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Faster payouts for hourly contracts

lenaellis
Community Member

We have heard from many in our community that you need your earnings faster, especially now. Today, we are happy to announce that all Top Rated freelancers and agencies working on hourly contracts are eligible to receive their funds five days earlier. This is because we are eliminating the security hold on their payouts. 

 

For Top Rated agencies and freelancers, the earnings for hours that you worked last week will be available to manually withdraw this Friday. You will see a notification under your bell icon and receive an email about the updated payment schedule for your hourly contracts for this week. 

 

Because this is for Top Rated agencies and freelancers, the early release of funds will depend on when you currently have the Top Rated badge. If you lose or earn the Top Rated status during this time, your payment schedule will be adjusted to include or exclude the security hold.


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How does it work?

As long as your client’s billing method can be charged successfully and they don’t dispute your hours, we will apply their payment to your Upwork account five days earlier than before if you are Top Rated. You can then withdraw the money anytime you prefer by clicking here and choosing “Get Paid Now.” Note: If you have an automatic payment schedule set up,  this will not adjust the schedule, so if you want your earnings sooner, you also can use “Get Paid Now.”

 

Why are we only rolling this out to Top Rated freelancers and agencies?

We know that many of the talent on Upwork would benefit from receiving their earnings faster. However, during these unprecedented times, changing our policies also creates a higher risk of fraud. Due to the potential risk, we are initially rolling this out to the marketplace’s most successful freelancers and agencies—those who are Top Rated. In the future, we will consider expanding this to other freelancers. 

 

Why do we have a 10-day wait in the first place? 

There is an inherent risk in payment processing, driven by the potential of fraudulent people, disputes, and chargebacks. We also need to give clients time to review their freelancer’s billed hours and project progress before payment is released. But in these unusual times, we understand how important it is for you to get payouts as quickly as possible. As a result, we are willing to take on additional risk and remove the security-hold period for Top Rated freelancers and agencies so you can get your money five days sooner.



Will this be available only during COVID-19?

While we plan to continue the practice after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, we will be monitoring the impacts of this change. 

 


Why is this only available for earnings on hourly contracts and not fixed-price contracts? 

With faster payments we decided to focus on the removal of security holds from hourly contracts first because the majority of contracts on Upwork are hourly. We understand faster payments will be a benefit for all contract types and we plan to explore making fixed-price payments faster in the future.


Upwork is dedicated to our community, and all of our teams are focused on keeping independent professionals working. Please visit our Help Center article for more details and let us know if you have any additional questions.

847 Comments
AleksandarD
Community Manager

Hi Prabhat,

 

Thanks for reaching out to us. As long as your client's billing method can be charged successfully and they don't dispute your hours, we will apply their payment to your Upwork account five days earlier than before. You can then withdraw the money anytime you prefer by clicking here and choosing 'Get Paid Now'. Note: If you have an automatic payment schedule set up and want your earnings sooner, you also can use 'Get Paid Now'.

 

Please, note that your official payment date will continue to show as Wednesday. This is because we won’t know which payments will be released early until we review accounts every Friday morning (if your client disputes your hours or their payment fails, we can’t release your payment until the issue is resolved).

 

Thank you.

jyhsiao
Community Member

Upwork holds the escrow money and gets the float during the time that the freelancer works on the project.  When the milestone is approved by the client, why does Upwork need to hold on to the escrow for an additional 5 days after approval?

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi June,

 

The security period applies to all payments and refunds on all contracts. It gives Upwork time to process and clear the payments, and resolve any disputes before funds are released to freelancers.

f6155f2f
Community Member

then good if it will resolve all those problems.

Thanks!

jyhsiao
Community Member

Upwork already collected and processed the payment when the client funded the escrow? If not, who holds that escrow?

 

If the client approved the milestone, what disputes does Upwork think is possible?

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi June,

 

Thanks for your question. There is inherent risk in payment processing, driven by the potential of fraud, disputes and chargebacks. We also want to give clients time to review their freelancer’s billed hours and project progress before a payment is released. That is why we established the ten-day review and security-hold period to begin with. But in these unusual times, we understand how important it is for you to get your money as quickly as possible. As a result, we are willing to take on additional risk and potential losses and remove the security-hold period for Hourly contracts for Top Rated freelancers and agencies so you can get your money five days sooner, if you choose.

wisolutions
Community Member

Hey, I don't understand anything. We received our payments twice last week. But, we receiving nothing this week. And have to wait until 27 May for the next payment. What are the advantages to be Top Rated?

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Igal,

 

Thanks for reaching out. Your official payment date will continue to show as Wednesday. This is because we won’t know which payments will be released early until we review accounts every Friday morning (if your client disputes your hours or their payment fails, we can’t release your payment until the issue is resolved). As long as there’s no issues, your payment will be posted to your Upwork account on the Friday before the Wednesday date that is listed. For example, if your payment date is listed as Wednesday, July 15, you will receive it on Friday, July 10.

donnalynn120
Community Member

It doesn't look like I'm getting an "early" payment this week (5/22). Why would it stop already? I rec'd payment on the 8th and on the 15th and now it does't show available until the 27. Why not the 22nd? I've worked every week.

wlyonsatl
Community Member
If I understand correctly, what you are seeing today is not being updated but you will see a change tomorrow.