Client suggested we sign an SLA, anyone has information about how it's done on Upwork and pros\cons?

[#1]

Title.

[#2]

What is an SLA?

[#3]

SLA = Service-Level Agreement

I have completed hundreds of jobs on Upwork.

I have never had any client ask me to sign an SLA.

I have never read in the Forum about a client asking for this from an Upwork freelancer.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

This would only make sense in my opinion if you are working an HOURLY contract where you are doing some type of ongoing support, customer service,  development, or system/server/database maintenance or administration, and the client expects/wants/demands a guarantee of things like response time (to emergency or requests), turn-around/completion time/resolution time, restoration of a system etc.  

Examples of when you use an SLA:

If you were going for a job as a server administrator, the client may want a guarantee that you'll respond within 2 hours of a server outage to repair the problem

If you are doing programming, bug fixes, etc, the client may want a guarantee that new software patches or modules will be completed within 2 days of assignment to you or that they will test 98% free of bugs on the first iteration

If you are doing Help Desk support, the client may want a guarantee that you will resolve all tickets within 24 hours and no more than 2% of incoming phone calls go over to voicemail

It does not make sense for a Fixed Price contract to me at all.

Based on this, you have to judge for yourself if you'd be willing to agree to an SLA and if it's appropriate for your job/contract.   Usually a client will want this if they want/need a consisent, reliable level of service and to have an easy way to judge if you are doing a 'good' job or a 'bad' job

If you and the client do decide to do an SLA:  You can always attach supplemental documents to the Job Terms  during the interview to include them as part of the 'contract' terms if you accept the job.   If the job is already on-going, I would definitely think twice about this if the client is changing the terms of the contract in the middle of the contract (You may want to re-assess your rate and whether or not to continue working with this client.)