Feature Request - Change fixed price contract to hourly for revisions without starting new contract

[joshobj]

It would be really helpful to have the option of switching from flat rate to hourly. I'm fine with doing a flat rate with 1, maybe 2 rounds of revisions. But it's frustrasting to do a flat rate job and the client wants many rounds of revisions for whatever reason. I know you can do this by starting a new contract but it would be awesome with just a few clicks you can change the same contract from flat rate to hourly for revisions. That way a client can't take advantage of the flat rate and you're not doing work for free. 

[prestonhunter]

Joshua:

I understand your concern, and I agree that many freelancers would like to have this ability.

But Upwork is never going to give freelancers any sort of button that lets them change a fixed-price contract to an hourly contract.

You will need to do what the rest of us do, which is to put some thought into this problem, and come up with professional, polite ways that you can explain to clients that they will need to close the fixed-price contract and create an hourly contract if they want you to continue working on their project.

[versailles]

Today on Upwork, contract types are separated into hourly and fixed price. But it could be possible in the future to break this dichotomy and to make it possible for the client and the freelancer to agree on and set milestones and hourly tasks inside one same contract. Some good Upwork UI/UX work could make this a no-brainer.

Some good UI/UX, on Upwork..., oh well, just forget about this. I'm drunk. Again.

[prestonhunter]

Rene makes an excellent suggestion.

This would be a welcome feature that would benefit both clients and freelancers.

A key distinction in Rene's description of what Upwork "could" do, and the original poster's suggestion is that there would be agreement between the client and freelancer.

Having functionality that would allow the client and freelancer to change a fixed-price contract to an hourly contract is feasible.

Having functionality that would allow a client and freelancer to use a single contract to mix hourly and fixed-priced elements is feasible.

But Upwork can't won't create a button that lets a freelancer unilaterally change a fixed-price contract to an hourly contract, because that would represent a loss of control for the client that would be unacceptable.

[tlsanders]

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Joshua W wrote:

It would be really helpful to have the option of switching from flat rate to hourly. I'm fine with doing a flat rate with 1, maybe 2 rounds of revisions. But it's frustrasting to do a flat rate job and the client wants many rounds of revisions for whatever reason. I know you can do this by starting a new contract but it would be awesome with just a few clicks you can change the same contract from flat rate to hourly for revisions. That way a client can't take advantage of the flat rate and you're not doing work for free. 

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I agree with you that it would be nice if this were something the freelancer and client could easily do by agreement, though there's some potential for misunderstandings and conflict. Often, though, the problem is that a project shouldn't have been fixed price in the first place. If revisions aren't predictable and clearly subject to limitation in the contract, it makes more sense to go hourly from the outset.