The need for easy and frictionless financial tools that help creators and businesses get paid on time has never been greater. And with many unique players, there’s not a one-size-fits-all payouts solution that makes it easy for stakeholders to work together to make payments fast and easy for everyone involved in the process including

• addressing the pain points around vendor onboarding

• collecting and storing sensitive information

• managing outstanding deliverables and payments

• dealing with tax compliance

• integrating seamlessly with accounting software.

In today’s world of influencer marketing and the creator economy, payments are sent in a variety of ways and by various payment methods. Companies like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Apple Podcasts all offer monetization tools for creators to incentivize them to create content on their platforms (think Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts).

Brands can also pay content creators to promote their products or services through sponsored posts and/or paid partnerships across various social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube Shorts.

And there are numerous methods by which funds are ultimately transferred, including PayPal, Bill.com, Venmo, bank transfer, and even creator funds. Payment terms vary from upfront to Net 30, 60, and 90 days after the scope of work is complete.

Let’s face it, payment speed and transparency for businesses and individuals working in the creator economy is a network problem. One mistake or delay in the payments process creates a domino effect across the entire network. This causes real stress on freelancers who rely on on-time payment to pay the bills and impacts the people who “hire” freelancers who have built these relationships based on trust.

To run your business efficiently and effectively, managing (or better yet get rid of) the headaches that could potentially arise is critical so you can focus on actually running your business. We’ll walk you through some of the challenges from the beginning of the payments process to the end that has a trickle-down effect on the rest of your business and other stakeholders, as well as solutions to help manage payouts effectively and efficiently.

The Players in the game of Influencer Partnerships

Player 1: The Marketing Team (The Strategists)‍

Role: Campaign planning, influencer sourcing/vetting, contract negotiation (initial terms), deliverable tracking, relationship management.

Pain Points: Manual verification of invoice verification and handoffs to Finance, budget reconciliation issues, lack of visibility into payment status affecting influencer relationships, stuck in the middle of influencers and finance chasing down late payments, pressure to show ROI while bogged down in admin.

"Our marketing team wants to focus on building great campaigns and creator relationships, not chasing invoices or W-9s." Danielle Ito - Head of Influencer Marketing at Notion

Player 2: The Finance Team (The Bankers & Rule Keepers)

• Role: Budget allocation and tracking, payment processing, financial controls, compliance (tax, AP policies), reconciliation, reporting.

• Pain Points: Inconsistent or missing data from Marketing, diverse/manual payment methods, global payment complexities, fraud risks, compliance risks, year-end tax form scramble, integrating influencer payment data into ERP/accounting systems.

"Finance needs accurate vendor data upfront, a streamline approval process, and an easy way to ensure accuracy of and reconcile payments and handle tax reporting without manual data entry." Justin Vatz - CFO of Obviously (A WPP agency)

Player 3: The Legal Team (The Referees)

• Role: Contract drafting/review, terms and conditions, regulatory compliance (FTC disclosures, data privacy), risk mitigation.

• Pain Points: Ensuring contracts are executed before payment, managing variations in terms, lack of visibility into whether payment processes adhere to agreed terms, potential for misclassification of creators.

"Legal's priority is to protect the business. We need assurance that contracts are airtight and vendors and payment processes are compliant before money moves." Head of business affairs at leading travel and hospitality business

Player 4: Creators & Talent Management (The Talent)

• Role: Content creation, audience engagement, deliverable submission.

• Pain Points: Complex/slow onboarding, opaque payment timelines, chasing late payments, incorrect payment amounts, difficulties obtaining tax forms, managing payments from multiple clients.

"Creators want to deliver content that delights brands and our audience. We need to get paid accurately and on time, without administrative hassle." Lloyd George, Creator and Talent Manager

The Process

Vendor Setup and Management Process‍

Onboarding a new vendor can be a long process between collecting payment details and W-9 information and managing communications amongst internal and external partners. Not to mention, contact details and payment information are constantly changing. As the number of vendors or freelancers scales so does the complexity of managing this.

Legacy AP software does a decent job of vendor onboarding for suppliers and B2B relationships but results in a lot of extra work when trying to use it for the creator economy. Someone ends up having to work with influencers and handhold them during this process which is not what anyone at a business should have to spend time on.

This should all be handled by an single tool and make it incredibly simple for creators to set up and manage their payment and tax information. Automating your vendor management process flow is key to staying on top of important changes and updates (let your influencers manage it!) when it comes to sending money to payees. Lumanu makes this process efficient by taking on onboarding and compliance.

‍Invoice Processing and Scheduling

Depending on the business/agency, invoice processing can also be an incredibly grueling process. At the end of the day, nobody wants to manage invoices or even have a “better invoice management process”. The cycle of receiving the invoice, approving it, setting a remittance date, paying the invoice, and recording it in your accounting system is antiquated. Without any standardization or automation involved, invoice processing requires a number of hoops and hurdles and back and forth that are not always in the business or client’s control and end up wasting time.

To make it more confusing, there is no standardization in the industry regarding the processes put in place. Some content creators are required by the brand/agency to send the invoice, but sometimes the creator might be asked to just wait, as the brand will pay them per the contractual agreement. In cases where it’s the ladder and the company issues scheduled or push payouts, there’s a lack of visibility on the creator’s end. For creators, transparency is key so they can keep track of what they’ll be paid and when – especially at the end of the year when rounding up tax information.

