Pay Job Seekers

Here’s the surprise most new employers have on Guild. You don’t tap Pay. The system pays. When you posted the job, the budget moved from your bank into escrow. From that moment forward, Guild’s only job is to release funds to Job Seekers as they actually complete shifts. You don’t need to remember. You don’t need to do daily reconciliation. The money flows where the work happens. This page is the auto-release model and the few times you’d touch the controls manually.

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The auto-release model

Three things to notice:

1. The release trigger is attendance, not “tap Pay.” Each marked-present shift triggers exactly one release.
2. The default release time is 6 PM local. Configurable per job if a different cadence makes sense (e.g., end-of-week for weekly-paying contracts).
3. The money is already in escrow before any of this happens. The release is an internal ledger move, not a fresh bank debit. Fast, safe, predictable.

By the end of the job, every Job Seeker who completed every shift has been paid in full, without you doing anything after posting.

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What you actually see in your dashboard

Your job-detail page (guild.com.ng/jobs/[jobId]) shows:

• Escrow balance — what’s left, what’s been released.
• Per-Job-Seeker attendance grid — green check for each present shift, grey for absent.
• Per-Job-Seeker release log — date and amount of each release.
• Running spend — total released to date.
• Projected refund — what we’ll return to your wallet at job completion based on current attendance.

If the job has zero issues, you check this dashboard maybe once a day, see the green checks accumulate, and move on with your week.

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The manual moments

A few cases where you (or the foreman) do touch the controls.

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Adjusting attendance

The foreman marks attendance per shift. If they made a mistake — marked someone present who didn’t show, or marked someone absent who did — the attendance record can be edited within a 12-hour window from when it was marked. Edits after 12 hours require approval from the original Job Seeker (so neither side can unilaterally alter the record after the fact). The audit row for the edit shows both the original and the new value.

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Releasing a shift early

The default release time is 6 PM. If you need to release a Job Seeker’s wage immediately (e.g., they completed a half-day and need the money for transport home), tap Release now on their row. The release fires in seconds.

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Holding a shift pending review

If something’s off about a shift (a Job Seeker arrived late, did the work but you want to discuss the rate, etc.), tap Hold for review on the attendance row. The auto-release skips this shift; you and the Job Seeker work out the resolution; you release manually with the agreed amount. Hold rows can’t sit forever — after 72 hours, we ping you to resolve. After 7 days, the system defaults to releasing the full amount unless you’ve taken explicit action.

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Partial release

A Job Seeker showed up but left mid-shift. You and the foreman agree to a half-day rate. From their row, tap Adjust release amount and enter the negotiated number. The release fires for the lower amount. The remainder stays in escrow (and ultimately refunds at job completion). The Job Seeker gets a clear SMS: “₦2,000 from Adekunle (half-day rate as agreed). Balance ₦2,000.”

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Direct extra payment

For an out-of-cycle payment to a specific Job Seeker (a bonus, a one-off addition), use Pay Job Seeker on their row. This is the rare manual-tap-Pay path. We trigger a fresh debit from your source (bank or wallet) and credit them directly. Audit row written; not pulled from escrow.

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Refunds

When the job hits COMPLETED (either you mark it complete or it auto-completes the day after the end date), the unspent escrow refunds to your wallet within a minute. Common refund scenarios: The refund hits your wallet, not your bank directly. From the wallet, you can withdraw to your bank in seconds.

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Disputes

A Job Seeker can dispute a release within 7 days. “I worked four days, I only got paid for three.” The dispute flow surfaces:

• The attendance audit rows for the application.
• The release audit rows.
• The original job posting.

A human reviewer (Guild ops) reads both, looks at messages or voice notes exchanged, and makes a call. Most disputes resolve in 24 hours because the data is unambiguous. A dispute that resolves against you (we agreed the Job Seeker should have been released for a shift that wasn’t marked) triggers a fresh release. The escrow funds it if there’s enough; if not, we trigger a fresh debit from your source. A dispute that resolves in your favour is neutral.

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How you actually pay, summarised

The mental model is: you pay at the start, by posting the job and funding escrow. After that, your job is to make sure attendance is marked accurately and any manual exceptions get handled. The system moves the money. This is different from cash-paying through a foreman. It’s different from per-tap pay-the-worker-after-they’re-done. It’s the same flow as how a payroll system would work if payroll didn’t require a finance team — automated, audited, accurate.

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Receipts

Every release generates an audit row that’s visible in your transaction history. Every release shows up in the Job Seeker’s transaction history too. The downloadable monthly report (guild.com.ng/reports) gives you a per-Job-Seeker breakdown of every release in the period: date, amount, job, source. Useful for accounting or for personal records.

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Pay limits

If you’re running high-volume operations (50+ Job Seekers per job, multi-million-naira budgets), talk to us. We can adjust limits and set up dedicated batch settlement.

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