This policy explains how money moves through Researchor. It forms part of the Terms of Service. All amounts are charged, held and paid out in US dollars (USD).
The principle
An expert is paid for work a client has approved, and a client's money is not at risk while work is outstanding. Everything below follows from that.
How escrow works
- A client accepts a proposal. The work is divided into milestones with a fee against each.
- Before an expert begins a milestone, the client funds it. The money leaves the client's payment method and is held by Researchor.
- The expert works and submits the deliverable.
- The client reviews. They may request revisions within the scope the proposal set.
- On approval, the milestone amount less the service fee is released to the expert's Researchor balance.
- After a short holding period the balance becomes available, and the expert withdraws it to a bank account connected through our payment provider.
Funds held in escrow are not Researchor's money and are not used for our operating expenses. They belong to the client until a milestone is approved, and to the expert from that moment.
Fees
Researchor charges a service fee on each released milestone. The exact fee for an engagement is shown to both parties before the client funds the milestone and before the expert accepts the offer.
Card processing is shown as its own line at checkout. If your card or bank account is not in US dollars, your bank may convert the amount and charge its own fee; that conversion happens outside Researchor.
We will not introduce a fee that was not disclosed before the transaction it applies to.
Auto-release
If a client neither approves nor raises a revision request or dispute within the review window stated on the milestone, the milestone may auto-release to the expert. This prevents an expert being left unpaid indefinitely for delivered work. The review window is shown on the milestone and in the notification sent when the delivery arrives.
Payment methods
Payments are processed by Stripe. Researchor never sees or stores your full card number.
Payouts are made to the bank account an expert connects in Earnings, after the payment provider has verified their identity. The name on the payout account should match the name on your Researchor account; where it does not, we may ask you to explain before releasing funds.
Off-platform payment
Paying an expert outside Researchor, or asking a client to do so, removes every protection this policy describes: there is no escrow, no dispute process, and no record we can act on. It is also a breach of the Terms of Service and may result in account closure.
Taxes
You are responsible for your own tax obligations on income earned or payments made through Researchor. We do not provide tax advice. Where law requires us to withhold or report, we will.
Current status
The payment and payout layers are not yet live. Nothing described here is operating today. This policy is published now so that both sides can read the rules before the first transaction, not to suggest transactions are already being processed.
Questions about this document go to [email protected], or through the contact form.