This guide explains how invoices and payments work for both fixed and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) contractors. You'll learn how invoices are processed, how to make payments, and how contractors receive their payouts.
Invoice Process
When an invoice is either auto-generated or submitted by a contractor, it enters the approval queue under the Invoices section.
How to View and Manage Invoices
- Go to the Pay section in the left navigation menu.
- Click on Invoices to see all contractor invoices and their statuses.
- You can then either approve or dispute an invoice:
- Approved Invoices: Move forward to payment.
- Disputed Invoices: The contractor is notified via email, and the invoice status is updated.
How to Pay Invoices
Please, visit Paying Oyster invoices to know more about how to pay Oyster invoices.
Contractor Payout Process
Timeline & Status Tracking
As soon as your funds are available, we initiate your contractors payouts.
- For Direct Debit, it usually takes 5 days until your funds are available for initiating payouts.
- With Bank transfer, it usually takes 1 day until your funds are available for initiating payouts. The settlement and clearing of funds can take up to 5 business days.
Payout delays depend on where your contractors are located and which is their currency of preference.
- When payout currency is considered local (e.g. PHP to PH), we are able to leverage local connections. Local rail payments are faster. Funds take 1-2 days to be available to your contractors.
- Local rails provide higher level of transparency, and we are able to inform you when funds are available to your contractors with status “PAID”
- When payout currency is considered foreign (e.g. USD to PH), funds flow through international banking rails. These rails usually take a bit longer, ~4 days in average and up to 7 days in certain cases.
- International rails’ transparency is limited. Oyster is able to inform you when the transaction has been initiated with status “SENT”. But we won’t be able to inform you when funds are allocated at your contractors’ bank account.
How Contractors Are Notified
- As soon as the payout process starts, the contractor receives an email notification at their registered email.
- You can track the payout status by:
- Viewing the Payout Status column on the Invoices page.
- Clicking on an individual invoice to see details in the side panel.
Payout Status Definitions
Each payout status is explained in detail within the Payout Status section. You can also find these definitions by clicking the info icon ("i") next to the Payout Status column.