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

Short answer. Set the agency in the Philippines up once as a recipient, pay each monthly invoice from your Storspay balance — the exact dollar or pesos 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 the Philippines

Filipino BPOs, agencies and development shops — in Metro Manila (Makati, BGC, Ortigas), Cebu, Davao, Clark and Iloilo — bill a monthly retainer, a milestone or a per-seat fee, usually in US dollars, sometimes in pesos. 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 pesos 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 pesos 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 the Philippines from there. For a growing agency with clients in several countries, that is one balance for all of them.

What is different about the Philippines

The Philippines is the world's second-largest BPO market and the home of the virtual assistant: millions of Filipinos are paid every fortnight by companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. They are used to being paid to a BDO, BPI or UnionBank account by InstaPay in minutes — and to losing several per cent of each payment to the platform or the bank in between. Storspay delivers pesos at the mid-market rate with the 1% shown separately, and a fortnightly run for a whole team is one batch, one fee line, one receipt.

How a payment to the Philippines 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 (BDO, BPI, Metrobank, UnionBank, Landbank, Security Bank, RCBC and the other BSP-supervised banks) 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 pesos that land, or type the pesos 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 InstaPay or PESONet 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 the Philippines 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 the Philippines, 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 = 62.8267 PHP); the calculator on the homepage shows today's. Large payments are split automatically under the local channel cap, under one reference and one fee.

See what your team in the Philippines receives →

Questions businesses ask before the first payment to the Philippines

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

Yes. Run Payroll takes any mix of recipients in the Philippines — 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 pesos?

Type the dollar figure; Storspay shows the pesos 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 you pay GCash or Maya?

Not yet — Storspay pays Philippine bank accounts today, and e-wallets are on the roadmap. Most GCash and Maya users also hold a BDO, BPI, UnionBank or Landbank account.

How fast does a peso payment land?

Usually within minutes through InstaPay; larger amounts may route through PESONet and land the same business day.

Does the contractor pay anything on their side?

No. You pay 1% all-in (minimum US$2); the contractor receives the peso amount shown. Their bank does not charge for an incoming domestic credit.

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.