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The core features of Guru’s free plan include job posts, Agreements, WorkRooms and SafePay.
Dashboard
The dashboard provides an overview of outstanding job posts and quotes, jobs and payments. You can click into any of the other remaining tabs (Hire, Manage or Payments) to see details about jobs/quotes, projects/WorkRooms and invoices, respectively. We weren’t able to customize the dashboard.
Guru’s dashboard is neatly organized into its key functions: posting jobs, managing jobs and paying freelancers.
Job Posting
As an employer, you can post a job in Guru for free to begin tapping into Guru’s network of 2 million freelancers. You also have the option to upgrade your ad to a “Featured Job” for $29.95 to boost its visibility, but the website doesn’t specify how long the ad will be promoted.
Once you post your job, you’ll receive quotes from Guru’s verified freelancers and decide whom to work with.
Agreements
When you hire a freelancer, you define the scope of the work, specific deliverables, duration, due dates and terms of payment. Guru has four main agreement types:
- Fixed price: You set a total fixed cost for a project, milestones and milestone due dates. Ideal for jobs that must fit within a particular budget.
- Hourly: Use Guru’s built-in time tracking software to track freelancers’ hourly rates and hours worked. Best for jobs that change over time and thus require flexibility.
- Task-based: Create tasks of any size as needed and pay the freelancer once it’s completed. This option gives your company more control from a trust and a cost perspective. For instance, assign small tasks to new freelancers to build trust or big tasks to freelancers you have a long-term partnership with. Moreover, you can keep costs under control by tracking cost per task.
- Recurring payment: You can pay a freelancer on a recurring basis, weekly, semimonthly, monthly or quarterly. This type requires the least management, since you set up the rule and let it run on its own until you stop it.
Your Agreements are stored and managed in freelancers’ respective WorkRooms.
WorkRooms
Guru’s WorkRooms are set up to facilitate collaboration between employers and freelancers. WorkRooms are where you manage freelancers’ work, team members, communication and manage all associated files.
If you hire freelancers on an hourly basis, any given freelancer’s WorkRoom will allow you to see status updates to track their work progress as well as the time spent. Guru has a built-in time tracking tool for freelancers to use.
Hiring multiple freelancers can get tricky to manage, so you can assign other team members in your organization to freelancers, so they can keep track of their assigned freelancers’ work.
Guru also features in-platform messaging that resembles an email inbox. Alternatively, you can connect Guru with WhatsApp to communicate with freelancers that way.
You can access the WorkRoom for any Freelancer you hired by navigating to the “Manage” tab, selecting the Job and then the Freelancer. After selecting the Freelancer, you’re taken to their WorkRoom where, on the left side, you see a navigation bar with an option for Agreements.
SafePay
Guru’s built-in, secure payment system promotes transparency, as the employer puts funds in their SafePay account that the freelancer can see. That way, the freelancer has confidence that the company has the funds to pay them. Conversely, the company has the security of reviewing the freelancer’s work and ensuring that it’s satisfactory before disbursing any payments.
Methods for paying your freelancers include:
- Credit card
- Debit card
- PayPal
- eCheck (U.S. only)
- Wire transfer
Guru assesses a payment handling fee in the amount of 2.9% of an invoice. So, for example, if you’re paying a freelancer $500 for their work, you pay an additional 2.9% of that amount ($14.50) to Guru. However, Guru returns the fee back to you if you use eCheck or wire transfer as your method of payment.
Guru also offers the option to automatically pay your freelancers using the AutoPay feature. This is ideal for companies managing multiple freelancers, as it prevents missed payments and thus a tarnished reputation on the platform.
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