There is not likely to be a “standard” process anytime soon (or ever), however, there are software solutions that can provide more consistent experiences to all stakeholders regardless of the internal processes businesses have set up to manage freelancer partnerships. Lumanu redefines the payment process by giving the brand or agency Marketer an easy way to create self-billing invoices to ensure payouts are accurate and compliance without the back and forth.

‍Payment Terms

Staying on top of due dates and getting invoices paid on time is necessary to keep fueling a business or agency, but oftentimes net payment terms can affect that. In an ideal world for freelancers and creators, net payment terms wouldn’t exist. However, these terms are necessary because it allows businesses to meet cash flow and working capital needs.

Cash flow is often the most challenging problem a small business owner faces, but net payment terms allow businesses to sell inventory before paying for it. Despite companies working directly with freelancers and contractors, Finance departments usually have strict net 30, 60, or 90-day payment terms and there’s no way to bypass this.

When agencies or talent managers get involved, there’s now a middleman which impacts the timeline a freelancer gets paid because they don’t get paid until the agency/talent manager does. This creates a ripple effect that impacts every player in the creator economy at scale. It has the potential to be detrimental to client relationships.

‍Payment Approvals

Busy creative agencies are moving quickly and juggling multiple work streams including tracking campaign-level budgets, managing timelines, ensuring campaign deliverables are met, and producing incredible creative content. On top of managing the day-to-day workload, the Marketing and Accounting teams are also responsible for coordinating campaign deliverables with creators and freelancers.

While these teams can “approve” and “confirm” the completion of the deliverables, the process of making the payment needs to be coordinated with the Finance team, creating additional and unnecessary back and forth. The time it takes to approve payments can easily be eliminated when the right internal teams involved have permission to delegate approvals.

‍Payments to managers and agents (and payment splitting)

When it’s time to get paid there are often several stakeholders involved in collecting and receiving payments where payment splitting is required. This typically affects talent managers who receive a certain percentage of the deal/offer if creators are involved – think of it as revenue sharing. This can be a heavy and manual lift for Finance and Accounting teams or the talent manager/agent, depending on how payments flow in real-time. Most often, the burden is felt by talent managers who need to spend time collecting payment and then manually sending it to the freelancer they represent. This results in wasting time when this time could be better spent representing clients and getting more business. Not to mention, payments can get stuck during the transfer of funds. There is a ton of opportunity for automation with payment splitting so talent managers can get rid of this repetitive task.

‍Receiving Payment

Ensuring the personal and bank information of the payees are correct and up to date is no easy feat when the process is manual. This often depends on the payment method the creator is using. It requires flawless attention to detail and multiple steps of verification. Additionally, internal teams must manage the verification process when a payment is received to help reduce any friction that comes up. To play it safe, it’s better when all parties can be looped in.

‍Tax Compliance and Filing

Getting paid is a lot more than moving money from point A to point B. There’s additional paperwork involved that can be a pain after the money is moved. End-of-the-year tax filing – collecting W9s, issuing 1099s, managing name, and address changes – is a major headache for small business and agency owners.

Tax compliance for influencer payment game is getting more intense. Businesses are responsible for issuing Form 1099-NEC to 1099 freelancers paid over $600 annually (including gifted items). With the IRS increasing its focus on the creator economy, accurately collecting W-9s, validating TINs, tracking payments, and generating 1099s isn't just good practice—it's essential to avoid penalties. This responsibility heavily involves both Marketing (for initiating vendor relationships) and Finance (for processing and reporting)

Thankfully, Lumanu’s all-in-one payouts solution takes care of all of this for you, takes over compliance liability and removes any hassles and headaches that interfere with operating and scaling your business. Lumanu is the leading creator-focused procurement and payment platform that lets marketing, accounting, and finance teams more efficiently manage freelancer payments and frees up time to focus on more important initiatives.

‍Lumanu makes it easier to play the multi-player game:

• One vendor for all creator and freelancer payouts with consolidated invoices and a single source of truth for all parties

• Create self-billing invoices and send payment via same-day ACH transfers

• Give all parties the ability to track incoming and outgoing invoices and payment activities in one simple dashboard

• Avoid messy vendor onboarding and annoying tax obligations at the end of the year

Marketing Wins with Lumanu: Lumanu empowers Marketing by automating influencer onboarding, streamlining contract association (if applicable), ensuring payouts are accurate via self-billing invoices (with ability to tie into existing workflow tools via Zapier) and providing real-time visibility into payment statuses. This means less admin, faster campaign execution, and happier influencers. Learn how Lumanu supports Marketers.

Finance Wins with Lumanu: For Finance, Lumanu is a game-changer. It offers consolidating invoices from a single vendor, automated tax form collection (W-9/W-8BEN), robust approval workflows, simplified global payouts, seamless integration with accounting systems (e.g., QuickBooks, NetSuite, Bill.com, SAP), and automated 1099/1042-S preparation, ensuring compliance and dramatically reducing manual effort. Discover how Lumanu automates financial controls and reporting.

Legal Wins with Lumanu: Lumanu supports Legal by providing a framework for compliant payment operations. With proper vendor setup, clear audit trails, and standardized processes, Legal can have greater confidence that payments align with contractual and regulatory obligations.

Creators Win with Lumanu: Lumanu offers creators a simple, self-service onboarding experience, transparent payment tracking, timely payments in their preferred currency, and easy access to their payment history and tax documentation.

With Lumanu you and your business can payout creators quickly, hassle-free and get immediate access to working capital with Lumanu’s InstantPay. Learn more about how Lumanu stacks up to other competitors like PayPal and Bill.com.

If you want to stop worrying about administrative tasks and focus on business results, schedule a demo with us today!