Earner Escrow Payments

A free service by Earner to help you transact securely.

Escrow is a system where the Project owner deposits money from their credit into a special "Escrow" account.

The Escrow concept

• The Project owner deposits money that will be paid to the worker for work that is yet to be done.
• The worker can see that money is waiting for them so feels safe in beginning the work.
• As the project progresses, increments of money are released from escrow to the worker.
• These releases will be added to the invoice as payments.

Important points for the Project Owner

• There should always be more money held in escrow than is due to be paid.
• When a worker sends you an invoice, release that amount from escrow.
• At the end of a project if there is more money in escrow than is needed to pay the worker ask the worker to return the excess to you before releasing the final payment to them.
• eg: $400 is needed to pay the worker, $600 is held in escrow. Ask the worker to return $200 to you from escrow then release the remaining $400 to finish the project.

Important points for the Worker

• The money "Held in escrow" is the amount that is secured for you right now.
• If you work beyond the amount held in escrow then send an invoice, it defeats the point of using escrow since no money is safe for you.
• It is ok to have a single invoice for the entire project and receive incremental releases from escrow as the project progresses.
• Remember to add the payment into the invoice when money is released from escrow to you.
• The Project owner had to pay the project fees up-front to accept your bid. The expect you to pay those fees (Unless otherwise agreed upon before the project started). Add the amount of the fees into your first invoice as a negative amount.
• eg: Your bid was $1000. You won, the project fees are $100. These fees were paid already by the Project Owner. Your first invoice should have Qty: 1 note: "Reimbursment of Project Fees" Amount: $-100

Earner provides users with Escrow payment options to help projects get completed smoothly. Project creators can set aside a specific amount of funds into an Escrow account on Earner, for the winner of a project. Both users can view the payment in the Escrow account, but only the project creator can complete the payment from the Escrow account to the project winner. The project winner is the only person (other than Earner staff) who can cancel this Escrow payment. This gives each party half of the control over the funds in the Escrow account.

When the project is completed the project creator can transfer the funds from the Escrow account to the project winner. If the project is cancelled amicably, the project winner can cancel the Escrow payment and the funds will return to the project creators account. If there are any disputes over a project, Earner staff must be contacted before any funds can be moved from the Escrow account.

Earner encourages it's users to send and receive funds using the Escrow system, it's another great way to make sure everyone gets what they want from a project.

Money can be transfered into an Escrow account from your current credit balance.

To add money to your credit balance:

Contact us if you have any questions about Escrow Payments.