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Draft policy

Payment Policy

Status: Draft — requires legal review before public launch.

This document is an operational policy draft for Kaziworks. It is not final legal wording, does not replace formal Terms of Service, and must be reviewed by qualified legal and compliance advisers before public payment launch.

Purpose

This policy explains how Kaziworks intends to handle marketplace payments, milestone funding, platform fees, provider fees, payment holds, failed payments, refunds, disputes, and off-platform payment rules.

Kaziworks's approved payment direction is:

  • TradeSafe is the approved primary escrow and milestone funding partner.
  • Peach Payments is the approved primary payout and platform-payment partner.
  • PayPal remains supported but secondary.

Kaziworks must not casually hold client funds directly without legal and compliance review. Payment and escrow flows should use approved provider structures wherever practical.

Client Payment Responsibilities

Clients are responsible for:

  • Funding approved projects or milestones through the Kaziworks-approved payment flow.
  • Reviewing the full payment breakdown before confirming payment.
  • Paying the agreed project or milestone value.
  • Paying any applicable client service fee.
  • Paying provider, processing, escrow, or payment protection fees when those fees are passed through.
  • Keeping payment communication and approval decisions inside Kaziworks.
  • Avoiding off-platform payment arrangements with freelancers introduced through Kaziworks.

Clients should only proceed with payment after they understand the project scope, milestone terms, fee breakdown, refund assumptions, and dispute process.

Freelancer Fee Responsibilities

Freelancers are responsible for:

  • Understanding that Kaziworks may deduct a freelancer platform fee from completed work.
  • Keeping delivery, approval, and payment-related communication inside Kaziworks.
  • Maintaining required verification before payout.
  • Providing accurate payout destination details when payout support is available.
  • Avoiding attempts to move clients to external payment channels.

The approved base freelancer platform fee is 10% of completed project or milestone value, unless later changed through approved Kaziworks change control.

Kaziworks Platform Fees

Kaziworks must track platform fees separately from provider fees.

Approved base fee structure:

  • Client service fee: 5% of project value.
  • Freelancer platform fee: 10% of project value.
  • Combined gross Kaziworks platform revenue: approximately 15% of project value.

Kaziworks must track:

  • Project value.
  • Client service fee.
  • Freelancer platform fee.
  • Provider fee.
  • Payment protection fee.
  • Net freelancer payout.
  • Gross Kaziworks revenue.
  • Net Kaziworks revenue.

Platform fees should be clearly disclosed before payment confirmation.

Provider and Payment Protection Fees

Provider fees may include processing, escrow, payout, refund, dispute, or payment protection costs.

Provider fees must be either:

  • Passed through transparently to the client as payment protection or processing fees; or
  • Separately accounted for and absorbed by Kaziworks only when Kaziworks's net margin remains profitable.

Kaziworks must not hide provider costs in a way that silently destroys platform margin.

Milestone Funding Concept

For milestone-based work, the intended flow is:

1. Client accepts a proposal and a contract exists in Kaziworks. 2. Milestones are created or confirmed. 3. Client funds a milestone through an approved provider-supported flow. 4. Provider confirms funds are secured. 5. Kaziworks records the milestone as funded. 6. Freelancer completes the work. 7. Client approves the work or a dispute is resolved. 8. Funds are released according to the approved provider and Kaziworks rules.

This draft does not implement payment processing or provider integration.

Payment Confirmation Concept

A payment or milestone should only be treated as confirmed after the approved provider confirms the payment state through a trusted server-side process.

Kaziworks should not rely only on client-side screens, redirects, or unverified user claims to mark funds as paid, secured, released, refunded, or failed.

Payment Holds

Kaziworks may hold or pause internal payment state when:

  • Provider confirmation is pending.
  • A dispute is open.
  • Fraud or scam behaviour is suspected.
  • A payment appears failed, reversed, refunded, or chargeback-related.
  • Required verification is incomplete.
  • Off-platform payment attempts affect protection or evidence.

Payment holds must be reviewed through documented operations and support processes.

Failed Payments

If a payment fails:

  • The milestone or project should not be treated as funded.
  • The freelancer should not be expected to start protected work.
  • The client may be asked to retry through an approved method.
  • Kaziworks may record the failure for support, reconciliation, and risk review.

Any retry, refund, or support process must follow approved provider and Kaziworks rules.

Refund Relationship

Refunds are governed by the refund policy, provider rules, and dispute outcomes.

Refund handling must consider:

  • Whether work has started.
  • Whether a milestone was approved or released.
  • Whether the dispute process is active.
  • Whether fraud, scam behaviour, or off-platform payment attempts occurred.
  • Whether platform fees or provider fees are refundable.

Dispute Relationship

Payment outcomes may be affected by disputes.

If a dispute is opened, Kaziworks may pause release, payout, or refund actions until evidence is reviewed and the dispute is resolved. Platform-contained communication is important because messages, files, milestone records, and approval history may be used as evidence.

No Off-Platform Payment Rule

Users must not use Kaziworks to meet and then bypass Kaziworks payment flows.

Clients and freelancers must not share or request bank details, external payment links, PayPal links, crypto wallet addresses, WhatsApp payment requests, or similar payment routes intended to avoid Kaziworks fees or protections.

Off-platform payment may reduce or remove Kaziworks dispute protection and may lead to warnings, account limits, strikes, suspension, or other enforcement.

Legal Review Warning

This payment policy is a draft. It requires legal, compliance, tax, provider, and operational review before public payment launch.