Q: Can I change my plan and go from hiring full-time to hiring part-time or vice-versa?
A: It is possible to increase/decrease the hours of your current contract with due notice. As per our Terms and Conditions, within 1-3 months from the date, the contract is first effective, clients are allowed to cancel it with a 1-day notice. If the contract has been effective for more than 3 months, the client is expected to give us 14-business-day notice so we can inform our workmates and process the cancellation of the contract before it can be effective.

Q: What type of payment do you accept?
A: Clients based in Australia can pay via bank transfer to our Australian bank account. International clients pay through TransferWise (preferred) or Paypal transfer. All clients, regardless of the payment method used, receive an invoice from RWM to display due amounts for the month and credit notes of unused hours if there are any.

Q: Do the prices listed in your pricing section reflect the total cost?
A: Those prices are used to give you an idea of how much it costs to hire an expert for a position, the actual price for your workmate might be even smaller. The hourly cost you’ll see on the resume of a candidate presented to you represents the total cost for that employee. There will be no set-up fee or other additional costs.

Q: Do you offer refunds?
A: Refunds are issued by way of a credit note for unused hours that are prepaid by the client. This will be deducted from the amount due in your next invoice. However, for the end of service, it will be credited back to your nominated bank account within 3-5 business days after the last working day of the workmate.

Q: How are my Philippine-based employees getting their money?
A: Workmates are paid directly to their nominated Philippine bank accounts. They do not have to take care of transfer costs or worry that their funds might not be credited as we make sure that they are paid on time every time.

Q: Do I have to pay the 13th-month salary?
A: No, it is not mandatory for clients to pay 13th month to their remote workmates. However, you are free to award bonus/es to your workmates any time you please as a sign of appreciation for an excellent work done throughout the year or for any other reason you deem fit.

Q: Do I have to pay for health insurance or benefits?
A: Health Insurance and other forms of benefits are additional incentives that you can give your workmates after a year of working with you and your business. This is not mandatory but can be an excellent incentive option to acknowledge your workmate’s loyalty, hard work, and excellent performance at work.

Q: Do I sign a contract with the people that will work for my company?
A: You will have to confirm agreement to our Terms and Conditions but you will NOT be asked to sign a contract with lock-in. The workmates in return sign a contract with us so that they can perform the role they are hired for.

Q: Can I pay in advance?
A: The Terms and Conditions stipulate that you will prepay your workmate’s work hours a month in advance. This means we will secure a month’s pay for your workmate to ensure that he/she is promptly paid for all the work hours done for the month.

Q: How am I billed?
A: You will receive an invoice on the first 2 days of each month indicating the amount to be prepaid for that month. The settlement of the invoice should be within 3 days after receipt. All prepaid hours from the previous month that were unused will be reflected and credited to your next month’s bill.

Fee Structure

Set-up fee
There is no set-up fee for regular clients unless particular equipment is required and needs to be installed before a project can start.

Fee increases
You have the option to increase your workmate’s rate at any point of the service. Usually, this is done after the first six months or annually based on merit or performance.

Overtime work
Overtime work is charged using the same regular hourly rate. There is no extra fee above the regular hourly rate when staff works over the agreed hours or holidays. Overtime work is defined as any hour worked above the standard 8 hours, not counting the 1-hour lunch break on a 9-hour full-time shift. For part-time virtual assistants, overtime work is defined as any hours worked above the 4-hour shift.

Phone charges
The client is responsible for their telephone charges and fees. Remote Workmate encourages clients to use Skype business telephone plans and we can help set up Skype accounts properly on request.

Absences
If a Remote Workmate assistant is absent or not logged in the system for an hour (60 minutes) or more, a credit memo equal to the hourly rate will be given to the client for those corresponding hours unless the workmate was given explicit permission to make-up for the lost hours. The credit memo will be reflected on the client’s next month’s invoice.

Performance-salary evaluation
Evaluations are made in the 6th month after a Remote Workmate virtual assistant started working for a new client. This is done to check if the dedicated staff member is still handling the original role he/she was contracted for and to see if there is the case to discuss an appraisal related pay for outstanding performance.

If you have other questions, please leave a comment and we’ll offer you the answer you were looking for: