Internetivo has been a service company in Cyprus since 2010. When you hire through Internetivo, you buy the work from Internetivo, a VAT-registered Cypriot company, and Internetivo is responsible for delivering it. This article walks through what that means in practice: who you pay, when the people doing the work get paid, and what happens at each step in between.
Who you are paying
The short version: you pay Internetivo, and Internetivo pays the people who do the work.
Internetivo is the seller of every service you buy on the platform. Every invoice you receive comes from Internetivo, through the same billing system that has handled our hosting and web clients for years. The work itself is delivered either by Internetivo's own salaried staff or by independent professionals and subcontractors on the network. Internetivo pays those professionals for work that has been accepted.
That arrangement matters for one reason above all: Internetivo never holds money on anyone else's behalf. The money you pay is a payment to Internetivo for a service. You have one company to deal with, one contract partner and one invoice trail.
What makes this different from a traditional agency is that you are not kept in the dark. You always see the person doing the work, shown by their first name. When both sides have opted in, you also see the organisation they belong to. And you can see how the price you pay is shared, before you agree to anything.
Milestones: paying in steps you can see
Most projects are broken into milestones. A typical project might have three: a plan, the build, and the launch. Each milestone has its own deliverable and its own share of the price, so you always know what you are paying for and where the project stands.
For a public task, you pay the agreed price when you publish it. That is what lets professionals send proposals with confidence: they know the work is real and funded. From there, the order of events is always the same:
- A professional delivers a milestone.
- You review it.
- When you approve it, and your payment has been received, the professional is paid for that milestone.
The professional is never paid for work that has not been accepted. And the way the price is shared does not change from one milestone to the next. Whatever share was shown to you at the start applies to every milestone of the project, including the last one.
Approving work, asking for changes, and what happens if you are busy
When a milestone is delivered, you have three choices: approve it, ask for changes, or raise a problem.
If you ask for changes, the milestone goes back to the professional, and nothing is paid until you are happy with the result.
If you are busy and do not respond, the work does not sit in limbo forever. Seven days after delivery, a milestone is approved automatically. Before that happens, we remind you twice: on day three and again on day six. Automatic approval does not apply if you have asked for changes or if a dispute is open. It exists so that professionals who have done their job are not left waiting indefinitely, while you keep a full week to look at the work.
If something goes wrong, disputes go through Internetivo. A person on our team looks at what was agreed and what was delivered, and decides before anyone is paid. Because Internetivo is the company you bought the work from, we are the ones who answer for it.
How professionals are paid
For the professionals on the network, the other side of the process is just as simple.
Once a milestone is approved and the client's payment has been received, the professional's earnings appear on their Payouts page. New earnings go through a clearing period first, and the page shows the date each amount becomes ready to pay out. When they are ready, they choose Request payout. Our team approves every payout before it is sent. Payouts go by bank transfer only: SEPA Instant, which usually arrives within minutes once sent, or SWIFT for banks outside the SEPA area. The minimum payout is €50.
A few checks protect everyone involved. The bank account must be in the professional's own name, and the name is checked every time a new account is added. At the first payout, the professional adds a photo of their ID once, so that a person at Internetivo can confirm their name and that they are 18 or older, as our Terms require. The photo is deleted as soon as it has been checked. If anything does not match, the payout is held and a member of our team decides what happens next. An account that has already been paid is not checked again.
Internetivo's own staff are a separate case. They are salaried employees, so they are never paid per task, and on a task worked by staff, no staff member approves it, closes it or decides a dispute about it.
Why we set it up this way
We set it up this way on purpose. Being the company you actually buy from means:
- One responsible party. If a project goes wrong, you are not left arbitrating between strangers. Internetivo is accountable.
- Proper paperwork. Every payment comes with an invoice from a registered Cypriot company, which keeps your accountant happy.
- A clear moment when money moves. Professionals are paid for approved work, and the review week is visible to both sides.
- Openness about the price. You can see who is doing the work and how the price is shared, so there are no hidden layers between you and the person delivering.
If you have a project in mind, the quickest way to see how this works for your own budget is to answer the four questions in the planner on our homepage, then post your task. You will see the milestones laid out before you commit to anything.