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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
jloucabamongan
Community Member

Hi Valeria! I have the same exact problem as Phyllis. It shows under my transactions but its due is set back to the usual next Wednesday (Jul 8). Is there an explanation if it's an issue on the client's end or just an error of some kind since there are no notifications if it was disputed or the client's payment method is on hold? 

The work week was from Jun 22-28 and under faster payouts, it would have been available today (Friday, Jul 3) but it was not. Although, for the past few weeks, I was able to get the payment just fine for that contract every Friday. Another contract payment went through today just fine but not that one.

Thanks for any info. 

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Jackie Lou,

 

We won't be able to share the details as we can't discuss other users' financial accounts or issues. In general, in order for an hourly payment to be released on Friday to a Top Rated freelancer, the payment has to be successful and not disputed on the client's side by the time we need to process it for Faster Payouts. If there are any issues at that point, it can't be released early. You will receive a notification if there are further issues with the contract.

 

Thank you!

abhishek_dere
Community Member

Thanks, Upwork for the great incitive.

irena-trajkoska
Community Member

Hello!

Since last Friday 07.03 i had received Faster Payouts, but this Friday 07.10 did not get, I am asking is this option not available anymore or so?

Thank You Irena Trajkoska

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Irena,

 

Faster payments feature is still available and is being applied to qualifying payments as before. I do see the payment you're referring to. Please note that 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.

tekwrite
Community Member

I received an email to get paid early but the numbers don't match. I think it was for a previous week I had already collected? Any way to verify?

 

Ken

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Ken,

 

This type of email is sent for the previous week's payments once cleared payments are released on Fridays by 5 a.m. UTC from the In Review tab. We email you after your payment is applied and ready to be withdrawn. You can check this notification by clicking on the bell icon. 

 

Thank you!

ericgroach
Community Member
Yesssssss
chunge2198
Community Member

I really do love this, good job.  It never really bothered me having a 10 day hold.  So long as I worked each week, I would always get paid every wednesday.  But this way works better and is more convenient, maybe it can stick around after Covid, just as another perk for Top Rated people.  

2a05aa63
Community Member

I cannot find that option in the notification settings.