Does UpWork guarantee that we as freelancer will get paid after completing our work

[fileonline]

I am new to this site,  and i have applied to some work which is rated per hour or as fix price. so my question is what is the gurantee that we will get paid by the clients when we complete our work?

second question, for the work per hour, should we agree in advance with the client on how many hours the project will take?

[prestonhunter]

Does Upwork guarantee payment?

Yes and no.

If you qualify for Upwork Payment Protection... then yes.

Otherwise, no.

So if you want a guarantee, you could do what I do: Use hourly contracts and qualify. It's not complicated.

[fileonline]

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Preston H wrote:

Does Upwork guarantee payment?

Yes and no.

If you qualify for Upwork Payment Protection... then yes.

Otherwise, no.

So if you want a guarantee, you could do what I do: Use hourly contracts and qualify. It's not complicated.

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Thanks for the info, but how do i qualify for Upwork Payment Protection?

[prestonhunter]

re: "for the work per hour, should we agree in advance with the client on how many hours the project will take?"

No. Never do that.

[fileonline]

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Preston H wrote:

re: "for the work per hour, should we agree in advance with the client on how many hours the project will take?"

No. Never do that.

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but then how we can estimate the cost for the project?

[wlyonsatl]

John J.,

I almost exclusively work for Upwork clients under hourly contracts, which both offer better payment protection than fixed price projects and better fits the fact that neither I nor the client can know ahead of time how much work will be required of me in completing their project.

I can usually give a range of expected work hours, but I make it clear that is a guesstimate and I include the specifics of what I expect to provide them.

If they subsequently add more tasks to the project we both have a record of what the original agreement was and can discuss how much additional time I expect I'll need.

That has always worked with nearly all the clients I've worked with.

[prestonhunter]

It is fine to provide an estimate about how long it will take to do Tasks A, B and C.

Always make it clear that is an estimate. Might take more time. Might take less time.

If a client wants to know for certain beforehand what a task will cost, the client must use a fixed-price contract. Which is not something that all freelancers will necessarily agree to. And it is not necessarily cheaper. I calculate my fixed-price quotes by predicting how many hours it will take to do a task, and then multiplying the number of hours by my hourly rate, and then doubling that.

[fileonline]

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Will L wrote:

John J.,

I almost exclusively work for Upwork clients under hourly contracts, which both offer better payment protection than fixed price projects and better fits the fact that neither I nor the client can know ahead of time how much work will be required of me in completing their project.

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but how do you get paid? after completing the whole project or per milestones?

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[wlyonsatl]

John J.,

You will be able to book hours automatically using the TimeTracker app, which you need to download from Upwork and install on your computer.

Once TimeTracke is installed, when you invoke it you'll see each active hourly contract you are working on listed.

When you start a work session, click the Current Session button on and TimeTracker will keep a record of your keyboard and mouse activity in 10 minute segments. Be sure to enter a meaning memo in the "memo" field of TimeTracker each time you use it and turn TimeTracker off when each work session ends..

You can also add work time manually, but that work time is not covered by Upwork's excellent payment protection so I strongly suggest against it if you do not know the client well and trust her completely.

The Upwork hourly projects work week ends every Sunday night at midnight Greenwich Mean Time. Your client's payment method will be charged for your booked work time after that and you will be able to have payment sent to your bank or other account about 10 days later.

[wlyonsatl]

John J.,

Do yourself a favor and read through Upwork's documentation on how the process of fixed price vs. hourly projects works, such as here:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063418-Hourly-vs-Fixed-Price-Projects

If you make that effort and still have questions, come back here. 

And if you have no idea how much time or effort you'll need to complete the types of projects you are looking for or you have no idea what a "reasonable" price would be for such work, Upwork is not the right place to learn.

Good luck!

[2a05aa63]

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John J wrote:

I am new to this site,  and i have applied to some work which is rated per hour or as fix price. so my question is what is the gurantee that we will get paid by the clients when we complete our work?

second question, for the work per hour, should we agree in advance with the client on how many hours the project will take?

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You get guaranteed payment on hourly contracts tracked with the tracker with a meaningful memo, activity and screenshot that was during your work.

[fileonline]

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Viacheslav K wrote:

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You get guaranteed payment on hourly contracts tracked with the tracker with a meaningful memo, activity and screenshot that was during your work.

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Can you advice more on what you exactly mean?

[wlyonsatl]

Always use TimeTracker with a new client, even if the client happily "allows" you to manually add work hours to your work diary.

By "allowing" manual time on a contract the client is only allowing you to enter a work hours number manually in the Upwork system. The client has absolutely no obligation under Upwork's rules to actually accept such hours as payable and Upwork will do nothing to help you get paid if the client decides (s)he doesn't want to pay for any or all of your claimed “manual” work time.

Using manual time with a client you don't know well and trust completely means you are taking on a lot of risk of never getting paid for your work.

[fileonline]

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Will L wrote:

Always use TimeTracker with a new client, even if the client happily "allows" you to manually add work hours to your work diary.

By "allowing" manual time on a contract the client is only allowing you to enter a work hours number manually in the Upwork system. The client has absolutely no obligation under Upwork's rules to actually accept such hours as payable and Upwork will do nothing to help you get paid if the client decides (s)he doesn't want to pay for any or all of your claimed “manual” work time.

Using manual time with a client you don't know well and trust completely means you are taking on a lot of risk of never getting paid for your work.

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thanks for the reply, but how i can use the TimeTracker? is it part of the upwork profile?

[prestonhunter]

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211064088-Install-the-Desktop-App