Client forgot to pay other milestone

[dylschofs]

I just finished a successful logo project for my client, but I believe he forgot/did not know hot to pay the other milestone. Is there a formal and professional way to go about this? Thanks

[prestonhunter]

Dylan:

Did you forget to set up the milestone properly?

The way fixed-price milestones work is this:

1) A client sets up a milestone and funds it fully with money in escrow.

2) The freelancer does the work and turns it in.

3) The client releases payment to the freelancer or (if the client does nothing), then the freelancer is paid AUTOMATICALLY.

So when the freelancer users Upwork properly, there is no tushc thing as "a client fogot to pay for a milestone." If a client forgets, or doesn't even return to Upwork, then it doesn't matter. Because the freelancer gets paid for their work.

re: "Is there a formal and professional way to go about this?"

If you didn't set this up properly, then no, there is no formal way to go about getting paid. The only thing you can do is send a message to the client and ask him to pay you more money. But that is purely between you and the client. Upwork is not involved, and will not assist you if you want to get paid for work that wasn't set up with an actual, funded milestone using Upwork user interface.

[dylschofs]

Hi Preston,

Thank you for the reply. We agreed that the job would pay $200. Based on the screenshot linked in the previous message - does it seem to look like I will get paid the other $100?

[tlbp]

You can contact the client and inform him that only one milestone was paid and ask him to pay the additional funds via milestone if the contract is still open or via bonus if it is closed. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "We agreed that the job would pay $200. Based on the screenshot linked in the previous message - does it seem to look like I will get paid the other $100?"

If you did the work without having a funded escrow payment in place, then you made a mistake.

If you did NOT have a funded milestone in place, then you can still get paid, if you ask the client to pay you and if he sends you a payment.

But this is between you and the client. If you did not have a funded milestone in place, it is not something that Upwork will get involved in.

When you have a funded milestone in place, you do not even need Upwork's help. You simply click a button and get paid automatically.

[mtngigi]

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@Dylan S wrote:

I just finished a successful logo project for my client, but I believe he forgot/did not know hot to pay the other milestone. Is there a formal and professional way to go about this? Thanks

Best practices mean you make sure the first milestone is fully funded before you start any work. Clients can release partial amounts with the balance automatically moving to the next milestone.

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