About PayStaff
Built so Australian businesses and Filipino professionals can trust the same system.
Managing a remote team in the Philippines usually means juggling five different tools — a chat app for check-ins, a spreadsheet for hours, one app for invoices and another for payouts. PayStaff replaces that patchwork with a single, connected system built specifically for the Australia–Philippines working relationship.
See how the trust chain works →
The problem
The relationship works. The tooling around it usually doesn't.
Most Australian businesses that work with Filipino freelancers and remote professionals didn't find each other through a marketplace — the relationship already exists. What's usually missing is the infrastructure around it: a reliable way to confirm work was actually done, a clear approval step before money moves, an invoice that doesn't need to be chased, and a payment that lands the way it was meant to.
Without that infrastructure, both sides end up carrying the risk. Australian managers rely on irregular check-ins and good faith to know a project is on track. Filipino professionals chase invoices, wait on manual payment runs, and rarely have a clean record of what they've been paid, by whom, and when. A small team absorbs this as friction. A growing team absorbs it as real operational risk.
PayStaff was built around a simple premise:
How it fits together
One connected sequence, not seven separate tools
Every stage of the relationship — from onboarding through to the final payout — moves through the same system, so nothing needs to be reconciled by hand at the end of the month.
01
Connect
Client and worker onboarding, roles, rates and contract details are set up once.
02
Verify
Diwa records time and work evidence so hours don't need to be taken on faith.
03
Approve
Managers review and approve work before it becomes billable.
04
Invoice
Approved work is automatically prepared into an invoice.
05
Fund
The Australian client authorises payment against the approved invoice.
06
Pay
Funds route cross-border into the Filipino professional's payout.
07
Record
Every step stays linked in one chronological history for both sides.
Where we draw the line
What PayStaff is — and what it deliberately isn't
Being clear about what we won't become is part of how we design the product.
✓We are
Workforce and payments infrastructure built specifically for the Australia–Philippines corridor
A verified-work platform, so hours and progress aren't a guessing game
A transparent payment system with one traceable ledger of what's owed and what's paid
A shared record both the client and the professional can rely on, long after a project ends
–We are not
A freelancer marketplace or a place to "find talent"
Surveillance software — Diwa is built around visibility and consent, not covert monitoring
A payment-only utility with no connection to the work behind the invoice
A generic "global payroll" product with no understanding of either market
Two very different days
Designed around both sides of the relationship
An Australian manager and a Filipino professional open PayStaff for very different reasons. The product is built around both.
For Australian businesses
Visibility, without needing to micromanage
PayStaff replaces ad hoc check-ins with a dashboard that reflects what's actually happening: who's working, what's been approved, what's due, and what's already been paid. Managers get real visibility into their Philippine team, and finance gets a system that doesn't require reconciling three different tools at month end.
For Filipino professionals
A professional record, not a series of one-off gigs
PayStaff replaces the uncertainty of manual invoicing and delayed payment runs with a system that tracks work automatically, shows exactly what's approved and what's still pending, and keeps a running record of every payment received from every client. It's built to make working with Australian clients feel like an ongoing professional relationship.
"
Diwa is built to make trust easier — not to make anyone feel watched.
Work verification only holds up if both sides can see it. Diwa gives Filipino professionals visibility into exactly what's being recorded and why, and gives Australian clients evidence they can rely on without needing to check in constantly. Visibility settings and monitoring disclosures are built into the product itself, configured for each client relationship rather than applied as a blanket policy.
Where we're headed
Built in stages, starting narrow
PayStaff is being built to go deep on the Australia–Philippines corridor before it goes anywhere else.
PHASE 1
Corridor foundation Current focus
Client and worker onboarding, Diwa time tracking, invoicing, approvals and payout records for the core Australia–Philippines relationship.
PHASE 2
Team operations
Multi-worker dashboards, roles and permissions, statements, and dispute or adjustment workflows to support growing Australian teams.
PHASE 3
Financial depth
Expanded payout and funding options, earnings tools, and reporting as usage across the corridor matures.
PHASE 4
Beyond the beachhead
Extending the same trust infrastructure to new corridors and markets, once the Australia–Philippines relationship is proven end to end.
Behind PayStaff
Who's building it
PayStaff is built by a small team that has sat on both sides of the Australia–Philippines working relationship — running remote teams, and being part of one.
MV
Mara Villanueva
Co-Founder & CEO
Spent close to a decade running operations for Australian agencies with distributed Philippine teams before starting PayStaff — first as a spreadsheet-and-three-apps setup, later as the product itself. Splits time between Sydney and Manila.
CA
Connor Ashfield
Co-Founder & Head of Payments
Previously built payment infrastructure for cross-border marketplaces in the AU fintech sector. Leads PayStaff's approach to invoicing, funding and payout routing, with a focus on transparency at every step.
KU
Kristine Uy
Head of Product, Diwa
Manila-based product lead focused on workforce tools that respect the person being tracked as much as the person doing the tracking. Shapes Diwa's approach to consent, visibility and worker-facing transparency.
Ready to bring order to your Philippine team?
Whether you're formalising one contractor or managing a growing team, PayStaff gives both sides one place to work from.
