Can contractors accidentally log time?

[Petra R]

I check my work diaries periodically. I CERTAINLY check them at the end of every day. I delete any "short" segments (start or end of a working period if there are only 3 or 4 green bars because I started to work halfway through a segment)and check carefully if I may have left the timer running. If a contractor deletes a screenshot then that time (and the associated charge) get deleted as well, so you don't pay for that. To be honest it may make sense to ask your contractors to check their work diaries daily before finishing work and to delete any "accidents" so there are no disputes later. I can not believe people have the nerve to LEAVE such screenshots and time segments! That's adding insult to injury.

[Marcia M]

There are clients who come to the forum crying that they were billed for 30 hours of work and the contractor did nothing. So clearly contractors do get away with it, and some of it is the clients' fault.

[Jason H]

Yeah, i have decided to draft up a paragraph stating to new contractors that i expect them to check their work diaries as part of the project and let them know i will also be doing regular work diary checks to ensure consistency with work etc. I don't want to be one of those employers that is constantly looking over a contractors shoulder, but i obviously need to incorporate better self management of time tracking into projects.

[Marcia M]

Quote: "I don't worry about 1 or 2 hours unless your already on a good rate of pay." If you can afford to shrug off 1 or 2 hours of Facebook, maybe you can afford to just offer a higher rate, and then you will get a better class of contractors in general.

[Santiago S]

You even have the option of getting rid of it. At first you can do this by mistake, but you learn. I've done it once and had to delete a few minutes off the tail end of a long work streak. TIf they don't delete their time, then they are not paying attention. Do you want someone like that to work with you? Hire me! lol

[Caleb T]

ODesk time tracker might not be right for me (emphasis on "might"). The issue with me is that I work in brilliant bursts. It's some kind of genetic problem probably. The result is usually miraculous and given the fact that there are only a handful of people on the planet who can figure out the little nuanced conceptual problems I'm solving and have solved, I like to log hours as an estimate. I realize that isn't fair, but it's also not fair that I'm not running certain people's businesses and instead providing super inexpensive labor for things that Percona or RedHat charges $400 per hour for. Other times, the client tells me that they have spent two weeks trying to solve something and just can't and that's why they need me. So I spend an hour and charge an hour, but probably wrote code for 20 minutes. I sometimes have stared at something for 30 minutes and done absolutely nothing, then walked outside and stared at the sky and then I realized what was wrong. Should I log that 20 minutes of sky gazing and 30 minutes of staring at a problem? Not sure. I think moderation and careful review of results should obviate the need to pour over screens. If you spent $40 to solve a procedure or piece of code that would take an entire team weeks to solve at a cost of thousands of dollars, consider the ODesk marketplace a huge savings.

[Marcia M]

Caleb, I think you would be better off charging a fixed rate for your jobs.  This way the client is paying for results, and it doesn't matter whether you do the job in little bursts or you do it all at once. This does mean that payment isn't guaranteed, but if you either ask for an upfront payment and/or set small milestones so you aren't depending on a huge payment all at once, and you are careful about the clients you choose, it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

[Ronald T]

It happens, start the tracker after inadvertently selecting the wrong client, forget to stop the tracker when done and go on to some other task.... When monitoring freelancers on behalf of clients, I found one freelancer that apparently left the tracker on while surfing p*** sites. Yep, caught all the evidence. I assure you, that was not part of the agreed upon scope of work.