The Furrsati guides

1.1Two places you can work from

There is a website and a phone app, and they are the same product. Most people post their first project on a laptop because typing is easier, then live in the app afterwards for messages and approvals. Nothing is locked to one or the other.

1.2How a hire actually works, start to finish

Before the screenshots, here is the whole thing in six lines. Everything after this part is just these six steps in detail.

1. 1You post a project, or send someone an offer directly.
2. 2Freelancers apply. You compare them and pick one.
3. 3You agree the price and split it into milestones, chunks of work, each with its own price.
4. 4You pay for the first milestone. We hold that money.
5. 5They do the work and submit it. You look at it and either ask for changes or approve it.
6. 6You approve, we release the money to them, and you leave a review.

1.3What it costs you

Creating an account, posting projects, receiving proposals, messaging and inviting people all cost nothing. There is no monthly charge and no fee for posting.

The only thing you pay on top of the work itself is a standard 5% card processing fee when you fund a milestone. Here is a real example on a 250 dollar milestone:

The standard 10% is the freelancer's side of the deal, not yours, it comes out of what they earn, and it is the reason the platform exists at all. You never pay it. If you fund a milestone from your Furrsati balance rather than a card, the processing fee does not apply either.

2.1Say that you are here to hire

The first screen asks whether you are looking for work or looking to hire. Choose hiring. This decides what the whole app looks like afterwards, the hiring side and the freelancer side are genuinely different products.

2.2Email and password

Use an email address you actually read, every proposal, message and payment receipt goes there. The password requirements are shown as you type, so you can see when it is strong enough rather than guessing.

You can also sign up with Google, LinkedIn or Apple instead, which skips the password entirely.

2.3Your name and phone number

Your name is what freelancers see when you message them or comment on their proposal. Your phone number is not shown to anyone, it is used to secure the account and to reach you if something goes wrong with a payment.

2.4Your company, and what you need help with

The company name is optional but worth filling in, freelancers take a named business more seriously than a first name on its own, and it appears on your profile.

The part that actually matters is the row of categories asking what you need help with. Whatever you pick here becomes the freelancers we put in front of you the moment you land on your home screen. Pick two or three that are genuinely relevant rather than everything.

2.5Confirm your email

We send a confirmation link as soon as you finish. Until you click it, a banner sits across the top of the app reminding you. You can browse, post and message before confirming, but confirm it before you pay for anything, because payment receipts and dispute notices go to that address.

3.1The main menu

On the web it is a sidebar down the left. In the app it is four tabs along the bottom. Same four destinations either way.

• Home, recommended freelancers, featured services, and whatever needs your attention.
• Projects, everything you have posted, every offer you have sent, every contract you are running.
• Messages, your conversations, including group spaces for team projects.
• Profile, your details, payment cards, spending history and settings.

3.2Every project in one list

Projects is the one screen worth learning properly. A posted project, an offer you sent someone, and a contract you are already paying for are three different things, and they all live here behind a row of filters.

• All, everything, newest first.
• Active, work that is underway right now.
• Posted projects, things you have published that are still taking proposals.
• Offers, direct offers you have sent to a specific freelancer.
• Completed, Disputed, Cancelled, the closed pile, kept for your records.

3.3Notifications

You are told when a proposal arrives, when a freelancer replies, when work is submitted for your approval, and when a payment goes through. Tapping a notification takes you to the exact thing it is about rather than dumping you on a list.

4.1Two ways to post

Most people who have never written a project posting should take the assistant. It asks what you need in plain language and turns your answer into a proper posting with requirements, deliverables and the right category attached. If you already know exactly what you want, write it yourself and skip the questions.

4.2Letting the assistant write it

You get a short run of questions: what you need done, roughly what you want to spend, how soon, and anything specific. Answer in whatever words come naturally, full sentences are not required.

4.3What the assistant gives you back

One pass turns your answers into a complete posting: a title, an overview, what you require, what you expect delivered, the category, and the skills to match on. Every one of those is editable. Read it before posting, it is a good first draft, not a finished contract.

4.4Writing it yourself: describe the work

Only two fields are required, a title and an overview. Requirements and deliverables are there if you want them, and they are worth the two extra minutes: postings that say what "done" looks like get better proposals and far fewer arguments later.

4.5Scope and pay

Pick the category and the skills, then set what you are willing to spend. You can name a single figure or a range, a range is usually better for a first project, because it invites people to tell you what the work actually costs.

Set a timeline too. It filters out anyone who cannot make it and it is the first thing a good freelancer looks at.

