Kartikye Mittal

Everyone tells you to collect a W-9 before paying contractors, but nobody explains what happens if you skip it. When you're working out how to pay independent contractors online, missing paperwork creates backup withholding headaches and potential fines that exceed the original payment amount. We'll show

You need to send your W-9 to a new client today, but you're stuck on whether to check the LLC box or the Individual box. Your single-member LLC sits in a weird tax category where the IRS ignores your business structure for income reporting. That means the form

Contractors make up 36% of the U.S. workforce right now, so chances are you're paying at least a few. The problem? Handling payroll for 1099 employees isn't as simple as cutting a check. You need signed W-9s, you're tracking payment totals against that

Your current setup for expert network payments probably involves multiple platforms, manual tax workflows, and angry emails from consultants waiting days for their transfers. The right payment system should handle thousands of global payouts instantly while automating the compliance work that's currently crushing your team. We tested the

You send a wire to your freelancer in Kenya, and three days later they're still asking when the money will arrive. Meanwhile, you're out $45 in transfer fees for a $500 payment. Global freelancer payouts using local payment methods eliminate that friction by connecting directly to

Most mass payment platforms were designed for paying freelancers and vendors, not research participants who need instant access to incentives in their local currency. If you're still manually entering payout details for every respondent or limiting your studies to US-only participants because international payments are too complex, you

Your grant program just approved funding for 150 organizations, and now you're staring at a spreadsheet of international bank details. Processing each wire manually means three-day settlement windows, currency markup fees, and constant email updates. Nonprofit payment platforms replace that process with automated disbursements that settle in seconds

You're manually verifying contractor details, tracking down tax forms, and double-checking sanctions lists before releasing payments. OFAC screening and automated tax tools consolidate all of that into a single system so you stop juggling portals and spreadsheets. We reviewed the leading platforms based on real-time compliance checks, IRS

Sending global payments without automation costs you time and margin on every transaction. Vendor payment systems that support real multi-currency routing let you pay suppliers in their local currency, dodge conversion markups, and skip the regional banking mess. We ranked the solutions that actually deliver instant settlement across the rails

When was the last time you mailed a check to settle a claim? Probably never, because your claims processing workflow moved on. The problem is your payout system didn't. Most carriers are stuck with ACH rails that take 3-5 days while claimants expect instant deposits to their mobile

When your drivers can cash out instantly on DoorDash but have to wait until Friday for their pay, retention becomes an uphill battle. Instant payouts aren't a nice-to-have anymore; they're table stakes in delivery and ride-sharing. Below, you'll see which tools actually process gig

Most companies choose payment rails by comparing posted fees. The hidden economics of payment speed tell a different story. When you pay 10,000 contractors on Friday via ACH, that's millions locked up until Tuesday while your support team fields three days of TLDR: * ACH fees look cheap

You're digging into Trolley reviews because your payout operation hit a wall. Either you're stuck in a 4-6 week bank onboarding queue when you need to go live next week, your FX markups are eating 2-3.5% on every cross-border payment, or your payees keep asking

When your customer's engineer copies an API key and sends their first test payout in under 10 minutes, you just compressed your sales cycle. API-first payment platforms that focus on developer experience (clear errors with retry guidance, SDKs that catch bugs at compile time, webhooks that fire the

Your writers, photographers, and musicians expect to see earnings land in their accounts the moment a licensing deal closes. Instead, you're stuck with content creator payments that batch overnight, charge hidden currency spreads, and leave you scrambling to collect tax forms every January. The platforms below connect to

Your marketplace sells speed to buyers, but your sellers still wait days for their cut. That mismatch kills retention faster than any feature gap. Instant settlement through rails like RTP, FedNow, and PIX moves money in seconds, meeting the same-day expectations gig workers and freelancers now consider standard. We compared

If you're still emailing W-9 forms, copying bank details into spreadsheets, and waiting days for ACH batches to clear, you're losing contractors to companies that pay instantly. The gap between verifying someone's identity and actually sending them money is where most onboarding processes fall