Hourly contracts - few short ones or one long one?

[petioptrv]

Hi Upwork community,

When working hourly, is it better to maintain one open contract with the client or to chunk up the work into deliverable and have an hourly contract per deliverable (deliverable being a couple of hundred dollars)? What are the pros and cons of each approach?

Thank you,

Petio Petrov

[petra_r]

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Petio P wrote:

When working hourly, is it better to maintain one open contract with the client or to chunk up the work into deliverable and have an hourly contract per deliverable (deliverable being a couple of hundred dollars)? 

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I go with whatever suits the client better.

[petioptrv]

Fees are calculated per client lifetime, so that is not affected, but what about JSS? No difference there either?

[prestonhunter]

re: "but what about JSS? No difference there either?"

Honestly, I wouldn't try to over-think this.

I would do whatever works best for the client.

But technically: JSS can theoretically be affected by the size (in dollar value) of a contract. A higher dollar value contract will be weighted more in determining JSS than a small dollar value contract.

But I doubt the ability of a freelancer to "game the system" effectively by breaking up or combining hourly contracts for a single client. I think if you are doing your best to help the client, that's going to be more effective and meaningful than trying to sub-divide contracts in order to boost JSS.

[feed_my_eyes]

I agree that you should do whatever works for the client, but if he/she doesn't mind one way or the other, then I'd say keep one contract going. If you can earn at least £5,000 in one contract, you could qualify for a "top-rated plus" badge, whereas you don't qualify if the money is spread out over several contracts.