4.6One-off project, or a monthly retainer

The same screen lets you choose how the work is paid for, and this is the choice people most often get wrong.

• Project, one piece of work with an end. A logo, a website, a video. You agree a total and split it into milestones.
• Retainer, ongoing work with no fixed end, billed by the day, week or month. Someone running your social media, or a developer on call.

4.7Check it, then publish

The last screen is everything you have written, grouped, with a link back to whichever bit you want to change. Publish when it reads the way you would say it out loud.

4.8Hiring a whole team at once

Some work needs three people, not one. A launch might need a designer, a copywriter and a developer. Rather than posting three separate projects and running three separate conversations, describe the whole thing once and it gets split into pieces, one per person.

You price each piece and publish them together. You hire for each piece separately, so you are never forced to take a package deal, and everyone you hire ends up in one shared group conversation with you.

5.1Invite the best matches to your project

The moment a project is live, you are shown the freelancers who fit it, ranked. This is the fastest way to get good proposals, an invitation from a real client with a funded-looking project gets answered far more often than a posting sitting in a list.

Inviting is free, it does not commit you to anything, and you can invite as many people as you like.

5.2Why they are ranked that way

Tap the score and it opens up. The ranking is not a black box or a paid placement, it is a sum of things you can check yourself: whether their skills match what you asked for, whether they have done this category of work before, whether their rates sit inside your budget, and how their past projects went.

5.3Browse everyone yourself

You do not need a live project to look around. Explore holds every freelancer on the platform, sorted into categories, alongside the ready-made services they sell.

5.4Narrow it down

Filter by skill, by hourly rate, and by minimum rating. If you have a number in mind, filtering by rate first saves the most time, it removes the conversations that were never going to end in a deal.

5.5Read a freelancer's profile

A profile leads with the things that are hard to fake: how many projects they have finished here, what share of them ended well, their rating, and whether any clients came back for a second project. Repeat clients is the single most useful number on the page.

5.6Their past work and what clients said

Scroll down for the portfolio and the reviews. Reviews here come only from clients who actually paid for a finished project, so there is no way to collect them without doing the work.

5.7Ready-made services

Some freelancers sell fixed packages with a set price and a set delivery time, a logo for a fixed fee, a set number of edited videos, a translation up to a word count. If the work is standard, this skips the whole posting and proposal process.

5.8Buying a service outright

A service page tells you exactly what you get, what it costs and how long it takes. You pay once, then write up what you need and attach any files, logos, references, copy. The money is held the same way as any other project, and released when you approve the delivery.

5.9Offering one person the project directly

If you already know who you want, skip the posting entirely. A direct offer goes to one freelancer with your terms attached: what the work is, what it pays, and how it splits into milestones.

They can accept it, turn it down, or come back with different terms. If they come back, you can counter again, there is no limit on the back-and-forth, and either side can walk away at any point before it is funded.

6.1Proposals arrive

Each one shows you what they would charge, how long they would take, and their rating and track record, so you can compare like for like before opening any of them.

6.2Reading one properly

Open a proposal and you get the full picture: their price, their cover letter, and the milestones they propose to break the work into. The milestones matter more than the total, they tell you how this person thinks about the work and when you would be paying.

• Did they read the posting, or is this a template sent to everyone?
• Do the milestones match how the work actually happens?
• Is the first milestone a sensible size? A first milestone that is most of the total means you are carrying most of the risk up front.

6.3Countering

If the person is right but the number is not, counter. You set a different total, optionally restructure the milestones, and write a line explaining why. It goes back to them and they can accept it, decline, or counter you in turn.

6.4The whole back-and-forth is on the record

Every round is kept in order, what was proposed, by whom, when, and what was said. There is no limit to how many times you can go back and forth, and either side can walk away at any point before money changes hands.

If a dispute ever happens, this record is part of what gets reviewed. That cuts both ways, and it is why it is worth writing your reasons down properly at the time.

6.5Turning people down

Decline the ones you are not taking rather than leaving them hanging. It takes one tap, they get told, and it keeps your list clean. A short reason is optional and always appreciated.

7.1Accepting a proposal

Accept and you are shown exactly what you are agreeing to: the total, the milestones, and who you are hiring. Confirm, and a contract exists between the two of you.

7.2Your contract

The contract page is where the project now lives. It has both names on it, the agreed total, what has been paid, what is held, and what is still to come. Every action from here, funding, approving, disputing, starts on this page.

