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Outsource a project to a developer

Keep outside developers on file, send them a contractor agreement and an NDA, hand them a client project's tasks on a fixed fee or hourly with a cap, watch the margin, review their work before the client sees it, and record what you owe them.

Updated 2026-10-26

An agency that sells an automation project and has a freelancer or a dev shop build it can run the whole handoff from the project. The developer gets a private page for their tasks. They never get an Otto login, and they never see your client or your prices.

Open Work → Jobs, switch to the Client projects view and pick Developers. Only someone who manages the business sees this view and the handoff on a project.

Keep developers on file

  1. Press Add developer.
  2. Type their name, their company if they are a dev shop, and their email address. The agreement, the NDA and their link go to that address.
  3. Tick their skills and tools, such as n8n, Make, Zapier, Python or Voice AI, or type others separated by commas.
  4. Pick how they charge, Hourly or Fixed fee, and their usual rate. Only a position that sees money sets or sees a rate.
  5. Add their time zone and any notes, then press Save.

Each developer shows the projects they have worked on here and their average rating. Someone who has worked on a project cannot be removed, so their history stays: tick Archived instead, and they are no longer offered for new work.

Send the contractor agreement and the NDA

Work cannot be handed to a developer until they have signed both. Press Send agreement and NDA beside them. Otto writes two contracts with the developer as the signer:

  • a Contractor agreement: the work, pay after you approve it, no hours past an agreed cap, independent contractor, the work belongs to you or your client, no going around you to your client, confidentiality
  • a Non-disclosure agreement

Both are a starting point, not legal advice. Read them, and have them checked if it matters. If you keep your own template under Contracts with the name "Contractor agreement" or "Non-disclosure agreement", that one is sent instead.

Each contract waits in Reviews as an email until you approve it, then the developer signs it on its own page as any contract is signed. The developer's row shows where each one stands. Until both are signed, the reason is shown beside the developer and in the handoff card.

Hand work to a developer

  1. Open the project and find Outsourced to a developer under the board.
  2. Press Hand work to a developer. The button says why when it is off: no developer yet, nobody has signed, or every task is already handed over.
  3. Pick the developer and how you pay them:
    • Fixed fee per task: type the agreed fee beside each task you tick.
    • Hourly with a cap: type the hourly rate and the most hours you will pay for.
  4. Tick the tasks to hand over. A task goes to one developer only.
  5. Write the Scope: what to build, in your own words. This is what the developer reads.
  6. Press Hand over.

See the margin

When your position sees money, the project shows two cards:

  • So far: the client price, the developer cost (fixed fees, plus hours logged at the hourly rate) and the margin in money and as a percent
  • If every hour of the caps is used: the same with each hourly cap used up

The client price is the project's fixed fee, or its hours budget at its hourly rate. Set it under Budget on the project. Without one there is no margin to show, and the card says so.

Set a Margin target at the top of Developers, such as 40%. When the developer cost pushes a project's margin under it, the margin turns red and Otto sends you one notice. It warns again only after the margin has been back above the target.

The developer's page

Each handoff has its own link. Press Copy link to send it yourself, or Email the link to leave an email in Reviews. The page shows only:

  • the tasks you handed over, with their due dates and where each one stands
  • the scope you wrote
  • your messages, and a box to write back

It never shows the client's name or details, a price, a fee or your margin.

On the page the developer can:

  • Upload files on each task. A file is checked by its bytes: pictures, PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, CSV and text are kept. An Office file with macros is refused.
  • Log hours on a task, when the work is hourly. Hours past the cap are refused, and the page says how many are left.
  • Mark ready for review once a task has at least one file.
  • Write to you. Their message reaches you as a notice. Press Messages on the handoff to read and answer.

Press Switch link off to close the page at once. Switch on a new link gives a new address; the old one never works again.

Review, then pass it to the client

A task the developer marks ready shows Approve and pass to client and Ask for changes.

  • Ask for changes: write what needs changing. The note appears on the developer's page beside the task.
  • Approve and pass to client: the developer's files are copied onto the project task. If it is a milestone, that is what your client sees on their milestone page, so nothing the developer uploads reaches the client before you approve it.

What you owe the developer

Approving a task records a supplier bill under Finances → Bills, unpaid, from the developer's company (or name): the task's fixed fee, or the hours logged on it at the hourly rate. Otto never pays a developer. Pay them as you normally do, then mark the bill paid, which records the expense.

Finish and rate

When the work is done, press Mark finished, then Rate to give 1 to 5 and a note for next time. The rating shows on the developer's row.

The profit report

At the bottom of Developers, a position that sees money gets:

  • Each outsourced project: what it sold for, the developer cost so far (and what was agreed), and the margin
  • Each of the last six months: what was invoiced on those projects (invoices sent), the developer bills recorded that month, and the difference

Commission for whoever sold the project comes from pay plans under Team. A plan that pays commission on invoices paid counts these projects' invoices like any other. Each one is credited to whoever a manager named on the invoice or, for a project made from a quote, on that quote; otherwise to the client's owner, else to whoever wrote the invoice.