Pay your team

Pay your contractors from your own account. Not Deel’s.

Handl drafts each contractor’s statement from the hours you’ve already approved, you check it, hit approve, and the money goes from your Wise or Airwallex balance straight to them. $5 a contractor a month. No fee on the money.

Start free trial See how a pay run works

Free while we're in early access, until 31 January 2027.

Why we built it

Most agencies pay the same four or five people every month. Same rate, same bank details, same chase for the invoice.

And a lot of them pay $49 a head a month to a platform to do it... for contracts and compliance they set up once, two years ago.

We did it too. Felt silly. So we built the bit we actually used, pointed it at the Wise account we already had, and stopped paying for the rest.

How a pay run works

Six steps. You touch two of them.

Pay runs

Weekly run · 26 Oct – 1 Nov 2026

Ready to pay3 of 3 submitted

Example pay run: three contractors
Contractor	Statement	Expenses	Total	Status
Maya Okafor	34.0 h × AUD 75	AUD 86.40	AUD 2,636.40	Submitted
Daniel Reyes	28.5 h × USD 60	—	USD 1,710.00	Reviewed
Priya Natarajan	Retainer	—	GBP 1,200.00	Submitted

Statement drafted from approved hours · Toggl and HarvestTotal this run AUD 2,636.40 · USD 1,710.00 · GBP 1,200.00

Before you approve

Fee, paid by you: AUD 17.92 · USD 9.40 · GBP 6.10
Balance after: AUD 9,843.88 · USD 6,402.00 · GBP 1,049.90
Caps: Within AUD 10,000 per run
Second confirmation: Not needed

Approve and pay

Nothing is paid until you confirm on the next step.

Paid

Maya Okafor · AUD 2,636.40

Remittance emailed · booked to project costs

Example data. Labels from the live Pay runs screen.

Step 1
Connect Wise or Airwallex.
Your balance shows up on the page. Handl never holds the money.
Step 2
Invite a contractor.
Pick them from your team (or add them), set pay terms... weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or "paid 7 days after the weekly statement". They get a free Pay portal login, just their pay.
Step 3
The statement writes itself.
A few days before pay day a run opens and Handl drafts each statement from approved hours × their rate (or their retainer), in their currency.
Step 4
They check it.
Add an expense with the receipt, any currency. Add an adjustment with a note. Ask a question right on the statement. Submit.
Step 5
You approve.
Optional review step first. Over your cap? Re-type the total. Expenses and adjustments land in project costs so your margin stays right.
Step 6
Paid and recorded.
Money moves from your balance to theirs. You pay the transfer fee, they get the full amount. Remittance emailed, full history in their portal.

Want the detail? How pay runs work in the Help Centre.

Money safety

We’re paranoid about this bit on purpose.

A person approves every run.
Caps per run and per contractor, with a typed-total second confirmation.
Changed payout details hold the next payout until you acknowledge them.
Full audit log.
No double payments. Every transfer is idempotent.
Handl never holds your money.

What it costs

$5 a contractor. Nothing on the money.

per contractor paid, per month

Pay someone weekly, it’s still $5. Don’t pay them this month, it’s $0. Every plan.

Theirs

Wise or Airwallex’s transfer fee and FX

Shown on every payout. You pay them. We don’t add to it.

for your contractors

The Pay portal is free to them. Always.

Free while we're in early access, until 31 January 2027.

Compare it with Deel Work out your number

Deel starts at $49 per contractor per month (deel.com/pricing, 26 Oct 2026).

What this isn’t

Not an employer of record.

We don’t write contracts, classify workers, withhold tax or produce 1099s or TPAR reports (yet). If you need those, Deel’s good at them. If you’ve already got your contracts sorted and you just want to pay people without the per-seat tax, that’s us.

Works with

Time in. Client invoice out. Contractor paid. Books updated.

One place.

The ones people actually ask.

Does Handl hold my money?

No, never. Money leaves your own Wise or Airwallex balance and goes to the contractor's account. Handl drafts the statement and records the payout.

What does it cost?

$5 per contractor paid, per month, on every plan. Pay someone weekly and it's still $5. A contractor you don't pay this month costs nothing. Free while we're in early access, until 31 January 2027. On top of that you pay Wise or Airwallex their transfer fee directly. Handl adds nothing to it. Run your own numbers.

Which Wise accounts work?

Wise Business accounts based in AU, NZ, US, CA, SG or MY can fund transfers through the API. Anywhere else, use Airwallex. Wise and Handl.

Which countries can contractors be in?

Anywhere Wise or Airwallex can pay a bank account, or any contractor with a Wise account. Check your provider's country list.

Can contractors invoice me instead?

They don't need to. The statement is drafted from the approved hours, and they add expenses and adjustments and submit it. If you need a formal invoice, the statement and the emailed remittance are the record.

Does it handle contracts or tax forms?

No. Honest answer. Handl pays contractors you've already got sorted. It doesn't write contracts, classify workers or produce tax documents. If you need that, Deel is good at it. Handl vs Deel.

Is it payroll?

No. Contractors only. No PAYG, super or leave.

What stops a wrong payment?

A person approves every run. There are caps per run and per contractor, and above a cap the approver re-types the total. If a contractor changes their payout details, their next payout is held until you acknowledge it. There's an optional review step on each statement, and transfers are idempotent so a retry can't pay twice.

Does it work with QuickBooks or Xero?

Client invoices and payments sync to QuickBooks or Xero as they do today. Their hours already count as project cost, and approved expenses and adjustments from pay runs land there too, so margin per project stays right.

Can someone help me set it up?

Yes. Pick a time and we'll do it together. Book a time with Darren.

Free tools

Take something with you

Try it, no sign-up

Contractor payment cost calculator

What paying your contractors costs a year through a platform like Deel, against paying from your own Wise or Airwallex balance. Every figure dated. Result on the page, no sign-up.

Open the calculator