How Contractor Payments and Invoices Work: A Simple Guide for RemoFirst Clients

Understanding the lifecycle of an invoice at RemoFirst ensures that your contractors are paid accurately and on time. This guide consolidates everything you need to know about how invoices are created, funded, and disbursed.

1. Invoice Types and Creation

RemoFirst manages different payment flows depending on your needs. Invoices can be autogenerated by the platform for recurring monthly pay, created as "pay-as-you-go" for variable work, or generated through on-demand invoicing for expenses and reimbursements. For reimbursements, contractors submit expenses which clients must then approve to generate a draft invoice for funding.

2. The Importance of the PRID

Every invoice includes a unique Payment Request ID (PRID) located in the top right corner. It is critical that clients include this PRID as the Remittance Information when sending funds. This allows our system to automatically allocate your payment to the correct invoice, preventing manual reconciliation delays or mix-ups.

3. Handling Underpayments and Overpayments

Discrepancies between the invoice total and the funds received will pause the payout process.

• Underpayments: If the received amount is less than the invoice total, the payment to the contractor will not be processed until the remaining balance is settled.
• Overpayments: If you overpay, the system will mark the invoice as paid and process the contractor payout. However, the excess funds cannot be automatically credited to future invoices. Clients must provide bank details in PDF format to receive a refund for the overpaid amount.

4. Standard Payout Timeline

Once RemoFirst receives your funds, contractors are typically paid within 1–2 business days. To ensure contractors receive their funds by the end of the month, we recommend scheduling your payment to us early enough to account for bank processing times.

5. Common Causes for Payment Delays

While most payments are seamless, several factors can cause delays at the bank or intermediary level:

• Name Mismatches: The bank account name provided on the platform must match the contractor’s official bank records exactly. Discrepancies between Latin and Arabic script or names used in identity verification (e.g., Sumsub) can cause bank rejections.
• Non-Standard ID Types: When setting up payment details, contractors should use standard IDs (like Passports). Using placeholders like "Other" with values like "01" often leads to payment rejections by beneficiary banks.
• Bank Holidays and Intermediaries: International transfers (SWIFT) may be delayed by bank holidays in different regions or additional compliance checks by intermediary banks.

6. Egypt Payouts (EGP)

To improve reliability for payments in Egypt, RemoFirst has transitioned to using Wise for EGP processing. This change was implemented to mitigate historical delays caused by traditional banking rails and to provide more consistent delivery timelines.