Name on a received invoice?

[#1]

I have a quick question on the invoices you receive from Upwork. As a client, when receiving an invoice from Upwork whose name and address is shown on that invoice? Is it Upwork itself or is it the name and address of the freelancer that was hired by you? So who are you paying according to the invoice, Upwork or the freelancer?

[#2]

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@Lech B wrote:

When do you plan to

- include address on invoice, and state that upwork is the selelr here (as we pay your company, not freelancers)?

- provide certicate of residency?

BTW: is therer a way to download all invoices at once?

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Lech, Upwork is not the seller. Upwork is an intermediate providing certain services. The work contract is between you and your - unknown/not identifiable - client. 

[#3]

Regardless if they are seller, intermediate, facilitator or these days probably more appropriately PayPal competitor by the looks of it - they should be able to provide a specified invoice/receipt for the amount they charge our credit cards.

[#4]

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@Per Ole K wrote:

Regardless if they are seller, intermediate, facilitator or these days probably more appropriately PayPal competitor by the looks of it - they should be able to provide a specified invoice/receipt for the amount they charge our credit cards.

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Absolutely true and a legal requirement in the European Union. 

[#5]

no further info from the STAFF, on this topic?

[#6]

Hi Gabriele and others,

We are revisiting this and plan to make updates to the invoices in the coming months. As part of this, we're continuing to share your feedback to the product team so they're aware of your needs. To be clear however, we are not making any changes to this right away.

[#7]

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@Garnor M wrote:

Hi Gabriele and others,

We are revisiting this and plan to make updates to the invoices in the coming months. As part of this, we're continuing to share your feedback to the product team so they're aware of your needs. To be clear however, we are not making any changes to this right away.

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Garnor, you guys changed 2014 and early 2015 invoices to Upwork without any warning when in 2014 and early 2015 this company was called oDesk and was located at a different address. This has serious ramifications for us, your loyal, paying, users.

Is it really sound business practice to issue invoices under a business name and address that did not exist at the time of the invoiced service?

[#8]

thank you Garnor for the answer.

i really hope that the changes you're planning are in the direction to have a FULLY COMPLIANT invoice, also for eu markets.

without that, no eu company can do steady business here, and if i'll be forced to make my freelancer do a compliant invoice by himself, i'll obviosuly be forced to pay him thourght different channels, also skipping your fee.

but this is not my intention, and probably is not yours, but you should understand that is clearly the natural end if this situation is not going to resolve.

[#9]

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@Gabriele D wrote:

thank you Garnor for the answer.

i really hope that the changes you're planning are in the direction to have a FULLY COMPLIANT invoice, also for eu markets.

without that, no eu company can do steady business here, and if i'll be forced to make my freelancer do a compliant invoice by himself, i'll obviosuly be forced to pay him thourght different channels, also skipping your fee.

but this is not my intention, and probably is not yours, but you should understand that is clearly the natural end if this situation is not going to resolve.

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That's exactly what will happen. Regular clients of mine are sticking to Elance after I warned them that if they move the jobs to Upwork they won't receive an EU compliant invoice and they will have to pay 19% more as I'm forced to raise my price by the VAT I have to pay for jobs done on Upwork. 

[#10]

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@Garnor M wrote:

Hi Gabriele and others,

We are revisiting this and plan to make updates to the invoices in the coming months. As part of this, we're continuing to share your feedback to the product team so they're aware of your needs. To be clear however, we are not making any changes to this right away.

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 KTHXBYE

...is all I could write in this case. This means I'm done with Upwork. I was hoping you would revert to the old invoice format for the time being, until you have everything figured out. Good luck, send us a newsletter once you're ready.

[#11]

Wow, I was not aware of this.

I'm switching to something else, this is ridiculous--anyone know of a good place for freelance translation services with REAL invoices? Besides ProZ--something for which I could pay hourly like oDesk.

[#12]

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@Garnor M wrote:

Hi Gabriele and others,

We are revisiting this and plan to make updates to the invoices in the coming months. As part of this, we're continuing to share your feedback to the product team so they're aware of your needs. To be clear however, we are not making any changes to this right away.

Edited: The ToS have remained the same with regard to this. My bad for not reading them closely enough before.

Well, the product team along with the lawyers have listened and made a decision - and much sooner than expected! Yay.

Nothing was changed with the recent update: no formal invoices. Not their responsibility.

I better start charging clients more to make up for the time spent writing invoices and contacting and emailing them...

And good luck with getting proper contact details for clients that stopped communicating months ago. Or left the platform. Or the ones that don't want you to invoice them. Or...

This is a really low blow.

[#13]

It seems that Upwork now issues two invoices:

First one is from Upwork Inc company for depositing the fixed amount to the Upwork account and the Second one is from the name of Freelancer.

