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Hemant's avatar
Hemant P Community Member

Contract On Hold

I am new to Upwork. Just two hours after I got offered this contract it's being put on hold.
I wanted to knw whether client has paused the contract or it's because clients account is suspended. I can see suspended written in contract page. Not sure if that means suspended client or suspended contract.

Thanks and Regards

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Andrea's avatar
Andrea G Community Manager

Hi Ronnie,

 

There are two reasons why your contract may be paused:

 

  • Your client has decided to pause your Hourly Contract: If no work needs to be done at the moment, clients can temporarily and immediately pause a contract. This prevents hours from being logged on the contract, without the need to end it, until you are ready to proceed with the next part of the project. 
  • There is a problem with your client’s Upwork account: In this case, your contracts with them will be paused automatically and you cannot continue to bill that client through Upwork until the issue is resolved. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your client’s account due to privacy concerns.


You can check out this help article to learn some tips on what you can do if your contract is paused.

 

 

 

Update: 

This thread has been closed from further replies due to its size. We appreciate your participation in the Community and welcome you to continue the conversation on this new thread.

 

~Andrea

View solution in original post

509 REPLIES 509
Hamza's avatar
Hamza S Community Member

Thanks and I got your point but can you please explain why my earnings are gone from the trsnsactions history it was mentioned that it will be available on 11th august and now in transaction history it has disappeared what is this going on.

Goran's avatar
Goran V Retired Team Member

Hi Hamza,

 

One of our team members will reach out to you via ticket as soon as possible and will assist you further with your contract. Thank you.

 

 

~ Goran
Upwork
Yasir's avatar
Yasir S Community Member

I have a second project with the same client who bought my project from the project catalog. I clearly told him it can take time as I'm out of town busy with family. He said he can wait 2 more days after the due date if the work submitted is of good quality. The project was supposed to be submitted today as per the deadline according to upwork and now got an email and notification that the project is suspended because the contract is on hold.

Can someone please help? The payment is in milestone already created. I'm not sure what to do..
Luiggi's avatar
Luiggi R Retiring Moderator

Hi Yasir,

 

When a contract is paused it means that there is a problem with your client's Upwork account. It would be best for you to stop working immediately and get in touch with your client to know when the contract would resume. You can check this help article to learn more.

~ Luiggi
Yasir's avatar
Yasir S Community Member

Thanks for your reply.

The problem is that he was ready to wait. Plus he already funded the project. I got a notification of contract hold a few hours after the due date. Why?
Luiggi's avatar
Luiggi R Retiring Moderator

Hi Yasir,

 

It's recommended that you stop working on the contract while it is on hold, despite it being funded. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your clients' accounts due to privacy concerns.

 

Thank you,

~ Luiggi
Rishabh's avatar
Rishabh B Community Member

Please can someone check why my current contract is suspended with my employer? What is the reason for the same and by when can I expect it to be back up soon
Kashaf's avatar
Kashaf S Community Member

If any contract gets suspended by Upwork, it means it is under review and you must not begin the work until everything clears up by the team. However, It usually takes up to 12 hours to fix the problem and resume the contract. In other ways, you can contact support for a quick response. It could be a payment issue, so no need to rush, just wait until Upwork gets back to you. 

 

 Best of luck. 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer R Community Member


Kashaf S wrote:

If any contract gets suspended by Upwork, it means it is under review and you must not begin the work until everything clears up by the team. However, It usually takes up to 12 hours to fix the problem and resume the contract. In other ways, you can contact support for a quick response. It could be a payment issue, so no need to rush, just wait until Upwork gets back to you. 

 

 Best of luck. 


No, suspended means suspended and under review means under review. If a contract has been suspended by Upwork the client might have been suspended as well. The contract probably violated the ToS.

What you are describing is on hold which means that the client has to sort out something. That could be a credit card which needs to be replaced and can be solved easily.

No need to contact CS because they cannot share any information with you and it only generates costs we all have to pay for. If the problem has not been solved by the time you need to get started in order to meet the deadline, you can send ONE message to the client but noone else and really only once, no spamming please.

Ronnie's avatar
Ronnie R Community Member

Hi all,

 

I just finished a job for a client which had two milestones. The first milestone was paid and is now in my 'available' earnings. The second was paid at the weekend and remains 'pending.' I've had a notification telling me that the contract for this job is 'on hold', and the client's profile states that he is 'suspended.' 

 

Will the monies currently 'pending' still become 'available' to me after the five day holding period, or will that payment be suspended for the duration of Upwork's investigation?

