Very confused about my billing history/payments. Kindly help.

[creativecaspro]

Good day! I apologize in advance for the ignorance about the billing in this platform. I am a new client here on Upwork. Since the beginning of my time here on Upwork, I've already spent around $ 144.20 on my projects. Payment is through VISA debit card.

Here's the breakdown (not including the $ 2.75 payment processing fee):
$ 54.20 is spent on approved milestones.
$ 12.00 is in Escrow for current milestones not yet approved.
$ 6.00 has already been refunded from one freelancer
$ 72.00 is awaiting for refund approval (I ended the contract. However, my freelancer said she's sick but hasn't mutually ended that contract yet. Still waiting for it.)

My summary of fixed price and other payments is: $ 54.20, which is accurate.

However, I am very confused about the following:

Fixed Price Deposits (not included in balance): $84.00

Statement Period
Feb 12, 2017 to Mar 11, 2017

Beginning Balance $0.00
Total Debits $213.56
Total Credits $207.56
Total Change ($6.00)
Ending Balance ($6.00)

Again, I apologize for the ignorance as I am new here on this platform. I really don't understand how the billing for clients works. I only understand that it adds 2.75% fee per payment to freelancer.

1) What does it mean by the total debits and total credits?
2)Why does it cost more than my total expenditures on my projects?
3) I computed that if I spent $ 144.20 all in all, the payment processing fee will only be $ 3.9655. That would be a total of $ 148.1655. Am I correct about the additional fees?
4) Does it mean that $ 213.56 and $ 207.56 has been withdrawn/transferred from my bank to my Upwork client account? For what reasons?
5)Does my successful refund from a freelancer ($ 6.00) falls on the total change and ending balance?
6) Are there any hidden charges that I am not aware of?

Kindly help me with this. I appreciate all the help and knowledge I can get. I'm just worried that maybe Upwork charged me more than what I expected. Thank you very much.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Jessyca Lyn,

For Fixed Price contracts, the Upwork system performs the majority of the transactions automatically. Transactions for both funding and releasing milestones are recorded in your Transactions History and added to total Credits and Debits. You can sort transactions as shown on the screenshot below to get a better idea for what you actually spent. You can also go to Jobs> All Contracts and check the amounts paid on an individual contract.

[658fbea1]

The transaction history is one of the most confusing accounting pages I've come across and I deal with a lot of platforms. Why not group transactions together and clearly show date debited, date paid, fee charged. The refernce ID's for fee transactions never corrolate with the job itself. When you make a lot of transcations this is a nightmare to decipher. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Thanks for your feedback, Peter. Note that you can filter transactions using this drop down menu:

That way you can only display transactions with a particular freelancer or only certain type of transactions.

Unfortunately, reference numbers on transactions can't be the same as contract ID number since there are often many transactions per contract.

[d33482ea]

Agreed. My book keepers have absolutely NO clue what the hell is going on or how things add up. This invoicing system is so**Edited for community guidelines**for tracking invoices for accounting purposes.

Think I'll try fiverr

[JoanneP]

Hi Tremayne,

All payments on your Reports  ›  Transactions have official invoices that are ready to be downloaded or printed for record-keeping purposes. I have requested the help of our team and one of our team members will reach out and assist you further with your Reports page. 

[d33482ea]

Fair enough - we did figure it out but it's just much more confusing than it needs to be in my opinion. For each job there are payments going into escrow, partial payments, and then the final invoice. It's difficult if you don't know what you're looking for.