Adam K wrote:
If I have a contract with a fixed rate. But my problem is that the contract is set at hourly. We are working on a per word basis.
This rarely works. Either you have a fixed rate contract, where you simply add, fund and activate milestones for each new project or task, or you have an hourly contract, where the freelancer tracks their time and you are charged automatically based on the time worked, not specific deliverables. Mixing the two isn't a good idea.
If you want to proceed with a fixed rate model, close the hourly contract and hire the freelancer on a fixed rate contract, funding and activating milestones as you go along.
Paying on an hourly contract via bonuses is not an elegant solution and freelancers should not agree to such a model as they have no protection if the client fails to pay.
Decide which contract form suits you, then stick with that.
As far as the exact word-count of specific milestones is concerned, in a gixed rate contract you can easily adjust the money to be released to the freelancer up or down when you pay, so if the word count is higher or lower than what is funded, just edit the sum to be paid.
