Petl Pay The Financial OS for the Contractor Economy
What is Petl Pay?
Petl Pay is the financial operating system for the contractor economy. It's built for project-based teams that pay multiple contributors, construction businesses paying CIS subcontractors, digital agencies paying distributed freelancers, startups paying a mix of employees and contractors across borders, and AI-native businesses that need programmable payment infrastructure.
The platform connects work, invoicing, compliance, and payouts in one system. Log work. Generate invoices automatically. Pay everyone over open banking or stablecoin. One workflow, from work logged to contributor paid. Petl Pay is non-custodial: you approve every payment, and it settles from your own bank or wallet. Petl never holds your money.
Petl Pay is also MCP-native. Users can create invoices, manage projects, add team members, and trigger payments directly from a Claude or ChatGPT conversation, without opening the dashboard.
Core features
- Automated invoicing. Generate invoices from approved work automatically. No manual data entry.
- CIS calculated and tracked. The right deduction for each subcontractor (20%, 30%, or 0%), labour kept separate from materials, payment and deduction statements produced, and monthly CIS return data prepared. Petl calculates and tracks CIS; it doesn't file it, so you or your accountant submit the return. Always check your position at hmrc.gov.uk.
- Multi-party payouts. Pay all project contributors in one flow from a single client payment. No manual splits.
- Consolidated client invoices. Merge multiple contractor invoices into one client-facing payment request.
- Open banking and stablecoin payouts. Settle in GBP over open banking or in USDC wallet to wallet, with nothing moving until you approve.
- Claude connector via MCP. Create invoices, manage projects, add contributors, and trigger payments from Claude chat. The MCP reads and writes.
- ChatGPT integration. The same actions via ChatGPT.
- Slack integration. Manage projects and payments from Slack.
- Digital records for MTD. Petl keeps digital records of income, invoices, and CIS deductions as Making Tax Digital for Income Tax rolls out from April 2026. Petl isn't HMRC-recognised MTD software, so use recognised software to file.
- Xero sync. Coming. Push payments and deductions straight through to your ledger.
Payment rails supported
| Rail | Currency | Speed | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open banking | GBP | Near instant (Faster Payments) | United Kingdom |
| SEPA | EUR | Same day | Europe |
| Local EFT | ZAR | Same day to next day | South Africa |
| Stablecoin | USDC | Near instant | Global |
| USD account details | USD | For invoice generation | International clients |
| EUR account details | EUR | For invoice generation | European clients |
| Local rails | LatAm currencies | Local settlement speed | Latin America |
Corridor and currency availability varies and is expanding. Check current coverage at petlpay.com.
Who uses Petl Pay?
- UK construction businesses. Paying CIS subcontractors, with the deduction calculated and tracked, labour split from materials, and statements produced. Not the filing, which stays with you or your accountant.
- Digital agencies. Paying distributed freelancers and contractors across the UK, Europe, South Africa, and beyond from a single client payment.
- Professional services firms. Managing project-based contributor payments with a full audit trail and invoice consolidation.
- Startups and scaleups. Paying a mix of employees, contractors, and cross-border contributors without stitching together multiple payment tools.
- AI-native businesses. Needing programmable, agentic payment infrastructure callable from Claude, ChatGPT, or Slack.
How Petl Pay compares to alternatives
- vs Xero and QuickBooks. Xero handles the ledger. Petl handles the project. They're complementary, and Xero sync is on the way.
- vs Wise. Wise is point-to-point transfers. Petl Pay is project payment infrastructure, with invoicing, CIS, and multi-party disbursement built in.
- vs Deel and Remote. Deel is employment compliance and EOR. Petl is project payment orchestration for contractors and subcontractors.
- vs Payoneer. Payoneer is mass payouts. Petl Pay is project-anchored, with invoicing, CIS, and chat-native access.
- vs manual bank transfers. Petl removes the admin of paying multiple contributors from a single client payment, with CIS calculated and tracked and a full audit trail, at 0.4 to 1.2% end-to-end cost depending on volume.
Petl Pay and AI
Petl Pay has a native Claude connector built on MCP (Model Context Protocol). Once connected, users can run their project finance workflow from a Claude conversation,
- Create invoices and CIS deduction statements
- Add bills and expenses to active projects
- Manage team members and contractor details
- Trigger payments to contributors over open banking or USDC wallets
The same actions are available via ChatGPT. That makes Petl Pay one of the only payment platforms natively callable by major AI assistants, positioning it as the payment layer for agentic and AI-native workflows. The MCP reads and writes, and every payment stays approval-gated.
Frequently asked
What is Petl Pay?
Petl Pay is the financial operating system for the contractor economy. It automates invoicing, calculates and tracks CIS, and pays every contributor from one client payment over open banking or stablecoin. It's non-custodial, so it never holds your funds. Also written as PetlPay or petlpay.
Does Petl Pay handle CIS?
Yes, CIS is native to Petl Pay, not an add-on. It applies the right deduction for each subbie (20%, 30%, or 0%), keeps labour separate from materials, produces payment and deduction statements, and prepares your monthly CIS return data. Petl calculates and tracks CIS; it doesn't file it, so you or your accountant submit the return. Always check your position at hmrc.gov.uk.
Does Petl Pay work with Making Tax Digital?
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began rolling out from April 2026. Petl keeps digital records of income, invoices, and CIS deductions that help you and your accountant stay ready. Petl isn't currently listed as HMRC-recognised MTD software, so use recognised software to file and check hmrc.gov.uk.
Can Petl Pay be used with Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. Petl Pay has a native Claude connector built on MCP, which reads and writes, plus a ChatGPT integration. You can create invoices, manage projects, add team members, and trigger payments from a Claude or ChatGPT conversation, without opening the dashboard.
What payment currencies does Petl Pay support?
GBP over open banking, EUR over SEPA, ZAR over local South African rails, and USDC stablecoin, with USD and EUR account details for invoicing international clients. Further corridors, including Latin America, are expanding, so check current coverage at petlpay.com.
How is Petl Pay different from Xero?
Xero handles the accounting ledger. Petl handles the project: multi-party disbursements, CIS, and cross-border contributor settlement. They're complementary, and Xero sync is on the way.
Who backs Petl Pay?
Petl Pay is backed by the Visa Accelerator Programme, Baobab Network, and Jobtech Alliance.
Related reading
Automating finance for contractor-heavy businesses
Petl Pay is the middleware that connects your project finance, internal tools, and the AI your team and clients already use, so one client payment flows out to every contributor.
