You are a contractor, not an employee
You are engaged to deliver an outcome, not to be supervised hour by hour. Nobody tracks your hours, nobody watches your screen, and there is no timesheet. Each week you record what you delivered, not how long it took.
That is a real freedom and it carries a real responsibility. You run your own affairs: your own registration where you live, your own tax, your own records. You work from outside the UK. VERTX is your contracting party, not your employer, and it runs no payroll.
You never chase money, and you never negotiate it
VERTX pays you, from its own funds. It contracts with you as principal, so you have no claim against a company, and you never invoice a company, chase one, or discuss money with one.
Each working week is reviewed for 7 days after it ends, then paid on the next VERTX pay date. Pay dates come every 14 days. Nothing is deducted from your fee, and VERTX never charges you to use the Platform, be assessed or be introduced.
You set your day rate. We review it against the band for the level we award you, and it is recorded with each engagement you accept. It does not move because a company pushes, and it is not something you are expected to defend.
Your rate is between you and VERTX. Discussing it with a company or another engineer breaks the Engineer Terms, so it is worth knowing before you meet one rather than after.
What to sort out before your first engagement
Two things are worth doing early, because they are the usual causes of a slow start. The first is whatever local registration lets you invoice a foreign company as an individual, which in most countries is a straightforward self-employed or sole-trader setup under whatever it is called locally.
The second is an account that can receive an international transfer, in your own name or in your registered company's name if you contract through one. A local bank account works, and so does a multi-currency account from a regulated provider. It is verified before your first payment. We cannot pay a family member's account or anyone else's.
Start both before you are placed rather than after. Neither is difficult, and both take longer than people expect.
Tax is yours, and the invoices are ours
You are an independent contractor, so tax where you live is your responsibility. Rules differ enormously by country. A local accountant is the right person to advise on yours.
Each billing period, VERTX prepares a self-billed invoice in your name, so you never raise one yourself. Check it, and tell us within 7 days if anything is wrong. Where the law in your country requires your own invoice or receipt, your Regional Schedule says so, and you upload a copy within 7 days.
Every invoice and payment statement is in your dashboard, ready to hand to an accountant without reconstructing anything from your own notes.
Four questions to ask an accountant before you start
What registration do I need locally, and does local law require me to issue my own invoice or receipt for work for a foreign company?
How should I record income received in a foreign currency, and at what rate?
What do I need to set aside, and when is it due?
Is there anything about receiving an international transfer into a local account I should know before it arrives?
Ask these at the start rather than a year in. It is a short conversation now and an awkward one later.