Earnings Explained
Everything you earn on SME Careers is tracked on the Finance page. This article explains the three types of earnings, how each is calculated, and what the review statuses mean.
The Finance page tracks everything you earn on SME Careers. There are three types of earnings, each calculated differently, and each entry moves through a review status before it's paid.
Where to see your earnings
Open Finance in the sidebar. The summary cards at the top show:
- This Month: approved project, exam & referral earnings for the current month
- All Time: lifetime approved earnings (project, exams & referrals)
- Pending Review: project earnings awaiting approval, including any that are currently under review
Below, the Daily Earnings view lists each entry with its date, type, total time, hourly rate, amount, status, review date, and notes. Switch to Weekly Payouts to see your payouts (see Weekly payouts).
When your earnings become visibleThe Finance page unlocks once you're active in the network and have earnings to show. Earlier in the process — while your profile is under review, being screened, or before you've been onboarded — you'll see a message letting you know your earnings aren't available yet. There's nothing to fix: the page opens automatically once you start working and your first earnings are recorded.
The three earning types
Project earnings
Pay for your work on projects, based on your hours and the pay rate for that project (see Your pay rate below). An entry can include both on-platform hours (tracked automatically in the work platform) and off-platform hours (work done outside it, such as meetings or training). Each entry shows the project, your role, and how the time was tracked.
Exam earnings
Pay for completing qualifying exams and assessments, including occasional bonuses.
Referral earnings
Commission you earn when people you referred are hired and start working — 7% of their weekly earnings, added for each week they work. See Referring friends.
Your pay rate
Your default hourly rate is shown in the Hourly Rate section of your settings. It's the starting rate for new projects and the rate used for any work that isn't tied to a specific project.
Each project can have its own rate, so the amount you're paid can differ from one project to another. You can see a project's rate:
- On the invitation card, before you accept ("Hourly rate: $25/hr")
- On the project's card under Active Projects on the Projects page
- At the top of the project's page: "Your hourly rate for this project is …"
When a project rate changes
Project rate changes are increases, and they take effect from the next day's work, so hours you've already worked keep the rate they were paid at. There's nothing you need to do. The project page's Pay rate history table lists every change, for example "$40.00/hr → $40.50/hr", with the Effective from date and when it was Updated. If the team changes the rate while your invitation is still open, the invitation card simply shows the new rate.
Review statuses
Every earning entry is reviewed before it's paid. The Status column shows where it stands:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Recorded, awaiting review by the team |
| Under review | Being actively checked by the team; still owed to you and counted in your Pending Review total. If no decision is made by the Friday after that week, it moves to On Hold |
| Approved | Confirmed; it will be included in a payout |
| Rejected | Not approved; the notes column may explain why |
| On Hold | Temporarily held, usually while something is double-checked |
Once an entry is reviewed, the Reviewed on column shows when.
Only approved earnings countOnly approved earnings count toward your payouts and the This Month / All Time totals.
If something looks wrong
If an entry is missing, rejected unexpectedly, or shows the wrong hours, contact support with the entry's date and project. Hours tracked via time-tracking tools occasionally take time to sync, so recent work may appear with a short delay.
What happens next
Approved earnings are bundled into weekly payouts and paid via Deel. See Weekly payouts.
Related articles
Updated 27 days ago