Fees & Assurance

Fees Transparency

Most online services marketplaces make it very hard to find the fees they charge users. Elderberry.work believes in fees transparency, and is happy to provide that information below.

Processing Consulting Fees Through Elderberry.work

We aim to keep as much money in the pockets of Consultants and Clients as possible, including by offering low fees for using our marketplace/platform. Our hybrid fee model means that Consultants and Clients share platform fees equally.

Processing consulting fees through Elderberry.work’s integration with Stripe, benefits everyone:

• Businesses: No risk of paying for work that is not completed
• Consultants: No risk of doing work for a Client and not being paid for it
• work: Platform fees allow us continue to grow our user base and services to provide ever increasing value to both groups

Our terms and conditions, which all users agree to when they sign up with Elderberry.work, require consulting fees to be processed through our platform.

 

Elderberry.work Platform Fees                                                                   

There are no fees to use Elderberry.work for browsing, signing up, listing experience or posting jobs, nor for Client and candidate Consultants to discuss the scope of work. Platform fees, considered a transaction fee or a finders’ fee, only apply when work is commissioned by a Client from a Consultant. The following outlines the platform fee sliding scale and how it is calculated.

Fee Scale

Consultant’s Fee to Client	Consultant	Client
Minimum Fixed Fee	$250	$250
$1,000 to $10,000	12.5%	12.5%
$10,001 to $25,000	10%	10%
$25,001 to $50,000	7.5%	7.5%
$50,000to $75,000	5%	5%
>$75,000	TBC*	TBC*

* For Consultants’ fee over $75,000, we work with both the Client and the Consultant to land on an appropriate platform transaction fee.

 

 

Fee and Payment Processing Example

Business Client: The Elderberry.work platform fee is added to the Consultant’s fee to calculate total payable by the Client. Clients generally pay this total by credit card to initiate work by a Consultant.

Consultant’s fee to Client	$15,000
Platform fee rate category:   10%	$1,500
Total cost to Client	$16,500

 

Escrow

The Consultant’s fee paid by the Client is held in escrow by Stripe. If Clients prefer e-transfer, or want milestone payments, please contact us to arrange it. In such cases, Elderberry.work will hold Consultant fees in escrow.

 

Consultant: The Elderberry.work platform fee is subtracted from the Consultant’s fee to calculate the total income to the Client. Funds are released from escrow by Stripe when it is agreed by the Client and Consultant that the consulting work is completed, and our platform fee is then charged.

Consultant’s fee to Client	$15,000
Platform fee rate category:   10%	$1,500
Total revenue to Consultant	$13,500

Independent consultants using Elderberry.work are responsible for filing the appropriate income and GST/HST taxes due to the CRA. The GST/HST, if applicable, should be included in the Consultant’s fee charged to Clients.

 

Payments Processing

We are pleased to use a leading global payments provider, Stripe, with its best practices for data security and privacy protection. At no time does Elderberry.work see any of its users’ banking or credit card details. When you input that information, it goes directly into Stripe’s system behind its firewall, with its leading security and privacy protocols.

Stripe has rigorous risk assessment practices to help avoid fraud. Its expansive global network of customers means it has prior experience with 89% of users it encounters.

 

Assurance of Consultants

Elderberry.work aims for best practices to ensure you have a safe, secure, and easy to use experience with us. These are some of the steps we take to achieve that, including methods of assuring Consultants’ experience.

1. Identity Confirmation and Protection

• Our global payments processing provider, Stripe, has expertise in assuring identities during the onboarding process, and protecting users’ financial information. Find information on Stripe here.
• Consultants provide their banking information to receive payments from client Companies via Stripe, and each bank has its identity verification practices, as do credit card companies for clients.
• Self-declaration: sellers must agree to our terms of use, which include declaring that all the information provided is true and accurate and a code of conduct
• Our Data Privacy Policy and practices

 

2. Consultants Validation & Verification

Of course, we recommend each business conduct its own due diligence on any Consultant candidates of interest found on Elderberry.work. Below is the pre-screening work we do to help qualify candidates for you:

• Consultants sign up and list their experience, including optional information such as testimonials/references, certifications, accreditations, etc.
• We review Consultants’ online profile, including LinkedIn and other social media, as well as their personal websites if available
• We do a screening and onboarding video call with each Consultant who applies to join us, and approve each Consultant’s experience listing before making it publicly available
• Reviews: Consultants on Elderberry.work are reviewed by Business customers after work transactions are completed. Businesses are also reviewed by Consultants, in a “double blind” process which ensures neither sees the other’s review until completing one too.