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All docsOperating model

Contributors

Not legal or tax advice. These pages describe how MultiAgency LLC is structured and operates — one working example, not a prescription. Entity types, tax treatment, and worker-classification rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Before adapting this model, get qualified legal and tax counsel in the jurisdiction where your agency and contributors operate. This is an early draft, published to gather feedback — expect it to change.

The flow at a glance

No paperwork is uploaded into the dashboard, and the dashboard does not track an onboarding status. Documents live in email and the admin's chosen filing system (Drive, Notion, etc.).

Step 1 — Apply

Contributor fills /apply.

Step 2 — Email exchange

The admin replies by email with two attachments:

  • Master services agreement — the standing contract between MultiAgency LLC and the contributor. Covers IP defaults, payment in NEAR, termination, the independent-contractor relationship the LLC intends, governing law. Sent once per contributor; reused across all future work orders. See services agreement.
  • Tax form — W-9 (US person) or W-8BEN (non-US individual). Required before any payout. The LLC keeps the form on file; it is not stored in the dashboard.

Step 3 — Counter-sign

Contributor returns the signed agreement and the completed tax form by email. The admin files both.

Step 4 — On file

Once the signed agreement and tax form are filed, the contributor is ready for work orders and payouts. There is nothing to switch on in the dashboard: assigning a contributor to a project and recording their billings work the same either way, so the admin checks the paperwork is on file first.

For builders in the member registry, a platform admin can also record the signed agreement there, with its version and the date it was signed.

Step 5 — Work order

Before any work begins on a specific project, the admin sends a per-project work order by email. The work order names the project, the deliverables, the fixed or milestone-based amount, the NEAR token, the IP terms for that engagement, and the due date(s). The contributor counter-signs and returns. See work order.

The work order references the master services agreement; everything not stated in the work order falls back to the master.

Step 6 — Pay

When a deliverable is accepted, the admin records a billing in the dashboard. The dashboard does not send the payment — the actual transfer is a Sputnik DAO proposal authored in Trezu (or via NEARN's "Pay with NEAR Treasury" helper).

Safe-by-default

Two guardrails:

  1. Paperwork before payout. Before recording a billing, the admin confirms the contributor's signed agreement and tax form are on file. The dashboard does not check this for you.
  2. Audit log on budgets. Every treasury budget change records the actor's NEAR account and a timestamp — a clear record of who authorized each payment and when.

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