Help center
Answers, without waiting for a reply.
The questions we get asked most, written out properly. If yours is not here, we are one message away.
For everyone
How money, contracts and accounts work, whichever side you are on.
Billing
- Invoices and receiptsEvery payment produces a receipt and most produce an invoice, as proper PDFs emailed to you and kept in your billing area. This explains the difference between the two, which events produce which, and what to do if you need one changed.
- Paying in your own currencyHow Open Lance shows prices in your currency and charges your card in it, why the price you see while browsing is the price you pay, how to change your currency, and why freelancers still see everything in US dollars.
Account & login
- Creating your account and choosing a roleHow to sign up, why Open Lance asks you to pick a role before anything else, what email verification unlocks, and what to do first depending on whether you are here to hire or to be hired.
- Two-factor authenticationHow to turn on two-factor authentication, what backup codes are for and why you must save them, how the email recovery channel works, what trusted devices do, and exactly what to do if you lose your phone.
- Notifications and what you can turn offHow notifications are grouped by category and channel, which ones cannot be switched off and why, what to do if email has stopped arriving, and how to keep the alerts that matter without the ones that do not.
- Contacting support and how tickets workHow to open a ticket, what to include so it is answered in one reply rather than five, how replying by email works, what the statuses mean, and how long a resolved ticket stays reopenable.
Trust & safety
- Account restrictions, suspensions and appealsWhat each kind of restriction actually stops you doing, why money already in escrow is never taken, how long a restriction lasts, and exactly how to appeal one. Every restriction is appealable and every appeal is read by a person.
- Verification levels and what they unlockOpen Lance has five verification levels, from unverified through to trusted partner. This explains what each one requires, what it changes for you, how to submit documents, and what happens if a submission is rejected.
- Staying safe on Open LanceThe scams that actually target marketplaces like this one, how to recognise them, why moving work or payment off-platform removes every protection you have, and how to report someone. Written from what genuinely happens rather than generic advice.
- Disputes and mediationWhat raising a dispute does to the money, how long you have to raise one, what evidence actually decides an outcome, the possible results, and why almost every dispute would have been better handled as a revision request a week earlier.
- Reviews and ratingsWho can review whom and when, why reviews cannot be bought or removed on request, how to write one that is actually useful, what to do about an unfair review, and why clients are reviewed too.
For clients
Hiring, paying, approving work and managing contracts.
Billing
- What hiring costs, and what the fees are forPosting, searching and receiving proposals are free. What you do pay is an escrow handling fee on each funding and a one-time contract initiation fee, both itemised before you confirm. This explains each, what is never charged, and how to keep the total down.
- Your wallet and payment methodsWhat the available and reserved balances mean, why money you funded is not spendable, how saved cards work and why a verified card matters more than you think, what happens when a card fails, and how to get a balance back out.
Something else
- The four ways to hire on Open LanceDrop-Ins, fixed-price projects, hourly contracts and Dedicated Hires solve different problems and are funded in different ways. This explains what each one is for, how the money works in each, and how to choose the right one so you are not fighting the model halfway through.
- Posting a job that gets good proposalsHow to post a job, what each field is actually for, why the description determines the quality of what you receive, how visibility and job types work, and what happens to a job once it is filled, closed or expired.
- Reviewing proposals and choosing someoneHow to read proposals quickly without missing the good ones, what the shortlist and interview stages are for, what the signals on a profile actually mean, and how to decline people properly so your reputation as a client holds up.
- Sending an offer and starting a contractThe offer is the document that becomes the contract. This covers what goes in one, how milestones should be structured, how funding works at the moment of sending, what happens if it expires, and what changes once the contract is live.
- Buying a Drop-InDrop-Ins are fixed packages you buy outright rather than negotiate. This covers tiers and extras, what happens the moment you pay, the requirements brief, the delivery clock, revisions, and what to do if delivery is late or wrong.
- Hourly contracts and the work diaryHow the weekly cycle works on an hourly contract: the buffer that is funded before each week, how hours are logged and approved, what happens if you approve fewer hours than were logged, and how pausing, resuming and ending work.
- Dedicated Hires: monthly engagementsA Dedicated Hire is a flat monthly amount for ongoing availability. This covers the reserve held in escrow, how each month settles, what you should agree before starting, and how to end one without damaging the relationship.
- Finding and inviting talent directlySearching for freelancers rather than waiting for proposals, how to read a profile properly, why invitations convert better than job posts, how to write one that gets answered, and how to keep track of people worth hiring again.
For freelancers
Finding work, getting paid, and building a reputation.
Billing
- Bid packs and Open Lance UltraThe two ways to get bids, what an Ultra subscription actually changes including zero commission on your earnings, how to work out whether it pays for you, how billing and renewals work, and how to cancel.
- The referral programmeHow referring freelancers and clients earns you free bids, what the person you refer has to do before anything is granted, how client referrals accrue from their spend, and the rules that stop it being gamed.
Payments & payouts
- How and when you get paidThe full path your money takes from the client approving your work to the money arriving in your bank: what commission is deducted and when, why approved money is not immediately withdrawable, how withdrawals work, and the automatic payout that runs whether or not you ask for it.
- Payout methods and getting verified for withdrawalThe three payout routes, how to choose between them, why the name on your bank account has to match your account, how verification works and how long it takes, and the failures that send a withdrawal back days later.
Account & login
- Your freelancer profileYour profile is read before your proposal, so an incomplete one wastes every bid you spend. This covers what each section is for, why completion percentage gates real things, and the parts clients actually look at.
- Talent Level and how ranking worksWhat the rank bands mean, what actually feeds them, why work from other platforms counts, how search ordering is decided, and what to do if your rank has dropped. Also what does not affect it, which is most of what people assume.
- Bidders: letting someone bid on your behalfHow to add a bidder who finds work and sends proposals for you, what they can and cannot do, how seats and invitations work, why this is the right way to delegate rather than sharing a login, and how to remove someone.
Something else
- Finding work, and what a bid costsHow to search and filter jobs, what a bid is and why applying costs one, how many each job type consumes, the free bids you start with, and how to stop wasting them on jobs you were never going to win.
- Writing a proposal that gets readWhat a client is actually looking for in the first ten seconds, how to open, what to include and what to leave out, how to price without underselling, and the mistakes that get a proposal archived unread.
- Delivering work and handling revisionsHow to submit a milestone so it gets approved rather than queried, what auto-approval protects you from, how to handle revision requests including ones that are really extra scope, and what to do when a client goes silent.
- Creating and selling a Drop-InHow to package a service you can deliver repeatedly: choosing what to productize, structuring tiers and extras, writing a requirements brief that saves you revisions, getting approved, and handling orders when they arrive.
- Logging hours in the work diaryHow the weekly cycle works from your side: logging hours as you go, why the notes matter more than the numbers, what the weekly hour cap means for you, what happens when a client approves fewer hours than you logged, and what protects you if the client goes quiet.
Still stuck?
Open a ticket and a person will read it. You do not need an account.