Client billing

[smylus]

Hi there, I'm new to Upwork and just completed a job for a client that went quite a bit over the original stipulation of 5 hours per week, ending up taking a full 18 hours. Due to the client changing the brief, and adjusting to realizations that to complete the work as desired would require considerably more time, the additional time was required. Additonally the 11 hours it took to finalize the project happened on the weekend, and because of their tight deadline (not mentioned to begin with) took up the whole of my weekend Saturday. I used the time tracking and saw that the hours were being logged, and screen grabs being taken every 10 minutes, but when it came to seeing the final invoice, only 5 hours is being charged!? I havent spoken to the client yet, but how can I get a proper official count of my hours to prsent to them?

They have been satisfied with the job, but I want to show them clearly the hours that its taken.

Thank you!

Shaun

[prestonhunter]

re: "but when it came to seeing the final invoice, only 5 hours is being charged"

It sounds like the client-specified maximum number of hours was set to 5 hours.

At this point it is very important for you to understand how the Upwork system works.

Clients ARE allowed to set a specified maximum number of hours per week that a freelancer may work.

The client MAY increase those hours if she wants to.
Also, the client MAY pay a bonus payment to cover the hours that weren't counted.

But the client is not required to do so.

This is between you and the client.

At this point, because the work week has now ended, you have these options:

a) Do nothing; accept payment for 5 hours only.

b) Tell the client that you worked 18 hours - 13 beyond what was recorded, and ask him to use the client-side Pay Bonus tool to pay you for 13 hours of additional work.

c) Tell the client that you worked 18 hours - 13 beyond what was recorded, and ask him if he can pay some amount of bonus - an amount of his choosing - to help cover the extra time that you spent.

[prestonhunter]

re: "how can I get a proper official count of my hours to present to them?"

The client has access to the complete work diary. The client can ALREADY see the number of hours you worked beyond the maximum allowed 5 hours. The client can ALREADY see all of the screenshots and work diary time segment details for the "over" time.

re: "I want to show them clearly the hours that its taken."

The client already has access to this information.

Shaun:
One thing you should keep in mind is that MOST clients on Upwork are highly professional, good, ethical, decent people. They are also intelligent. Your client understands that the original estimate of 5 hours was based on an earlier set of requirements. The client understands that he asked for more things to be done.

It IS POSSIBLE that the client will not want to pay for more than 5 hours of work.

Even good, professional, ethical clients might not want to pay for more than the 5 hours that they actually authorized.

But it is also highly possible that the client would WANT to pay you for all of the time that you spent.

The client might be surprised at the very thought of doing otherwise. It depends on the individual client. I can't tell you one way or the other which type of client you are working with.

There are clients for whom 5 hours of your time is a significant investment. There are other clients for whom the difference between 5 hours of your time and 18 hours of your time is meaningless.

[petra_r]

All you had to do was ask the client to up the hourly limit before midnight last night.

Then all hours would have been invoiced. 

Preston H wrote:

There are other clients for whom the difference between 5 hours of your time and 18 hours of your time is meaningless.

---

Such clients don't usually change the default 40 hour-limit to 5

[prestonhunter]

re: "Such clients don't usually change the default 40 hour-limit to 5"

This is an excellent point, and something that the original poster should keep in mind when talking to the client.

The client WAS using the Upwork tools properly, and may well have set a limit of 5 hours based on what he could reasonably afford.

But we don't know for sure.

I worked 20 hours on a contract last week that started out with a maximum limit of 5 hours. But as the client asked for more work to be done, I discussed with him how much additional time it would take, and he raised the maximum hours a couple of times. So I ended up getting paid for all of those hours.

The original poster now knows how to do that. So whether or not he gets paid for the extra 13 hours he worked... at least he won't make the same mistake next time.

[smylus · Accepted solution]

Yes, now I know. Thanks for the input guys.