Paying a BPO, agency or dev shop in India every month: retainers, milestones and the exact figure on the invoice

Short answer. Set the agency in India up once as a recipient, pay each monthly invoice from your Storspay balance — the exact dollar or rupees figure, at the mid-market rate, 1% all-in — and schedule the retainer so it goes out on the same day every month with the invoice number in the reference. The agency's bank shows a domestic credit, usually within minutes, and your bookkeeper has a receipt that matches the invoice.

How outsourced work is paid in India

Indian BPOs, agencies and development shops — in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi NCR — bill a monthly retainer, a milestone or a per-seat fee, usually in US dollars, sometimes in rupees. The agency wants the invoice paid in full and on time; what it gets from a wire is the figure minus somebody's fees, three to five days late, with a reconciliation email to write.

Retainers and milestones on Storspay

A retainer is a scheduled payment: same amount, same day each month, same reference pattern. A milestone is a one-off against the invoice. Both come from your balance, both show the rupees figure before you confirm, both produce a receipt with the invoice number. If the agency invoices in dollars, you type dollars and Storspay delivers the rupees equivalent at the mid-market rate — more than the agency's own bank would have given it for the dollars.

When the agency is also on Storspay

If the agency opens a Storspay account, your payment to it is free and instant — it receives the currency you paid from, holds it, and pays its own staff in India from there. For a growing agency with clients in several countries, that is one balance for all of them.

What is different about India

India is the largest market for remote professional services on earth and a bank-first corridor: every salaried professional and every registered company has an IFSC-coded bank account, and domestic rails (IMPS, NEFT) clear in minutes. What matters to an Indian recipient is the rupee amount that actually lands, because wires from the US or Europe routinely arrive short after correspondent-bank charges and a hidden FX spread. Storspay converts once at the mid-market rate and shows the 1% separately, so the rupee figure in the notification is the figure in the account.

How a payment to India works on Storspay

1. Fund your balance in USD (ACH or wire), CAD (Interac e-Transfer or EFT), GBP (UK bank transfer) or EUR (SEPA) — to account details in your own business name. Funding is free.
2. Add the recipient once: their name as it appears on the account, the bank (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra and every other IFSC-coded bank) and the account number. Storspay checks the account name before you confirm.
3. Type the amount in either box. Enter what you want to send and see the rupees that land, or type the rupees figure on the invoice and see what it costs you. The rate is the mid-market rate; the 1% is on its own line.
4. Confirm. The money goes over IMPS or NEFT and usually lands within minutes — the same business day at most. The recipient gets a notification with the exact amount, and you get a receipt with the invoice reference.

Nobody in India has to sign up, install an app or touch anything other than their own bank account. Everything on the recipient side looks like an ordinary domestic transfer.

What it costs

Storspay charges 1% all-in on payments to India, with a minimum of US$2, at the mid-market rate. That one line covers conversion, settlement and delivery; there is no FX markup, no intermediary-bank charge and nothing deducted on the recipient side.

Rates in this guide are the mid-market rate on the day of writing (1 USD = 96.9643 INR); the calculator on the homepage shows today's. Payments above ₹1,500,000 are split automatically under the local cap, under one reference and one fee.

See what your team in India receives →

Questions businesses ask before the first payment to India

Can I pay the agency and its freelancers in one batch?

Yes. Run Payroll takes any mix of recipients in India — a company account and individual contractors — in one batch with one fee line.

What if the invoice is in dollars but the agency's account is in rupees?

Type the dollar figure; Storspay shows the rupees that will land at the mid-market rate and sends that. The receipt shows both.

Can my accountant see the receipts?

Yes — add them as a team member with viewer access, or download the statement as CSV or PDF.

Can I pay a UPI ID instead of an account number?

Not yet. Storspay pays Indian bank accounts by account number and IFSC code; UPI handles are on the roadmap. Every UPI-linked account has an ordinary account number you can use today.

Is there a limit per payment to India?

Payments above ₹1,500,000 are split automatically under the local cap, under one reference and one fee — a large invoice never becomes several trips to the bank.

Does the recipient pay anything?

No. Storspay charges you 1% all-in (minimum US$2); the recipient receives the rupee amount shown. Their bank may apply its own inward-remittance charge for issuing an FIRC — ask them, it is usually a few hundred rupees.

Who this is for — and who it is not for

Storspay is for businesses and organisations: companies, agencies, schools, hospitals, facilitators, foundations and sole traders paying other businesses and professionals for work, goods and services. A sole trader counts as a business and signs up in their own name.

What Storspay is not is a personal money-transfer service. We do not open personal accounts, and every payment has to be a business transaction: an invoice, a contract, a fee note, work delivered. Money to family and personal transfers are not what this is, and we would rather say so now than at verification.