 

Many thanks,

RR.

Andrea's avatar
Andrea G Community Manager

Hi Ronnie,

 

There are two reasons why your contract may be paused:

 

  • Your client has decided to pause your Hourly Contract: If no work needs to be done at the moment, clients can temporarily and immediately pause a contract. This prevents hours from being logged on the contract, without the need to end it, until you are ready to proceed with the next part of the project. 
  • There is a problem with your client’s Upwork account: In this case, your contracts with them will be paused automatically and you cannot continue to bill that client through Upwork until the issue is resolved. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your client’s account due to privacy concerns.


You can check out this help article to learn some tips on what you can do if your contract is paused.

 

 

 

Update: 

This thread has been closed from further replies due to its size. We appreciate your participation in the Community and welcome you to continue the conversation on this new thread.

 

~Andrea
Ronnie's avatar
Ronnie R Community Member

Hi Andrea,

 

Are you able to advise if my currently 'pending' earnings (funds that the client has paid to me and are in the holding period) or will those monies not be released from 'pending' until the investigation has concluded?

Andrea's avatar
Andrea G Community Manager

Hi Ronnie,

 

This depends on what the issue with your client's account is, and we're not able to discuss any details of your client's account because of privacy reasons. I would advise you to contact your client directly to address the situation.

 

~Andrea
Ekene's avatar
Ekene E Community Member

Hey Andrea. I've got a similar problem on my client account.

 

Just made an offer but the person I'm trying to hire can't accept because "my account is temporarily on hold"

 

Didn't get any notification of that either. Only the screenshot he sent me.

 

And I can't seem to find a way to fix it. Or even know what I did wrong.

 

Can you pls help rectify

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Ekene,

 

Thank you for your message. I checked and I see that your card is in declined status. Please contact your card issuing bank to check the available limit on your card and permissions to initiate international transactions. You can also try again using a different payment method.

 

Thank you,

Pradeep

Paul's avatar
Paul T Community Member

Hello Pradeep and the entire Upwork community, I just got a mail that my Upwork contract with my client is on hold. I've been with the client for over 6 months with no issues. What could be the issue and when can Upwork resolve this please?

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Paul,

 

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your contract. I checked the contract you are referring to and noticed that it has been paused due to an issue with the Client's account. Your contract will be restored as soon as the Client resolves the issue on their account.

 

Thank you,

Pradeep

Mehmet Cevheri's avatar
Mehmet Cevheri B Community Member

Hi Andrea:

can you check this link, please? 

**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

my client wrote a post about this issue.

 

Andrea's avatar
Andrea G Community Manager

Hi Mehmet,

 

Yes, I can see they did and that our social team has already replied in order to help. I also checked your account and it doesn't look like your contract is paused anymore, could you please check?

 

~Andrea
Sariful's avatar
Sariful I Community Member

Good advice

Muhammad Waqar's avatar
Muhammad Waqar B Community Member

Hi everyone,

 

I was working on a project, and I added a few hours manually and those hours are currently under Review state. Today, I received an email from UpWork that the contract is on Hold/Pause now. I want to know if I could get that amount which is under Review or not.

 

Thanks

- Waqar

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Muhammad,

 

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your contract. Your funds in review will be released when we are able to successfully charge the client's card.

 

Thank you,

Pradeep

Tamoor's avatar
Tamoor M Community Member

Hello Andrea,

I have done work for one of my client he accepted the work and payment was reflecting in my account. Now the contract is paused by UPWORK and my funds are still in pending. I want to know after how much time upwork will release this payment as I am unable to reach my client too. I know upwork hold the payment mainly because of chargeback threat but after 40 days there's no point of holding the funds becuase client is unable to chargeback after 40 days. The contract is already almost 20 days old.

Please let me know.

Will's avatar
Will L Community Member

Tamoor,

 

I doubt there is a chargeback threat. Upwork has apparently discovered an "issue" with the card used to pay Upwork on your behalf (either a chargeback by the actual card owner or a payment reversal due to fraudulent use of the card by your "client"). If either of these things is true on a fixed price contract you will not be paid the "pending" amound of funds at risk because Upwork will not be paid. 

 

Where did you get the informaiton that a "client is unable to chargeback after 40 days"? We have seen many posts on this board from freelancers who suffered from chargebacks on transactions going back further than 40 days.

Annie Jane's avatar
Annie Jane B Retired Team Member

Hi Tamoor,

 

Thank you for reaching out. I can see that you've already raised a support ticket regarding your concern. You can access your support tickets here. Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.


~ AJ
Upwork