1. What is Pagawa?
Pagawa is a services marketplace for the Philippines. Requesters post tasks or book services they need done; Experts are the service providers who list services, respond to tasks, and get paid for completed work.
Money for an order is held by Pagawa's payment processor until the work is confirmed complete, then released to the Expert minus fees — or refunded to the Requester if the order is cancelled or a dispute is resolved in their favor.
2. Creating an account
- Sign up with your first name, last name, email, and a password (8–72 characters).
- A profile photo is required before you can create your account.
- Choose your account type — Requester or Expert.
- You'll need to confirm you're at least 18 and agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
- After signing up, check your inbox for an activation link — your account isn't usable until you verify your email.
- Forgot your password? Use the Forgot Password link on the login page — you'll get a reset link by email if an account exists for that address.
- Requesters can use the app right away. Experts complete a short onboarding and verification process first — see the Expert section below.
3. Browsing and finding an Expert
The homepage highlights popular categories and featured Experts. From there you can browse by category, search directly, or open an Expert's profile to see their rating, review count, listings, hourly rate, availability, years of experience, and an NBI Verified badge if their background check has been approved.
Listing pages show photos, tags, pricing, ratings and reviews, and let you save a listing (the heart icon), report a listing that looks wrong, or message the Expert with a question before booking.
4. Posting a task
If you're not booking a listing directly, you can post a task describing the job — title, description, category, budget range, location, and an optional expiry date for the listing. Once posted, you can edit it (and add a schedule date or no-show policy note) or cancel it, as long as it's still open.
- Experts respond with offers showing their price and a message; you can accept or reject each one.
- Accepting an offer takes you straight to checkout.
- You can chat with an Expert to ask questions or negotiate scheduling before deciding.
5. Requester ID verification (KYC)
Before posting a task, you'll need to verify your identity — it's how Pagawa keeps Experts confident about who they're working with. You'll see a Complete Verification prompt in place of "New task" until your ID is approved.
- Verification needs a government ID type (PhilSys ID, Passport, Driver's License, UMID, PRC ID, Postal ID, or Voter's ID), the ID number, front and back photos of the ID, and a selfie photo so it can be checked against your ID during review.
- Your status shows as Not Submitted, Pending, Approved, Rejected, or Expired.
- Approved verifications are valid for a set period and expire automatically — when that happens, simply resubmit the same way you would after a rejection.
- If rejected, the reason is shown along with a Resubmit ID option.
6. Booking a listing and paying
You can book a listing directly instead of posting a task — choose a pricing tier or the base price, add any optional extras, set your service address, and pay with GCash, Maya, Credit/Debit Card, GrabPay, or Online/Direct Banking. The booking panel shows a full price breakdown, including the platform fee and VAT, before you confirm.
After paying, you're taken to a confirmation page. Your Expert's contact details stay hidden until checkout is complete.
7. Managing your orders
- Pending Payment — resume payment, or cancel with a reason.
- Paid — cancel with a reason, or file a dispute.
- In Progress — confirm completion once the Expert marks the work done (this releases payment), or dispute instead.
- Disputed — the dispute panel is always available.
- Completed — leave a review; the dispute panel stays available too.
8. Reviews and saved listings
Once an order is completed, you can leave a 1–5 star rating with an optional title and written review, and choose to post anonymously. You can only review each order once. Tap the heart icon on any listing to save it for later — your saved items live on the Saved page in your dashboard.
9. Cancellations, disputes, and refunds
- Once you accept an offer or complete checkout, payment is charged and held by Pagawa until the order is completed, cancelled, or resolved through a dispute.
- Either you or the Expert can cancel an order on your own while it's still Pending Payment or Paid — cancellation doesn't require both sides to agree, and the held amount is refunded to you. Once the Expert has marked the work in progress, the order can no longer be cancelled directly — from there it's finished by the Requester confirming completion or by a dispute.
- If the work wasn't completed as agreed, you can file a dispute instead of confirming completion — this needs a reason, a description of what happened, and optionally a requested refund amount and supporting evidence.
- Refunds go back to your original payment method where possible and may take some time to process.
10. Becoming an Expert
Signing up as an Expert starts a short application: an intro screen, then a profile and verification form, then a pending-review screen showing what's been submitted and what's missing.
- The profile form collects a unique profile URL, a tagline, a bio, your province/city, government ID details with front/back photos, and a selfie photo.
- NBI clearance is optional at this stage — submitting and getting it approved earns an NBI Verified badge on your profile, and stays valid for a set period before it needs renewing.
- Your application status is Pending, Approved, or Rejected — only an Approved application unlocks the full Expert dashboard.
- If rejected, you'll see exactly what needs fixing and a Resubmit option.
11. Listings and your business profile
A listing needs a category, title, pricing type (custom quote, fixed, or starting-from), and a base price unless it's a custom quote — everything else (summary, description, pricing tiers, extras, tags, location) is optional.
Listings move through Published, Pending Review, and Rejected states. Editing a published listing sends it back for re-approval before it goes live again. In your account settings, you can also update your hourly rate, availability, and years of experience at any time.
12. Finding work and inquiries
Browse open tasks by category and submit an offer with your message, price, and optionally a link to one of your listings. While an offer is still pending, you can withdraw it. When a customer messages you from a listing page, it becomes an inquiry in your dashboard, with a read/unread indicator so you know what still needs a reply.
13. Orders and payouts
- Mark a task as done once the order is Paid — the Requester still needs to confirm completion to release payment.
- You can cancel an order (with a reason) while it's Pending Payment or Paid.
- The dispute panel is available once an order is Disputed, or at any point while it's Paid, In Progress, or Completed.
- Payouts currently go out via GCash — add your account details in the Payouts page and have them verified before requesting a payout.
- A payout request needs to be at least the platform's minimum amount and no more than your available balance.
14. Account settings
Everyone can update their profile details and photo, verify a phone number, and change their password from Account Settings. There are also two separate ways to end your account:
- Close my account — a quick deactivation. You're logged out immediately and can't sign back in, but your data isn't erased.
- Delete my account — permanently erases your name, email, phone number, profile photo, and ID verification documents, and requires your current password to confirm. Historical order, review, and dispute records are kept, but anonymized, for legal and tax purposes.
- Both are blocked while you have an order that's pending payment, in progress, or under dispute — finish, cancel, or resolve it first.