[#14]

anton, where you saw these two invoices? on my side i still get only one: the non-compliant one we're discussing here

[#15]

On Fixed-time jobs.

[#16]

downloaded the invoices of the last week, unlukily still no changes, still the new, unusable ones.

meanwhile, i've investigated other opportunities to solve the issue, and basically are all outside of odesk. And that is not really my intention, but is going to be the only option to manage big weekly spending, in a EU-compliant manner.

someone can think about moving long-term partners (the ones who do the major part of the hours) on other generic platforms that allows screenshot tracking and paypal payment (search "time tracking with screenshot"), and get direct invoices from them for the paid amount

really hope odesk can do a step back (or forward...) quickly. more quickly that the "months" said

[#17]

I realize I'm not the only one with invoice problems 🙂

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Clients/Difficult-to-prove-Upwork-charges-for-bookkeeping/m-p/103679...

[#18]

Upwork has made it very clean in the updated ToS how they will handle invoices.

6.7 Formal Invoices and Taxes

Upwork will have no responsibility for determining the necessity of or for issuing any formal invoices, or for determining, remitting, or withholding any taxes applicable to the Freelancer Fees. Freelancer will be solely responsible for determining whether it is required by applicable law to issue any formal invoices for the Freelancer Fees and for issuing any invoices so required. Freelancer will also be solely responsible for determining whether: (a) Freelancer or Upwork is required by applicable law to remit to the appropriate authorities any value added tax or any other taxes or similar charges applicable to the Freelancer Fees and remitting any such taxes or charges to the appropriate authorities on behalf of itself or Upwork, as appropriate; and (b) Upwork is required by applicable law to withhold any amount of the Freelancer Fees and for notifying Upwork of any such requirement and indemnifying Upwork (either by Upwork, at our sole discretion, offsetting the relevant amount against a future payment of Freelancer Fees to Freelancer or Freelancer reimbursing Upwork for the applicable amount) for any requirement to pay any withholding amount to the appropriate authorities (including penalties and interest). In the event of an audit of Upwork, Freelancer agrees to promptly cooperate with Upwork and provide copies of Freelancer’s tax returns and other documents as may be reasonably requested for purposes of such audit, including but not limited to records showing Freelancer is engaging in an independent business as represented to Upwork.

https://www.upwork.com/info/terms/newterms/

[#19]

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@Suzanne N wrote:

Upwork has made it very clean in the updated ToS how they will handle invoices.

6.7 Formal Invoices and Taxes

Upwork will have no responsibility for determining the necessity of or for issuing any formal invoices, or for determining, remitting, or withholding any taxes applicable to the Freelancer Fees. Freelancer will be solely responsible for determining whether it is required by applicable law to issue any formal invoices for the Freelancer Fees and for issuing any invoices so required. Freelancer will also be solely responsible for determining whether: (a) Freelancer or Upwork is required by applicable law to remit to the appropriate authorities any value added tax or any other taxes or similar charges applicable to the Freelancer Fees and remitting any such taxes or charges to the appropriate authorities on behalf of itself or Upwork, as appropriate; and (b) Upwork is required by applicable law to withhold any amount of the Freelancer Fees and for notifying Upwork of any such requirement and indemnifying Upwork (either by Upwork, at our sole discretion, offsetting the relevant amount against a future payment of Freelancer Fees to Freelancer or Freelancer reimbursing Upwork for the applicable amount) for any requirement to pay any withholding amount to the appropriate authorities (including penalties and interest). In the event of an audit of Upwork, Freelancer agrees to promptly cooperate with Upwork and provide copies of Freelancer’s tax returns and other documents as may be reasonably requested for purposes of such audit, including but not limited to records showing Freelancer is engaging in an independent business as represented to Upwork.

https://www.upwork.com/info/terms/newterms/

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Well this clearly shows that Upwork hasn't comprehended the concept of VAT and and what the invoices they are issuing on behalf of the freelancer to the client have to look like. 

[#20]

This does raise the question of how interested is Upwork in freelancers and clients from Europe.

[#21]

they are crazy. they will end forcing all the european client to use this site just for scouting, and then managin relationships and billed hours out of the platform. i already know a lot of people who has started doing this, and i'm on the route to. i still cannot understand how is possible to do a change like that, that cuts out entire europe book-keepi g rules

[#22]

Hi Everyone,

We will be making changes soon so that invoices are compliant with EU laws.

-Lena

[#23]

Thanks, Lena!

Well, that is really good news.

[#24]

good news, lets see for the real outcome

[#25]

Hi Lena,

When can we expect these changes?

All the best,

Margarete

[#26]

Still waiting and waiting.

I have to hire in september some new freelancers but this way it is not going to happen.