7.3Milestones, explained

A milestone is a chunk of the work with its own price. You pay for them one at a time, which is the whole point, you are never exposed for more than the current chunk.

Each one moves through the same states, and the page always shows you which one it is in:

7.4Paying for the first milestone

Pay by card, or from your Furrsati balance if you have one. Card details are handled by Stripe, a payment processor used across the internet; we never see or store your card number.

7.5Exactly what you are charged

Before you confirm, you get the full arithmetic: the milestone amount, the processing fee, and the total leaving your card. Nothing is added after this screen and there are no charges later.

7.6Money in, work starts

The milestone flips to funded, the freelancer is told straight away, and the money sits with us. From their side, seeing it funded is the signal to start, it is the difference between a client who is serious and one who is still thinking about it.

8.1Your messages

Every conversation lives in one inbox, people you have hired, people who have applied, and the group spaces for team projects. Unread counts sit on the menu so you can see at a glance whether anyone is waiting on you.

8.2A conversation

Messages arrive in real time. You can see when the other person is typing, when they were last online, and when they have read what you sent, which removes most of the "did they get it?" anxiety of email.

8.3Sending files

Send images, documents and reference material straight into the conversation. Everything stays attached to the thread, so a file you sent three weeks ago is still there when someone asks for it again.

8.4Voice notes

Hold the microphone and talk. Explaining a design change out loud takes fifteen seconds and three paragraphs of typing, this is the fastest way to give feedback that is hard to write down.

8.5Everything you have shared, in one place

Open the conversation details and you get every image, document and link ever exchanged in that thread, grouped, plus a link straight to the contract it belongs to. It saves scrolling back through weeks of messages to find one file.

8.6A shared space for teams

If you hired several people onto one project, you can put them in a group conversation together. You control who is in it and you can add or remove people as the project changes.

9.1Work submitted

You are notified as soon as it lands. The milestone shows what they delivered, any files attached, and a note from them. The money stays held while you look. If you do nothing, it is released automatically 10 days after delivery, and you get a reminder 2 days before.

9.2Asking for changes

If it is not right, send it back with notes. The milestone returns to being worked on, the money stays held, and nothing is lost. Be specific, "the logo should be bolder and the blue should match our website" gets you what you want; "I don't like it" gets you another round of guessing.

9.3Approving and releasing the money

When you are happy, approve. You are shown exactly what is about to be released and to whom, and you confirm once.

9.4Paid

The milestone is marked completed, the money lands in their Furrsati balance, and both of you have a permanent record of it. If there are further milestones, the next one is now ready to fund.

9.5Leaving a review

Once the work is paid for, you are asked to rate it. This is the only way ratings are created on Furrsati, which is what makes them worth reading, nobody can collect reviews without having been paid for finished work.

Your name and photo are not shown on the review. Other businesses see the rating, the comment and the size of the project, but not who you are.

10.1Raising a dispute

If the work is not what was agreed and you cannot resolve it between you, open a dispute on that milestone. The money stops where it is, it does not go to them and it does not come back to you, until the case is decided.

You are asked to explain what happened. Write it properly: what you agreed, what you received, and what is missing. This is what our team reads.

10.2What happens next

1. 1Either side opens a dispute on a funded milestone, and the money freezes.
2. 2Both sides are asked for their account and any evidence: files, screenshots, the messages already in the thread.
3. 3Our team reviews it and decides within 48 hours.
4. 4The money goes to the freelancer, comes back to you, or is split to reflect what was actually delivered.

You can follow the case the whole way through and see its status at any point.

11.1Cards and spending

Save a card so you are not re-typing it on every milestone, and keep as many as you like. Card details are held by Stripe, we store a reference to the card, never the number.

Alongside it is every payment you have ever made, with a link from each row to the project it belongs to. That is your record for the accountant.

11.2Getting your business verified

Verification is not required in order to hire. You can post a project, message people and pay for work without it, a new account has full access from the moment you sign up.

It is still worth doing. A verified account is treated as trusted, which means your projects and messages skip the automatic content checks that everyone else's go through, so what you post appears straight away.

11.3Settings and language

Change your password, choose which emails you receive, switch between light and dark, and set the language. Furrsati is in English, Arabic and French, and Arabic lays the whole interface out right to left.

You can also block someone you would rather not hear from, and delete your account outright, which really does delete it.

11.4Getting help

There is a support assistant inside the app that answers most questions about fees, payments and verification straight away. If it cannot help, it puts you through to a person.

For anything else, a partnership, a large project, or something that needs a conversation, use the contact form on the website and we will reply by email.