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d_freeman
Community Member

How to transfer a great freelancer to another account

Hi Everyone,
I have a great freelancer that has been working with me for over a year.

However, my company recentantly reorged, and we have to merge operations, accounts, and billing information.


Here's where the problem is.  I need to transfer the freelancer to another client account, but I don't want to penalize him by asking him to reduce his service fee to 20% again.  It's a total cost of $550 to the freelancer to switch.

Are there any other options?

21 REPLIES 21
sivavranagaro
Community Member

I'm not sure I understood all, but it all depends on you. You can keep freelancer and pay him equally,

or find another one. These are all your options I would say.

____________
Don't correct my grammar!
AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Darrell, 

 

I will check this with the team but as far as I know, it will be considered a different/new relationship if the freelancer is hired on another company. Hence, the freelancer will be charged the 20% until he reaches the $500 treshold.


~ Avery
Upwork

Hi Darrell, if there is no other way because Upwork will consider this a new relationship, there's nothing to be done other than one of the following:

 

1) The freelancer will have to pay the fee as corresponds(20% for the first 500 and so on)

2) The client can pay this amount by increasing the payment to the freelancer, or

3) You both can split the amount

So, the only option is for someone to pay upwork $550?


@Darrell F wrote:

So, the only option is for someone to pay upwork $550?


 I don't know where you're getting this $550 fee from. I've been here a very long time and I have never heard of such a thing. Can you elaborate?

"Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike-Coach John Wooden"

Here is a possible solution. If you want to bear the cost of your freelancer having to start over at 20%, here's the math.

 

Freelancer is paying 10% now anyway.

So the 20% will only apply on the first $500, which equals $100. Since you freelancer would by paying the 10% anyway ($50) on $500. Then you could issue a bonus for ($50). Move him to the new team. 

 

Truth is all the freelancer will be out is $50 and just on the first $500. 

"Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike-Coach John Wooden"

The freelancer is at 5% now, not 10%.  We've been working with this person for a while now.  It's a bit more expensive than that.

The total cost of moving is going to be 15% of the first $500, plus 5% of the next $9500, which will still be $550.

But the overarching theme here is that someone is just going to have to pay that.

Ah okay, I was under the impression he was at 10%.  Has he been with you for over two years?

"Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike-Coach John Wooden"

Not Over 2 years, He's been with us since November of 2016.

Darell,

 

I can confirm that, unfortunately, it's not possible to transfer a contract to a different account and keep the fee rate. You can look into the Members & Permissions function if you decide to keep the contract on the current account but allow your colleagues to manage it.

~ Valeria
Upwork

@Valeria

Can he not simply work with the freelancer off platform?

 

As the fee will re-set to 20% I assume that's because he will not be considered as the same client, and then there is no history of contact or anything on Upwork. In fact this would kinda be a referral from another client. So the freelancer should be allowed to work with this "new" client outsie of Upwork, right?

 

Assuming no interview, contract or messages has been exchanged through Upwork yet between freelancer and the "new" client profile.

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

Thanks, that's the most helpful solution I've heard!

Don't take my word for it. It's just that this is what seems logical to me. But Upwork might have another opinion... 

 

I'll flag my own post to see if a mod could come along and confirm, so you don't get both yours and your freelancers account suspended.

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

Eve,

 

That would still be considered disintermediation since the freelancer is being hired by the same company, they first connected and started working on this project on Upwork less than 2 years ago.

~ Valeria
Upwork

But if it's the same company the fee should still be 5%. In the emails I get about my fee being lowered it states the company name, not the person hiring me that represents the company. 

 

And if it's a different company name, then it should be a different client. Or?

 

I don't mean to be difficult or anything, but I just want to understand how this works, as this is all a bit confusing.

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

Darrell, first - Congrats and YAH YOU on having hired and maintained a great working relationship with your freelancer and for being a caring partner in your relationship.  If you and the person have been working together for 2 years there is no penalty for moving to a direct relationship if that works for both of you.  If this is the path you both opt for, I would suggest signing a contract detailing everything to that effect.

 

If there is still a month or two to run before you hit that magic 2 year mark, can you and the freelancer agree to split the financial difference for a short period of time? This seems to be the most equitable way to handle a 8 week (?) scenario.

 

 


@Valeria K wrote:

Eve,

 

That would still be considered disintermediation since the freelancer is being hired by the same company, they first connected and started working on this project on Upwork less than 2 years ago.


 Well, maybe I am looking at this from the wrong angle, but frankly either it is the same client or it isn't.

  • If it is the same client it should be technically possible to reset the fee manually to what it should be for the same client.
  • If it is not the same client, it shouldn't be disintermediation.

Right, I feel like there should be a simple solution here, but even the official support channel can't really give me a good answer.

All of this is predicated on a company reorg.  It's actually a different client, I just happen to be managing the contracts for both orgs.


@Darrell F wrote:


All of this is predicated on a company reorg.  It's actually a different client, I just happen to be managing the contracts for both orgs.


 Then really, for all intents and purposes it is a new client and new relationship so the 20% are fair.

 

There might be a way to do it though, provided that the freelancer was hired by you from your (not a client's) client account.

 

You can set teams under your client account. Let's say your client account, which hired freelancer X, is "Darrel Client Account"

 

You can set teams under "Darrel Client Account"

 

So you could have Client 1 Team, Client 2 Team, Client 3 Team. Each team can have a different name, and have the payment methods of each (end) client on file.

So the freelancers for (end) client 1 are paid under Client 1 Team by the Client 1 credit card, the freelancers for (end) client 2 are paid under Client 2 Team by the Client 2 credit card, and the freelancers for (end) client 3 are paid under Client 3 Team by the Client 3 credit card, all through the one client account  "Darrel Client Account".

 

This way all contracts under the "Darrel Client Account" count as one client relationship even across the different teams, and contracts of one freelancer across the different teams are at the same fee.

 

This way you could just move the freelancer from Client 1 Team to Client 2 Team and the 5% fee would continue (you'd have to end the contract in Team 1 and rehire from Team 2)

 

This will not work though if client 1 and client 2 have separate accounts and where you are merely an administrator.

 

 

teams.jpg

 

 

This is my situation as well. 

 

My company wants a separate account so the frelancers I manager are under my account and the freelancers the IT director managers are under his account. I don't want to penalizer my blog writer who has been working with us for a while and is at 5% and make her go back to 20%. 

 

Did anyone reach resolution with this or is there a way to talk to someone at upwork?

petra_r
Community Member


@Shelley N wrote:

This is my situation as well. 

 

My company wants a separate account so the frelancers I manager are under my account and the freelancers the IT director managers are under his account. I don't want to penalizer my blog writer who has been working with us for a while and is at 5% and make her go back to 20%. 

 

Did anyone reach resolution with this or is there a way to talk to someone at upwork?


What you could do is create two different companies under your existing client account, those can both have their individual contact people (your IT director runs one, you run the other) and their own billing methods etc.

 

That might achieve what you are looking for.

 

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