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sdheer81
Community Member

Cancel automatic payments

I would like to disable the automatic payment of invoices sent by the freelancers. We have to verify their work and hours and then validate their invoice. Right now the amount goes of our Paypal account without nany warning! Can you please let me know how to proceed as I'm not able to edit anything at the moment, even with full account permissions. Thanks!

18 REPLIES 18
VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Stephanie,

 

You can review the freelancer's Work Diary and if needed pause the contract from the Workroom. If you're referring to the payment for the hours your freelancer logged last week, you have until Friday this week to check and dispute any segments not related to your contract.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

I have this problem. and I want to add that this is the #1 reason I am moving off upwork. 

 

I have had two many problems with software contractors logging weekly hours (even with your tools), but not giving me any work product or evidence of work.  I'm not okay with them billing 2-3 weeks in a row without checking in source code, and I'm not going to fight with upwork's systems. It's like they get lazy and just start milking the auto-billing system of upwork. 

 

I am much more comfortable using hubstaff for managing contractors, which works just like Upwork, except it doesn't pay them until I push the button to say they get paid. When I use this system, the contractors give me evidence of work every week. 

 

If upwork changes this, so I can set a contract to turn off auto-billing, so I have to push the button to pay them.. then I will manage contractors on upwork again.

 

Hi David,

 

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with your contracts. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, we'll be sure to share them with the team.
In the meantime, it sounds like you're using Hourly Contracts to work with your freelancers. Have you considered using Fixed-Price contracts? With this kind of contract, you can pay once the freelancer delivers work. Funds are deposited into Upwork escrow and you'll have the chance to review your freelancer’s work before any payment is released to them.
You can check out this help article for more information on Hourly vs. Fixed-Price Projects.

 

Thanks!

~Andrea
Upwork
0a3ea030
Community Member

I have not onlyused fixed price contracts, but i will ONLY use fixed price contracts, because i refuse to use auto pay hourly billing.

However, fixed price contracts only work in limited scenerios. They encourage providers to meet the minimum rewuirements for the contract, they encourage contractors to overbid to mitigate possible schedule risk, and they don't afford flexible in flight changes.

For these reasons, i vastly prefer hourly contracts, which i refuse to use on upwork until i can disable auto payment.. which is a shame, because upwork was a great one stop shop when hourly payments were paid manuslly.

Now i recruit independently and mansge hours using hubstaff. Ssme desktop hourly tracking, no auto payments.. which gives me the chance to get in and check work and ask for deliverables when they are not provided with invoices.

+1 this needs to be a feature

Agree with you in full.

 

The Employer should have the option to turn off Auto Pay.

I have just had a contractor submit an invoice that was paid without my knowledge. Now this might be because I did not see an email, no idea, but it has happened. The contractor has not listed any details at all despite agreeing to do so initially. I cannot determine what he thinks has been done for the hours invested. I am flying blind.

Generally I NEVER pay by the hour for this very reason (no control) but this time I pretty much had to in order to get the work done. He seem to be a nice guy, but that is not the point.

 

I have gone to turn off auto pay and it appears I cannot do so. Not acceptable Upwork. Not all all.

 
 

Hi Mark, I've been using Upwork for close to 10 years, Elance before.  And I'm just realizing this hole right now. It's terrible and could send me to  different platform.  Are you kidding me? Flying blind on a development projects with contractors on the other side of the world on development projects that are notoriously hard to manage. Nope. Bad solution. 

I have this problem, too. I am trying to figure out how to shut this down now.  It's absolutely terrible that there's no accounting for projects. It's impossible to manage the hourly properly with any certainty when doing web development projects.  This is absolutely terrible if I cannot shut this off.  

Hi Eric,

 

I do understand your situation. However, please note that you can review the freelancer's Work Diary and pause the contract from the Workroom if necessary. As Andrea mentioned on this thread, you may want to consider or try using Fixed-Price contracts. With this kind of contract, you can pay once the freelancer delivers the work. Funds are deposited into Upwork escrow and you'll have the chance to review your freelancer’s work before any payment is released to them.


You can also check this help article for more information on Hourly vs. Fixed-Price Projects.

 

~ Arjay
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


@Stephanie D wrote:

I would like to disable the automatic payment of invoices sent by the freelancers. We have to verify their work and hours and then validate their invoice. Right now the amount goes of our Paypal account without any warning.


 It does not get charged "without any warning," this is how hourly contracts work and you can not disable that.

 

Any hours up to the weekly limit set by you logged during any given work week are charged on the Monday following that work week.

c1c0759c
Community Member

I can somewhat understand this, but the client should be able to see the results they’re paying for, rather than allowing the freelancer to keep logging hours onto a bill without giving the client the results.

re: "I can somewhat understand this, but the client should be able to see the results they’re paying for, rather than allowing the freelancer to keep logging hours onto a bill without giving the client the results."

 

You can use the current tools to do this.

 

Just limit the amount of time a freelancer can log.

You can limit to as much as one hour.

Have the freelancer submit the work.

Review it.

If you like the work, then allow a little more time.

Thanks for this! Really useful information.

I’m new to this, so I wanted to be sure the client side was understood while making sure I’m doing right by the freelancer as well.
AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Brendon, 

As a new client, you may want to check the resources we have compiled here for both clients and freelancers to help users get started on Upwork.


~ Avery
Upwork

"just limit the number of hours the freelancers can log"

This is naive and does not fix the problem. I will only pay invoices when contractors have provided work product to me. There is no number of hours i will pay without work provided. Not 1 hour. Not 30 minutes. The number of hours i will pay without a deliverable is zero.

Upwork's system auto pays contractors for hours they log whether or not they suppily the work product to me. I don't wsnt to have to dispute hours in an invoice. I want to pay an invoice after work product has been provided. This is "standard operating procedure" for working with contractors.

Upworks system does not support this, and so it is unsuitable for working with hourly contracts. Simple as that.

re: "This is naive and does not fix the problem. I will only pay invoices when contractors have provided work product to me. There is no number of hours i will pay without work provided. Not 1 hour. Not 30 minutes. The number of hours i will pay without a deliverable is zero."

 

Then simply use fixed-price contracts.

c19dc630
Community Member

I'm facing the same issue and I can't work like that. Really, Upwork need add the option to approve Hours vs Tasks like any other consulting company.

Hi Tarek,

 

I'm sorry to hear for the inconvenience this has caused you. If further help is needed feel free to follow up here, or let me know if you would like our team to reach out to you directly via ticket and email. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
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