Commissioning freelancers is an everyday task for many editorial departments. But all too often, it turns into an inefficient process as communicating the actual task, getting a confirmation, etc., is spread out across multiple emails and systems.

Desk-Net has now upgraded its cost features for assignments. And these improvements complement a set of features that are aimed at streamlining the editorial commissioning process. 

The new cost feature

We have now released the previously hidden cost feature to all customers. And in the process of doing so, we improved it significantly. 

So what’s new? 

The cost feature allows you to enter the cost of an editorial assignment. For some customers, this is sufficient since they have greatly varying prices per assignment.

However, most customers have a set of standard prices per assignment type or freelancer. 

Desk-Net now enables admins to enter such standard prices so that the cost field is pre-entered with those values when selecting the task. It is also possible to define such standard costs per task and user. 

These changes help you reduce the number of errors and the amount of manual entry in the commissioning process.

Editorial budget control

Another improvement is the new feature to download all data for those assignments, including the cost data in an xls format.

This way, our users can analyze their assignment costs and import that data into other tools. 

The editorial commissioning process with Desk-Net

The new editorial cost feature is part of a series of improvements that were aimed at streamlining the commissioning process:

• Handing out assignments to freelancers
• Agreeing on costs
• Agreeing on legal aspects
• Assignment confirmations
• Tracking and analysis of costs.

Sending the information about an assignment has been one of the core features of Desk-Net since its inception. All information about the assignment is included, and changes are communicated instantly. Calendar invites ensure that appointment-based assignments are included seamlessly in the freelancers‘ calendars.

With the new cost feature, these emails and calendar invites also include the costs. 

Several months ago, we released a feature that allows our customers to add standard text, such as legal aspects, in those emails. Such standard text can be added per task or for an entire assignment. This feature ensures that the assignments are handed out with the correct legal provisions.

By using Desk-Net’s feature to accept or reject an assignment, the freelancer confirms the assignment has been accepted in a legally correct way.

And finally, the above-mentioned new cost download feature enables our customers to track the costs on an ongoing basis.

With thousands of editorial assignments sent out via Desk-Net every day, we hope the new features reduce the amount of friction in our customers‘ editorial processes and allow them to focus on what’s important: creating great content.

Learn how to use Desk-Net to set commissions for freelancers and manage your editorial assignment costs.