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Lumanu makes it easier, faster, and cheaper to get paid by your brand partners. To use Lumanu you must request access after which you will connect your bank account via Plaid by Visa. Through your Lumanu dashboard, you can follow our simple guided process to request payment from your brand partner.
When using the payments feature, Lumanu will handle the following for you:
Once Lumanu receives payment, funds will be deposited directly into your bank account.
Lumanu helps streamline the entire process by completing any vendor signup processes/other paperwork for you, managing the invoicing and follow up process, and streamlining payment by automating the ACH process with same day or 1 day ACH processing.
You will receive money in your bank account as soon as your brand partner remits funds. Because Lumanu has pre-established relationships with leading brands and influencer agencies we are often able to accelerate payment terms. Lumanu does not hold onto your money in a “balance” and immediately deposits your money into your bank account.
Because of our process, creators are often paid around 20 days faster when using Lumanu as compared to managing the invoicing process themselves.
How is my personal and banking information kept secure?
Lumanu secure integration with Plaid by Visa ensures all of your personal and payment information is fully encrypted so that no one (including Lumanu) has access to your account or routing number. When connecting via Plaid, Lumanu sets you up as a “receive only” user. This means that Lumanu does not have access to withdraw funds from your account, Lumanu can only deposit money into your account. You can learn more about how Plaid keeps your data secure here.
Please follow our step by step guide in this help article to create your first payment request.
Lumanu is designated as a third party settlement organization. This means we are responsible for handling tax reporting requirements. Because payments are sent to you via Lumanu, you do not need to submit W-9s to your brand partners and they will not be required to issue a 1099-MISC. If your brand partner asks, you can tell them that you would like to be paid through Lumanu, and that your tax paperwork is handled by us.
You will be required to file a W-9 with Lumanu in the event that you use Lumanu for 200 transactions AND a total of $20,000 (or more) in a calendar year. Lumanu will issue a 1099-K at the end of the year if you meet these requirements. If not, your annual earnings will be available in Lumanu to assist with income reporting and tax preparation.
Yes, with Lumanu, your payment is 100% guaranteed as long as your brand partner pays your request.
We sure do! We will handle all of the follow-up and reminders with your brand partner to ensure you are paid as soon as possible. You can still send personal follow-ups if you would like, but just know we are also doing this for you! You can think of us as your virtual collections assistant.
Lumanu’s lets you view and manage all your payment requests in an easy to use dashboard. If you need to cancel a request, simply cancel in your Lumanu dashboard. If you need to edit a payment request after it is sent you will need to cancel the sent request and send a new payment request with the correct information.
Once you cancel a payment request we will let your brand partner know the request has been canceled.
Connecting your bank is fast and easy. Simply navigate to your profile within your Lumanu account and select “add payment”. This will prompt Plaid by Visa to pop up with a step by step guided process on how to select the bank that you prefer to have the funds deposited in once you are paid. Once you have selected your bank, you will be prompted to log in to your bank with your banking credentials. This process is entirely tokenized and encrypted for your security, Lumanu never has access to your account information. Plaid supports over 4,500 U.S. based financial institutions, however, ff you do not see your bank within Plaid’s list of options, please reach out to payments@lumanu.com.
Lumanu integrates with Plaid by Visa to ensure that we can collect your banking information safely and simply. Plaid is technology made for apps and used by top brands like American Express, Venmo, and Acorns as the most trusted technology in the space. To learn more about Plaid, you can visit their website here.
No. Lumanu currently supports depositing funds to U.S. based financial institutions in US dollars.
Remember that you are NOT adding your banking information to Lumanu. You are granting access to a Plaid token (a Visa company which is used by Venmo) which allows Lumanu to deposit funds into your account. We never see your account information and cannot withdraw funds. That said we do require you connect an account (or we can’t pay you).
It is preferable (but not required) to inform your brand partner during the contract/negotiation process that you will be sending a payment request via Lumanu, a third party settlement organization that processes your payments. In fact you can insert this Lumanu clause into your contract!
If you do not inform your brand partner prior to negotiations, no worries (this is what happens most of the time). Lumanu will generate an invoice for the brand based on your payment request which will serve as an invoice for the brand’s records. We even give you the option to include a PO# (purchase order number) if the brand requires it to be listed. In the rare event the brand requires a vendor number we take care of that for you behind the scenes.
Lumanu will invoice your brand partner or agency as “Payable to Lumanu, care of YOUR NAME” so that we can manage the vendor setup process for you.
Lumanu is free to use for creators. There is no charge for using Lumanu to help manage your payment requests. We do deduct a small convenience fee (2% or $10) from your payment to use our service and unlock the benefits of an easier, faster, and more secure way to get paid directly to your bank account.
Standard Fees:
Lumanu is the cheapest option in the industry to get paid outside of slow and old school checks. Lumanu charges 2% of your total payment capped at $10 as a convenience fee. We are the only payment solution for creators that caps the transaction fees to ensure that you can take home as much of your check as possible. You will see the total convenience fee when creating your payment request and when you get paid, the total amount you receive will have the $10 or 2% (whichever is less) automatically deducted from your deposit. We recommend that you discuss who will cover the transaction fee with your brand partner and to include the fee in the total amount on your contract ahead of time.
“Vendor Sign up Processes” is the process of needing to go through a required registration process with your brand partner to get approved as a “Vendor” in their internal systems. Not all brands require a vendor sign up the approval process, but if they do it can oftentimes be a confusing and tedious process to have to go through as a creator. Lumanu will take this off your plate entirely so you never have to worry about this step again. The reason Lumanu will go through the process is so that the vendor can send us payment on your behalf.
If you are currently responsible for submitting invoices / monthly requests for payment Lumanu’s payment solution may be a great option.
Lumanu makes it really easy to submit multiple payment requests for a single collaboration and ensures you get paid on time for each and every payment request. Lumanu also supports setting up payment requests up front and saving as drafts so you can send out as you complete deliverables.
This varies depending on your brand partner. We typically recommend sending payment requests upfront (based on your terms) to get the payable process started. For example, if your agreement states that you will be paid net 30 once content is posted, you may want to send an invoice due 30 days after your planned post date. That said, some brands require you to wait until content is delivered to send an invoice so definitely check with your brand partner.
While your team members could technically request money from you via Lumanu we realize this is not practical. Currently, Lumanu is only supporting brand to creator payments OR agency to creator payments. However, we understand that many creators have multiple paid members of their team to pay once they are paid. The ability to send payments as a creator to your team is a feature we are working on, so hang tight!
If you are paid by your agency or manager then you would request the payment from your agency or manager through Lumanu instead of your brand partner directly.
Yes! Lumanu has several other amazing features that creators can take advantage of free of charge. Check out our other products here for an overview of how you can get the most out of Lumanu as a creator.
