ClockIN lets a poster publish a bounty or approach an available worker without paying first. Payment protection starts only after a worker is selected or accepts a direct offer and the reward is successfully secured through supported checkout.
Marketplace policy version 2026-09-08 · effective 8 September 2026.
Publishing a public bounty does not by itself charge the poster. A public bounty can collect proposals before the poster chooses a worker. A poster may also send a direct offer to a member who has opted in to bounty work.
If no suitable proposal is received, or a direct offer is declined before funding, the poster may close the unfunded bounty without a ClockIN marketplace payment having been captured.
The poster must describe the requested deliverable, reward, deadline and objective acceptance criteria clearly enough for another person to understand what completion means before a worker accepts the assignment.
Acceptance criteria should describe observable requirements rather than subjective preferences. A poster must not materially expand the agreed scope after assignment without the worker's agreement.
A proposal is an offer to do the work, not the final deliverable. A worker should not be expected to complete unpaid speculative work merely to submit a proposal.
Any ClockIN member may opt in to a searchable freelance portfolio. Portfolio owners may describe previous work, attach their own ClockIN projects and add links to profiles or portfolios on services such as Upwork, Fiverr, Contra or Freelancer.
Unless ClockIN explicitly labels a particular connection or data point as verified, external links, ratings, earnings, reviews and other third-party claims are user-supplied evidence and are not independently certified by ClockIN.
A portfolio owner must have the right to publish any previous-work description, link, screenshot, project or client information they add. Confidential, infringing, deceptive or unauthorized client material must not be posted.
A direct offer becomes an assigned bounty only after the invited worker accepts it. Acceptance alone does not mean the payment is secured.
Once a worker is selected or has accepted a direct offer, the poster can secure the reward through supported ClockIN checkout. The worker should not begin protected work until ClockIN explicitly shows Payment secured.
The current standard ClockIN marketplace fee is 10% of the payee amount. The exact fee and expected payee amount are shown before checkout and snapshotted on the transaction, so a later policy change does not rewrite an already-created paid-work agreement.
Provider charges, taxes or settlement costs may also apply where legally or contractually required. If a payment has already been captured and later requires a refund, payment-provider transaction charges may not always be reversible.
After payment is secured, the assigned worker should submit the final work through the protected ClockIN deliverable flow and include the evidence reasonably needed to review it, such as a project, repository, pull request, file, URL or explanation.
Formal delivery starts the review period. Work delivered only outside ClockIN can be harder to verify in a dispute.
The poster may accept the work, request an in-scope revision, or open a dispute. A revision request should identify the specific acceptance criterion that remains unmet.
Unless the bounty states otherwise, one reasonable revision within the original scope is expected before a quality dispute is escalated. A revision request cannot be used to obtain materially new work for the original reward.
The default protected review period is 5 calendar days after formal delivery. If the poster does nothing by the displayed deadline and no dispute is open, the transaction becomes eligible for payout release under the provider settlement workflow.
A full or partial refund may be appropriate where work is not delivered, is materially incomplete against the stated acceptance criteria, contains material the worker did not have the right to provide, or another specific transaction promise is clearly breached.
A refund is not automatic merely because the poster changes their mind, prefers a different creative direction that was not part of the agreed criteria, or receives no downstream business result from otherwise conforming work.
A dispute pauses normal payment release where the protected payment workflow supports it. A resolution may include full payout, partial payout, full refund, partial refund or external escalation. See the Refund & Cancellation Policy and Dispute Resolution Policy.
Each party is responsible for agreeing what intellectual-property rights, licences, source files or usage rights are included in the bounty. Unless a bounty explicitly states otherwise, ClockIN does not create or transfer IP rights merely because a payment is released.
Do not post or submit unlawful, infringing, stolen, deceptive or unauthorized work.