Paying translators
Translators are paid through the platform. When you confirm a priced offer, your card is charged and the amount is held; when you accept the delivery, the payment is released to the translator. This page covers that flow from the project manager’s side. What the translator sees is in Getting paid.
Confirmed means funded
Section titled “Confirmed means funded”Confirming an accepted offer on a standard project charges the offer’s total to your card through the checkout page and holds it on the platform. The success page says so: the amount is held securely and released to the translator when you accept the delivery, and the assignment is confirmed as soon as the payment settles, usually within seconds. The cost review that opens before you activate a project shows this under Translator Costs: each confirmed offer per stage and target, marked charged at confirmation — held until you accept the delivery, with the total of what is already funded and held.
- The translator sees the offer as Confirmed · Funded and knows the payment is secured.
- A funded seat is a commitment: the offer can no longer be cancelled by either side.
- Every priced job has a minimum price. If an offer’s total would fall below it, the rate is raised so the job reaches the floor before it is sent.
Funding applies only to translators who have completed payout setup. A translator who has not cannot accept a paid offer until they do.
The Translator Payments step
Section titled “The Translator Payments step”Open Finalize Project and go to Translator Payments (the step is skipped on projects that never had an assignment). It lists every confirmed external assignment, grouped by translator, and every payment with its state:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Awaiting payment | A checkout was started but not finished — complete or cancel it |
| Held | Charged and held by the platform, waiting for your decision |
| Disputed | Held and frozen while support reviews a dispute |
| Released | Accepted and paid out to the translator |
| Refunded | Settled by support with a refund to your payment method |
| Failed / Reversed | The charge did not go through, or a released payment was reversed by the card network |
Assignments that are not yet funded — for example a project confirmed before funding was in place — appear under Pay selected. Select one translator’s assignments and select Pay to charge them through the checkout page; the payment is held the same way. Platform payments go to one translator at a time.
Accepting a delivery
Section titled “Accepting a delivery”Release to translator on a held payment accepts the delivery and pays the translator. The confirmation says so plainly: it cannot be undone. The translator is notified that the client accepted their delivery and that the money is on its way to their bank.
Once every assignment is paid, the step reads All assignments paid and the Create step unlocks. Payment history stays on this step afterwards.
When something is wrong with a delivery
Section titled “When something is wrong with a delivery”Work it out with the translator first. Rework is the normal remedy: send the rows back, and the payment simply stays held while you wait — nothing moves until you release it.
If that fails, open a dispute. Refunds and partial settlements are handled by support, not from the payment step: a dispute is how you ask for one.
Disputes
Section titled “Disputes”A dispute is a formal, last-resort escalation. Problem with the delivery? Open a dispute sits under the held payment:
- Choose a reason category — quality below the agreed standard, work does not match the assignment, work not delivered, or other — and describe specifically what is wrong, in at least 200 characters. Support and the translator both read it. You also confirm an acknowledgment that this is a formal escalation before raising it.
- The payment is frozen, a support case is opened, and support contacts both parties to settle the matter. This takes time.
- Support can release the payment, release part of it and refund the rest, or refund it in full. A full refund returns the whole amount to your payment method with no platform fee deducted; a partial settlement pays the approved share, with the fee recalculated on that smaller amount, and refunds the rest.
- While a dispute is open, the automatic deadline below is paused. Releasing the payment yourself accepts the delivery and closes the dispute.
If you do nothing
Section titled “If you do nothing”Held funds cannot stay in limbo indefinitely. After a payment has been held for 60 days you receive one reminder, Held translator payment needs a decision, asking you to release it or open a dispute. If you do neither within a further 14 days, your inaction counts as acceptance under the Terms of Service and the payment is released to the translator automatically; you are notified when that happens.
The one exception is a funded assignment whose work was never delivered: that payment is never auto-released. The reminder tells you to open a dispute instead, so support can refund it or settle it partially for any started work.
Continuous projects: batch deals
Section titled “Continuous projects: batch deals”Continuous projects have no single delivery, so translators work on batch deals: an offer scoped to a set of source rows at an agreed rate, with the offer total as a ceiling. Payment is review-then-settle rather than fund-then-release:
- The translator works through the scoped rows in the editor.
- The batch closes when every scoped row has completed the deal’s stage or the deal deadline passes, and you are notified to review and settle.
- On the hub’s Payments tab — continuous projects have no Finalize moment, so batch deals settle from the hub — select the batch and select Settle. You pay the completed work at the agreed rate, never more than the ceiling, and the payment goes to the translator immediately, because you reviewed before paying.
- Offer next batch sends the same translator a new deal at the same terms, scoped to the current backlog.
Two windows keep settlement moving: a 14-day review window after the batch closes, then a 14-day settlement window. A reminder marks the end of the first; when the second also passes, the batch is overdue, the translator is told, and no new batch deals can be opened on the project until it is settled; the amount remains owed, and statutory late-payment interest may apply. A closed batch with no completed rows owes nothing, and continuous delivery is never held up by an unsettled batch — the lever is the pause on new deals.
Card fees take a larger share of small settlements, so the step suggests letting a small backlog grow before settling.
Organization projects
Section titled “Organization projects”Members assigned internally are not paid per assignment: their work is the organization’s, and they never appear on the Translator Payments step. External translators on an organization project are funded, released, and settled exactly as above by the project’s PM. See Organizations.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Offers & assignment — pricing an offer and the volume breakdown it is billed on
- Getting paid
- Finishing a project