The Elance Work System (Elance's features, tools and processes that facilitates online work) puts you in control, keeps you safe, and makes sure that you get great results.

• Job Posts allow you to post your job description and attract customized proposals, often within hours
• The Workroom - the hub of the Elance work experience - is a private online workspace that facilitates collaboration and tracks communication
• Terms & Milestones help define the work that needs to be done and by when
• Status Reports track progress on work performed, and establish next steps
• Tracker allows providers to document their work activities in real time
  
• Timesheets make invoicing and billing on hourly jobs simple and painless
• Escrow payments protect both parties jobs by pre-funding the work and releasing payments only when results are approved
• Ratings and feedback are public records of client satisfaction, and inspire great performance

Job Posts enable companies to describe their job requirements, set a budget range, request specific skill sets, and start receiving proposals from service providers within hours. 

The Workroom is the hub of the Elance Work System. Workrooms are automatically set up for each work engagement to manage the job. Workrooms enable real-time interviewing, proposal evaluation, hiring and collaboration, capturing and storing all communications, sharing files, approving work, and tracking invoices and payments for work received.

Terms & Milestones are established at the outset of a work engagement to set the pricing (terms) and define the timing of what is expected by when (milestones).

Status Reports are weekly updates submitted by service providers, with a record of work completed, progress made, and plans for the upcoming work week. 

Tracker allows providers to document their work in real time. The information captured with Tracker is used to automatically generate detailed status reports and timesheets for hourly jobs. Work tracking facilitates accurate and streamlined billing.

Timesheets make invoicing and billing for hourly jobs a snap. Providers submit their timesheets weekly, with notes on tasks completed

Escrow facilitates safe payment on fixed price work while building confidence between both parties. Using Escrow, employers can pre-fund the work to enable work to get started. As work gets received and approved, payment gets released to the provider. Providers appreciate Escrow as they’re able to see that the funds are held in reserve for their work while employers benefit from Escrow by knowing that they’ll only make payments when they receive actual results.
 

Ratings and feedback are shared by clients after the job has been completed.  These ratings are made public and are kept as part of the permanent work-history of the provider. Successful Elance providers consistently satisfy their clients and their feedback and ratings prove it.

Costs

When clients make a payment to their service providers, Elance deducts between 6.75% and 8.75% from the payment to cover its Service Fee and Payment Processing costs and transfers the remaining amount directly to the service provider. Use of the Elance Work System is provided for clients and service providers at no additional cost. 

Next Steps

Post Your Job now, and start receiving proposals within hours.