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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
petra_r
Community Member

Nishal S wrote:

 

Pre- faster payout new setup, I would see payment available from Upwork for hourly contracts on Wednesday June 17, request the payment to bank and receive payment into my bank by Friday June 19.

 

Now with faster payout, the payment does not show as available until Thursday June 18, and payment not received into my bank until Monday June 22.


**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Let's look at the hours you logged ruring the week of the 8th to the 14th of June:


Under the old system, the money for those hours would become available on Wednesday the 24rth, and be in your bank account on Friday the 26th.(5 days of review, 5 days of pending)

 

Under the new system, the money has ALREADY become available yesterday, on the 19th, and will be in your bank account on Monday the 22nd. (5 days of review, NO days in pending)

 

Now please explain to me how the 26th of June is earlier than the the 22nd of June **Edited for Community Guidelines**

halimran
Community Member

Why there's a security hold when a client gives a bonus?

 

I know the security hold is to prevent any fradulant activity and it's necessary for both hourly and fixed-price jobs. But when a client gives a bonus to a contractor based on his/her performance, there's no point of holding the payment for five days. In my 10 years of freelancing career here in Upwork, not a single client asked for a refund of the bonus they paid or filed a dispute for that.

 

It'd be great (and practical too) if the there's no or minimum security hold for bonuses.

mnim
Community Member
Thanks;) more kudos
gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Apologize if this has been asked and answered but I lack both time and patience to read through the 69-page thread.

 

For the past several weeks I've had two hourly projects going, and appreciate that the funds are available each Friday instead of the following Wednesday, as in the past. HOWEVER, today the funds for one project are available while the funds for the other are still Pending until next week. I can't figure out why. Can someone give me a clue?

Thanks!

jsandoval
Community Member

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate this help.

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Phyllis,

 

If there are any issues with charging the client's billing method on time or the client disputes your hours, your payment will be delayed. Unfortunately, we won't be able to share more information about the client's account, however, you will receive a notification if there are further issues with the contract.

 

Thank you!

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Bojan S wrote:

Hi Phyllis,

 

If there are any issues with charging the client's billing method on time or the client disputes your hours, your payment will be delayed. Unfortunately, we won't be able to share more information about the client's account, however, you will receive a notification if there are further issues with the contract.

 

Thank you!


Thanks, Bojan. To be clear, I have not received any notification about any kind of problem whatsoever. The funds simply are still pending, while funds for the other hourly project billed last week were available this morning. Does the fact they are still pending mean there is a problem, regardless of whether or not I've received notification?

 

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Bojan S wrote:

Hi Phyllis,

 

If there are any issues with charging the client's billing method on time or the client disputes your hours, your payment will be delayed. Unfortunately, we won't be able to share more information about the client's account, however, you will receive a notification if there are further issues with the contract.

 

Thank you!


Perhaps my earlier reply wasn't clear. I'm asking a question: Does the fact the funds remain in Pending mean that there is a problem with the client's payment or that the hours are being disputed, even though I have not received any notification? In either one of those instances, I'm inclined to touch base with the client. But if there is some other possible explanation, then I don't want to initiate a potentially uncomfortable and/or confusing conversation with the client. 

Would appreciate a clear response from a Moderator, thanks!

 

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Phyllis,

 

I was just about to reply to you here and saw your PM. I'll respond to you directly via PM. 

frazell-melissa
Community Member

Thank you! This has helped me out so much.

 

I hope you will also make fixed price contract payments available sooner. Because, well, that would help out even more! Smiley LOL