Closing Fixed Price contracts with no activity

[Garnor M]

Beginning July 17th, Upwork began closing fixed price contracts where no activity has taken place in the last 90 days. This will be an ongoing process where we will notify clients ahead of any scheduled closure so they may mark these projects as complete or take other action to keep these projects active. An inactive project is one that has had no payments, no bonuses, no time logged, and no milestones due.

Here’s more information on how this works:

• After 76 days of inactivity, Upwork will notify clients, advising them to re-engage on their project or mark the project as complete. *Note, we are also evaluating sending a notice to affected freelancers at this point as well.
• If after one week there has been no activity, we will again notify the clients with the same request.
• If there is no activity at the 90 day mark, Upwork will close these projects and notify freelancers. At the time of this closure, the client is again notified on the site to leave final ratings.

Some of you have asked how this process affects your Job Success Score, if at all.

Will this (the auto-closing of Fixed Price jobs due to 90 days of inactivity) affect my Job Success Score?

Technically, no. That’s because “how” a project was closed has no bearing on your JSS.

To provide more clarity, we should revisit how “idle” projects (jobs without activity) count towards your JSS. Here are a couple of different scenarios:

Counted positively towards JSS: Projects in which you were active for a long period of time, receiving payments and delivering work.  Even if it’s closed without Feedback and final ratings, as is this case here because there has been no activity in the past 90 days, recall that you’re getting the benefit of “long-term relationships” in your JSS calculation.

Counted negatively towards JSS: Projects that remain on your profile without any activity towards them can be counted negatively towards your JSS. This happens when the project starts but nothing happens (i.e. no payments).

But won’t I be negatively affected in my JSS if I have a lot of jobs without final Feedback?

Yes, that can be true. But recall again that if these jobs were long-term engagements in which you did work and receive payments from clients for some time, you are benefitting from having “long-term relationships” and as result, not having final ratings on these projects won’t negatively affect you.

[Nermin P]

I have one client, from March to September she has some project in Asia, and we agreed that after she comes back, we will continue our work.

Anyway, I received some work to do until she comes back (nothing too serious), but the point is that she also need to make a payment, and now the contract is closed. Most of the time she don't have Wi-Fi there, maybe once a week she have some signal. What to do in this situation?

Both of my contract are closed, and I was waiting payment for them.

[Stephen B]

"But won’t I be negatively affected in my JSS if I have a lot of jobs without final Feedback?

Yes, that can be true. But recall again that if these jobs were long-term engagements in which you did work and receive payments from clients for some time"

So, you've finally come out and admitted it. Upwork is unilaterally closing contracts and then punishing freelancers because of the fact that their clients disappeared. You've already vandalised our profiles by flooding them with a load of "no feedback" jobs; now we have to wait until the next review to see how much we've been shafted. 98% job success - what'll it be in two weeks? Will I still be here? The way this was thought out is incomprehensible and typically mindblowinglybungled. The effect it is going to have is devastating. And the way it has been dropped on us today, culminating in your finally making an offical announcement here after a full day of people begging for answers in the forums, and having whole threads deleted, has been nothing less than despicable and contemptuous - not just to the freelancers directly affected, but to every user on the site.

I hope the new Elancers can now see why we Upwork forumgoers have been so seemingly negative recently. This is Upwork in all its sordid glory.

[Nikki G]

I couldn't have said it any better myself! Totally agree with you.

[Amanur R]

Me also agree with you.

[Jean S]

This is a terrific piece of advice and needs it's own thread. Thanks Preston

If a client hires you to do a fixed-price job, do not click the accept button until they have provided you the data you need to do the job.

[SHAWNA G]

I also just got an email that I violated Upwork because I have all caps in my profile, the header of my profile is caps.  give me a break.

[SHAWNA G]

I agree,  user agreement states contract is over when the client or freelancer closes it.  Upwork is doing wrong by their changes to contract between client and freelancer.

[Goran V]

Hi Shawn,

If there is no activity at the 90 day mark, Upwork will close these projects and notify freelancers. At the time of this closure, the client is again notified on the site to leave final ratings.
Your client or you can propose more than one milestone so that funds are exchanged on 30-60 days or whatever works best for both of you, in this case the contract will not be closed and the 90 day period will be reset.

[Jennifer D]

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@SHAWN G wrote:

I agree,  user agreement states contract is over when the client or freelancer closes it.  Upwork is doing wrong by their changes to contract between client and freelancer.

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 The section of the ToS you're looking for is in Fixed Price Escrow Instructions, section 3, "Dormant Engagements".

Upwork is not a bank and legally cannot hold funds in escrow indefinitely.