Contractor Management Built for Remote Teams

Remote teams thrive on flexibility. You have a designer in Argentina, developers in Poland and India, a copywriter in the Philippines, a video editor in Mexico. They work when it makes sense for their time zone. You pay them in their preferred currency. Everyone's happy.

Until you try to manage it all. You have contractors in 12 countries using 5 different payment methods. Some want USD via Wise. Others prefer PayPal in their local currency. A few insist on bank transfers. You're tracking exchange rates, payment confirmations, and invoice approvals across Slack, email, and three different spreadsheets.

Time zones make everything harder. Your developer in India submits an invoice at 9am their time (11pm yours). You see it the next morning, approve it, but forget to actually send the payment. They follow up two days later. You scramble to pay them, apologize for the delay, and promise it won't happen again.

Platforms like Deel or Remote.com charge $49-99 per contractor per month. For 20 contractors across 10 countries, that's $980-1,980/month or $11,760-23,760/year. You're paying for employee infrastructure—payroll, benefits, local entities—that independent contractors don't need.

The spreadsheet + Slack method: Most remote teams start here. A Google Sheet with contractor details, rates, and payment preferences. Invoices come via Slack DM or email. You copy payment details into Wise or PayPal, send money, screenshot the confirmation, and post it back to Slack. It works until you have 15+ contractors and you're spending 2 hours every Friday just moving money around.

The Notion database: Some teams try using Notion for contractor management. They create a database with contractor profiles, payment history, and invoice tracking. It's better than spreadsheets, but Notion isn't built for payments. You still need to manually update payment statuses, track confirmations, and export data for accounting.

The project management workaround: Teams use Asana, Linear, or ClickUp for task management and try to bolt on contractor tracking. They create custom fields for rates, payment methods, and invoice status. It's clunky, requires constant manual updates, and doesn't integrate with actual payment processing.

The expensive EOR platforms: A few remote teams bite the bullet and use Deel or Remote.com. They pay $980-1,980/month for 20 contractors, getting features built for hiring employees internationally—payroll processing, benefits administration, local entity setup. None of which applies to independent contractors who handle their own taxes.

Remote teams don't need payroll processing or local entity setup. They need contractor coordination tools that work across time zones and currencies.

Global contractor database: All your contractors in one place with their time zones, rates, payment preferences, and availability. See who's online now, who's asleep, who's available for urgent work. No more "what time is it in Manila?"

Async-first invoice management: Contractors submit invoices through the platform. You review and approve when you're online. They get notified when you're online. Payment happens when it makes sense for both time zones. Everything tracked and documented.

Multi-currency payment tracking: Track payments in USD, EUR, GBP, or local currencies. See exchange rates at time of payment. Export payment records in any currency for accounting. Know exactly what you paid in your currency and what they received in theirs.

Work coordination: Assign contractors to projects, set deadlines accounting for time zones, track deliverables. See who's working on what, what's due when (in your time zone), and what's been completed. Link invoices to specific deliverables.

Payment method flexibility: Some contractors want Wise. Others prefer PayPal. A few need bank transfers. Track each contractor's preferred method, batch payments by type, and process them all efficiently. No more switching between 3 different payment platforms.

Tax documentation: Collect W-8BEN forms from international contractors automatically. Track cumulative payments per contractor. Export payment records for your accountant. Everything organized by country and payment method.

Absolutely. Many remote teams manage global contractors manually for years. Here's what that looks like in practice.

The spreadsheet system: Create a master contractor spreadsheet with columns for name, country, time zone, email, rate, currency preference, payment method, payment details, last payment date, and YTD total. Add a column for "time zone offset" so you know when they're online. Update it after every payment. Share it with your team via Google Sheets.

The Slack organization: Create a dedicated Slack channel for contractor invoices. Ask contractors to post invoices there with a specific format (name, amount, currency, payment method). React with 👀 when you see it, ✅ when you approve it, 💰 when you pay it. Pin important messages. Search history when you need to find something.

The payment process: Set aside 2-3 hours every Friday for contractor payments. Open your spreadsheet, check who needs to be paid. Log into Wise for international contractors, PayPal for others. Copy payment details from your spreadsheet, send money, screenshot confirmations, post them to Slack, update your spreadsheet with payment dates and exchange rates.

The time zone management: Use World Time Buddy or a similar tool to track contractor time zones. Before assigning urgent work, check if they're online. Set Slack reminders to follow up during their working hours. Maintain a separate spreadsheet with everyone's typical working hours in your time zone.

The tax documentation: Create a Google Drive folder for W-8BEN forms. When you hire an international contractor, send them the form via email. When they send it back, save it to the folder with their name and country. At year-end, export your payment spreadsheet, group by country, and send the data to your accountant.

This works. It's free (except for your time). It's flexible. But it takes 5-10 hours per month, and one mistake—a forgotten payment, a missed time zone conversion, a lost invoice—can damage contractor relationships or create accounting headaches.

Kontrable is built specifically for remote teams managing independent contractors globally. No payroll processing. No local entity setup. No employee infrastructure. Just the tools you need to organize, track, and pay your distributed contractor network.

Use your existing payment accounts: We don't try to be your bank. You already have Wise, PayPal, or Payoneer. They're great at moving money internationally. We just tell you who to pay, help you track payments across currencies, and keep records for accounting. Your money stays in your account until you send it.

Time zone aware: See each contractor's local time, typical working hours, and current availability. Schedule payments and follow-ups for their working hours. Get notifications when contractors in different time zones submit invoices or complete work.

Multi-currency tracking: Track payments in any currency. See exchange rates at time of payment. Export records in USD, EUR, or your accounting currency. Know exactly what you paid and what they received, with exchange rate documentation for your accountant.

Async-first workflow: Contractors submit invoices when they're online. You review and approve when you're online. Everyone gets notified at appropriate times. No more waiting for someone to wake up to approve a payment.

Pricing that makes sense: $99/month for up to 25 contractors, regardless of how many countries they're in. No per-contractor fees. No transfer fees. No hidden costs. If Deel would cost you $980/month for 20 contractors, we cost you $99. You save $881/month, or $10,572/year.

Kontrable launches in Q1 2026. Early access users get 50% off for 6 months—$50/month instead of $99. Join the waitlist below to get notified when we open beta access.