelancers' sake, I prefer 100% free methods like Zelle or ACH where possible because you have to pay a fee to take money out of payoneer you receive. At least it's better than paypal
    - pen2l 4y ago
      Zelle takes a considerable percentage cut for non-personal transactions. Do you make use of Payoneer API for payouts? How do you find it?
      - chocolatkey 4y ago
        I use Zelle through the BoA small business account's web interface, there is no charge. I tried getting Zelle API access through US Bank but they never replied so I'm stuck with BoA web. Payoneer is really cagey about how you unlock better features, our account got upgraded to VIP though because we pay a lot through it. We still use their interface, maybe I'll figure out how to get their API someday
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      Is TransferWise an option?
mousetree 4y ago
Is a payroll company not an option? I'm not from the US but presumably there are companies that can do this for you at a relatively low cost per employee?
- chocolatkey 4y ago
  These are not employees, they're freelancers from all around the world.
  - mousetree 4y ago
    Even so, surely must be an equivalent of a payroll company that can make all these payments for you? We use Deel and upwork for our freelancers
    - chocolatkey 4y ago
      I think the difference is that the freelancers in our business can be paid very different amounts in a month, from ~$10-5000 in range. Deel is probably fine for you with what you're paying freelancers with its price, but imagine we have a freelancer only do, let's say, $30 worth of work in a month. Deel's cheapest plan is $49/mo. That is more than we're paying the FL! If you're paying the FL e.g. $3000/mo it's worth your money, but for us this would be a 163% fee. And with 50+ freelancers, that's at least ~$2.5k per month. At that price I might as well hire someone to click the buttons for me.
      - mousetree 4y ago
        Have you looked at Upwork? We pay some of our offshore Customer Service people through Upwork. I'm not directly involved in that but presumably the economics work as their hourly rates are between $5-$15 per hour.
        chocolatkey 4y ago
        I think I wasn't clear enough in my initial post, but we personally reach out to and recruit and manage the freelancers ourselves, not through a jobs platform. Our business needs very specialized people you can't really find on Upwork
python273 4y ago
I think it's possible to automate it with a browser extension or something like Selenium
sealthedeal 4y ago
Hit me up, colton@routefusion.com, happy to chat around this :)
aembleton 4y ago
I've never used them but Wise might work if the freelancers are all over the world: https://wise.com/gb/business/api https://wise.com/gb/business/api

ronakdesai 4y ago

Check out mallo.io or feel free to email me ronak [at] mallo.io

swyx 4y ago

ah ok. so this is a workaround of the traditional banks having crappy UI/APIs? what about using Stripe/Braintree/Paypal/etc (i know those are not exact matches, but just enquiring about the general problem space)

chocolatkey 4y ago
This is completely different. Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website, completely unwieldy for paying freelancers. You'd have to have freelancers set up Stripe merchant accounts and receive card payments, that would be very weird and broken use case, especially considering Stripe's fees. I can send a freelancer an ACH transfer for $0, why would I want to pay 3+%? As for PayPal, some freelancer (especially outside US) do get paid using it, but paypal's fees are outrageous and we try to get anyone we can on an alternative like zelle, ach etc.
- adventured 4y ago
  > Stripe/Braintree are ways to charge customers on their credit/debit card on your website Stripe has a banking as a service segment now - https://stripe.com/treasury https://stripe.com/treasury
  - chocolatkey 4y ago
    That looks reasonable, having worked with Stripe's APIs before I know that part would at least be nice. But I am worried about pricing with the "contact sales". If they charged per transfer initiated that would be a dealbreaker.

toomuchtodo 4y ago

Have you seen https://www.deel.com https://www.deel.com? Might be a solution for this problem.

pen2l 4y ago
That, Payoneer (which has a sufficiently extensive API), and I think Stripe can also handle payouts: https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces https://stripe.com/connect/marketplaces (possibly I'm misreading Stripe marketplaces' offerings, please correct me if I am)
- chocolatkey 4y ago
  Payoneer is one of the options we use to pay freelancers, in fact many of them quite like it, but for the freelancers' sake, I prefer 100% free methods like Zelle or ACH where possible because you have to pay a fee to take money out of payoneer you receive. At least it's better than paypal
  - pen2l 4y ago
    Zelle takes a considerable percentage cut for non-personal transactions. Do you make use of Payoneer API for payouts? How do you find it?
    - chocolatkey 4y ago
      I use Zelle through the BoA small business account's web interface, there is no charge. I tried getting Zelle API access through US Bank but they never replied so I'm stuck with BoA web. Payoneer is really cagey about how you unlock better features, our account got upgraded to VIP though because we pay a lot through it. We still use their interface, maybe I'll figure out how to get their API someday
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    Is TransferWise an option?

mousetree 4y ago

Is a payroll company not an option? I'm not from the US but presumably there are companies that can do this for you at a relatively low cost per employee?

chocolatkey 4y ago
These are not employees, they're freelancers from all around the world.
- mousetree 4y ago
  Even so, surely must be an equivalent of a payroll company that can make all these payments for you? We use Deel and upwork for our freelancers
  - chocolatkey 4y ago
    I think the difference is that the freelancers in our business can be paid very different amounts in a month, from ~$10-5000 in range. Deel is probably fine for you with what you're paying freelancers with its price, but imagine we have a freelancer only do, let's say, $30 worth of work in a month. Deel's cheapest plan is $49/mo. That is more than we're paying the FL! If you're paying the FL e.g. $3000/mo it's worth your money, but for us this would be a 163% fee. And with 50+ freelancers, that's at least ~$2.5k per month. At that price I might as well hire someone to click the buttons for me.
    - mousetree 4y ago
      Have you looked at Upwork? We pay some of our offshore Customer Service people through Upwork. I'm not directly involved in that but presumably the economics work as their hourly rates are between $5-$15 per hour.
      - chocolatkey 4y ago
        I think I wasn't clear enough in my initial post, but we personally reach out to and recruit and manage the freelancers ourselves, not through a jobs platform. Our business needs very specialized people you can't really find on Upwork

python273 4y ago

I think it's possible to automate it with a browser extension or something like Selenium

sealthedeal 4y ago

Hit me up, colton@routefusion.com, happy to chat around this :)

aembleton 4y ago

I've never used them but Wise might work if the freelancers are all over the world: https://wise.com/gb/business/api https://wise.com/gb/business/api