On Spendesk, you can activate an additional module to check and pay your supplier invoices. If you are interested, go to the 'Payment Methods' tab and enable the Supplier Invoices toggle.
Working with freelancers is very handy when you need to reinforce a team or bring in specific expertise. However, paying your freelancers does not work quite the same way as paying your suppliers.
⚠️ Be careful: a freelancer is not an employee. Thus, their rights and duties are different from an employee's. For example, you shouldn't invite them on Spendesk, nor order a card for them.
Choosing between assignment or flat fee
Before working with your freelancer, you should start to define whether you are hiring them for a particular assignment or task (flat fee).
Assignments
In the first case, the assignment often lasts several days or weeks (or even months in some cases) and can include several types of tasks.
➡️ For example, a designer hired on a two-month assignment may be able to redo your logo, create computer graphics or provide visuals for an advertisement. The quote should mention it, and both parties should be aware of the freelancer's scope to avoid any confusion.
It happens that for the missions, freelancers come to work at your office. In this case, we talk about on-site work, and they are on duty to take reasonable care of the project.
Companies are fond of this organisation: it doesn't increase their payroll, but they have an expert on-site. On the freelancer's side, they receive a paid assignment that lasts several weeks.
⚠️ Be careful: for on-site assignments, the freelancer may ask you to refund their markup fees. Don't forget to take them into account in your budget!
Flat fees
In the second case, the flat flee is less flexible, and the freelancer may refuse to carry out a task outside of your agreement. They have a strict liability, and most of the time, the freelancer works at home.
Let's take the same example as above: your freelancer gives you a quote for your new logo. Once done, you can't ask them to design an advertising campaign. It's another task and there goes another quote (and therefore another flat rate).
👉 Whichever solution you choose, check out about their hourly or daily rates and compare with other freelancers. Ask them for an estimate to avoid any unpleasant surprises!
Manage a freelance invoice with Spendesk
As a legal requirement, a freelancer has to send you a correct invoice (i.e in a correct format). Otherwise, payment may not take place. But the good news is that on your side, as long as the invoice is compliant, you can add it on Spendesk just like any other supplier invoice!
Go to your Requests tab.
Click on the New Request button then on Submit an invoice.
Add your invoice in PDF and let our OCR work.
Once the data is extracted from the invoice, check it and submit your request.
If you are not an Account Owner, your approver might have to validate it.
Then, the Finance team finds this invoice in the Invoices > Review tab and can proceed to its payment in two steps :
Check the invoice: amount, freelance bank details, due date.
Pay the invoice: the repayment schedule shows you which invoices should be paid first. You can download the corresponding SEPA XML or .csv file and pay your invoice with your online banking account. You can also pay it using Spendesk if it's available on your entity's account.
Once the invoice is paid, you can find it in All payments.