Field guides · 01
Paying contractors in five countries,
on bank and stablecoin
A setup kit for a small company with no finance team: a rail for each contractor, one payout policy, the monthly run.
Field guide 0110 pages · 6 steps · 7 checklists · 4 templatesPDF and templates in one ZIPOctober 2026 edition
Who it's for
Most payout mistakes are made once,
at onboarding
For a founder who pays contractors abroad, some by bank and some in a stablecoin, and is still the only person who can press send.
Nobody designs a contractor payout process. It accretes. The first designer wanted a wire, the second asked for USDT because her bank takes a week, and by the twentieth contractor the founder is the process: the only person who knows who gets paid where.
That holds until payout day lands on a flight, or until a message arrives from a contractor's address saying the wallet changed. The fixes are not clever. They are a few decisions written down before the second rail goes live, and a form that replaces email for anything involving payout details.
The short version
The guide's rules first,
the pages show how to set up each one
Pay by bank unless the contractor asks for a stablecoin and can turn it into local money cheaply.
Bank details arrive through a form the contractor fills in, never from an email, a chat or a PDF. A wallet address arrives in writing with its network named, and nobody pays it until it's confirmed on a call.
New payout details are handled like a new payee. Someone confirms them by calling a number you already had.
One approval rule above both rails, written before the second rail exists.
What's inside
6 steps, in setup order,
each ending in a checklist or a template
- Step 1A rail for each contractorDecided once, written into the agreement.Template 1, the rail worksheetp. 3
- Step 2Onboarding a contractorThe one moment details are allowed to arrive.The onboarding checklist, in orderp. 4
- Step 3The payout policyOne page, written before anyone needs it.Template 2, the payout policy, and a checklist before you switch it onp. 5
- Step 4The monthly runA calendar, so payout day is boring.Template 3, the payout calendar, and Template 4, the batch importp. 6
- Step 5The stablecoin legCheap to send, impossible to call back.Checklists for the first send to a new address and for every runp. 7
- The caseWhat the October run caughtTwo warnings in one run: first payments that looked like any other, and a brand-new wallet two days before an invoice. Neither said no, and both were right to ask.p. 8
- Step 6The book and the handoffEach rail is confirmed by something different.Checklists for the first of the month and for what the accountant needsp. 9
The 4 templates, in the same download
- 01-rail-worksheet.csv
- Picking and recording each contractor's rail
- 02-payout-policy.csv
- Your policy, one decision per line
- 03-payout-calendar.csv
- The run, by day and by person
- 04-payout-batch.csv
- Importing a batch of payouts
The illustrative case
Northwind Studio is a demo company,
its books seeded in Orla
Northwind Studio is a 12-person brand and packaging studio, a Delaware LLC, with about twenty contractors in Portugal, Serbia, Cyprus and two other countries. Four of them are paid in USDT on TRON from one wallet; the rest are paid by bank from Mercury and Airwallex.
Northwind is a demo company. Its books are seeded in Orla, and every screenshot in the guide is a frame recorded from the working product on those books. The names, amounts and addresses are invented.
The guides are general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. What applies to your company is a question for your accountant and, where a country's rules come in, a local adviser.
After you ask
One email, with one link,
and nothing else unless you ask
- Leave your emailTeam size is optional. It tells us which companies the guides reach.
- Open one email from OrlaIt names the guide and carries one link to a ZIP: the PDF and its 4 templates.
- Nothing else, unless you ticked the boxTicked "Send me the next field guide"? When the next one is out, we send it, and that email says how to stop. Not ticked: the first email is all.
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