Different Hours billing on different timezone

[#1]

I was suppose to pay freelancers this week but then there's a case that seems funny, The freelancer worked for 2 hours last week which i confirmed with him in the chat. but right in the billing, it says 7 hours on UTC and 2 hours on local time. He confirmed to had entered 2 hours. Why is upwork billing 7hours on UTC? and how do i pay for 2 hours he actually worked and not 7 hours.

[#2]

Hi Abisoye,

We appreciate you reaching out and bringing this up to our attention. The default time settings for the desktop app and Work Diary is UTC. You need to cross-check the discrepancy of the time in UTC with your time zone. If you follow your time zone, it will show that the freelancer logged 2 hours on Monday, and 5 hours on Tuesday. In UTC, it will show that the freelancer logged 7 hours.

You always have the option to talk to the freelancer and ask them to delete the other logged hours. However, in an hourly contract, timing is key when filing a dispute. If they want to be payment protected on Upwork, you certainly have the option of disputing the 5 hours.

Additionally, you can check this help article to be more acquainted with how the procedures work.

[#3]

There has always been something not right about the desktop app. Even I set the time to "Mine" it shows any already tracked hours according to their time in UTC so I can't add manual time at that time even if it was when I actually did the manual work. 

So for example, imagine someone in New York did some manual work at 6am but then tracked hours at noon. They won't be able to add those manual hours at noon because it is showing that they already tracked hours at noon because 6am there time was noon UTC.

The net result is I don't always actually enter manual time at the time I actually did the work, but I add a note about what I did.

I even had a client who wanted me to track all my time in their own app and then add it manually to Upwork. I would just dump the total amount of time I worked each day at midnight onward. If I forgot to do it for several weeks, I would just keep adding the hours for Mondays to the past week's Monday. 

As long as you believe you freelancer did the total number of hours, it's probably ok and I wouldn't worry so much about what day they are showing up on.

[#4]

I have a similar issue that I need to explain to my employer. The hours in UTC bill at more hours than what I worked. 

I actually need to separate time that I spend on different tasks for her. And when I tally the hours in my time, the billing in UTC hours is higher than the breakdown of tasks report that monitor for her. 

At some point, and with every right, she is not going to pay for the UTC hours which give both the contractor and Upwork more money than entitled.

I need a better explanation than what I have found in this thread or in other threads. How can hours billed in UTC be more than the hours billed in my time zone? By more than an hour's difference, which is nice for me but wrong for the client to pay when I haven't worked that additional hour!!

Many thanks!

[#5]

Hi Maria, 

I'm sorry to learn that this experience has been inconvenient for you. Have you checked Arjay's response on this thread? Arjay has shared that the desktop app and Work Diary's default time settings are UTC. It would be best if you cross-check the time discrepancy in UTC with your time zone.

I would also like to note that your client can switch their Work Diary view from UTC to their timezone. You may read more about using your Work Diary here.

[#6]

I am from Pakistan and currently working with a client from US. I am allowed to add manual time. I was about to enter the 8 hours for the day but it is not even giving me the options to add 8 hours. My laptop is set to Eastern Standard Time. It never happened before. Please look into this and help me add my work hours

[#7]

Hi Ali,

Manual time can be added to the current billing period before the Work Diary is locked, and only for intervals you have not already logged time. Also, please be reminded that the default time settings for the desktop app and Work Diary is UTC. Select Mine from the dropdown time zone menu in your Work Diary to log hours in your own time zone.

Please also note that manual time does not qualify for Hourly Payment Protection. You may follow the instructions in this help article  to successfully add manual hours.