The new commission-free service, which has been created by freelance career platform UnderPinned and payments platform Banked, will cut the average time it takes to process a freelancer’s invoice from three minutes and 30 seconds to just 30 seconds - an 86% reduction, while also removing the possibility of incorrectly entering payment details. To set this in context, for a business which employs 100 freelancers a month, its accounts team could reduce the amount of time they spend processing contractor invoices by around 60 hours per year.

The first-of-its-kind service can now be used by any business which employs freelance workers or contractors, using UnderPinned’s Virtual Office platform.

UnderPinned was founded in 2019 to create a one-stop solution for the freelance economy from proposals to payment. The company aims to tackle the lack of infrastructure and support that exists for the UK’s two million freelance workers and it recently launched its full paid-for service. Through its Virtual Office, it provides freelancers with the tools to manage every aspect of their working life, from portfolio management to creating automated contracts.

Founded in 2017, Banked set out to revolutionise how payments are processed. Turning historically laboured and fee-heavy transactions into cheap, real-time, account-to-account payments. Banked’s goal was to champion the idea of ‘getting paid’, making it as frictionless as possible for businesses and individuals to get paid what they’ve earned, when it’s earned.

Albert Azis-Clauson, CEO and Founder of UnderPinned, said: “The number of people choosing freelance work has grown rapidly in recent years, but the infrastructure that supports this type of employment has failed to keep pace with the trend.

“One area where this is most evident is in payments. The traditional process of paying an invoice for a freelancer is extremely clunky and time-consuming and that’s we’ve decided to launch this new service. Through our collaboration with Banked, businesses can pay invoices for contractors in seconds, saving a huge amount of time in the long run.”

Brad Goodall, CEO and co-founder of Banked, said: “We started Banked because we wanted to build a platform that allowed businesses and consumers to get more of what they've earned, and faster. Our new partnership with UnderPinned delivers on this, helping freelancers and businesses save a huge amount of time and, ultimately, money. It provides a new way of paying invoices that will transform the freelancer experience.”