How do you get payed for your own expenses

[ematallaw]

Hey,

I am wondering about getting paid for services that I paid as part of my work with a client.

For example, I give a legal service that involves payment for my service but also a fee that the state charge. Usually, working outside of Upwork I will charge the total amount ($400 for my service + $400 for the fee) but here in the app if I pay the fee and add it to the final bill I am actually not getting 20% of the fee i paid. is there a way to charge that amount in full?

[martina_plaschka]

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Ema T wrote:

Hey,

I am wondering about getting paid for services that I paid as part of my work with a client.

For example, I give a legal service that involves payment for my service but also a fee that the state charge. Usually, working outside of Upwork I will charge the total amount ($400 for my service + $400 for the fee) but here in the app if I pay the fee and add it to the final bill I am actually not getting 20% of the fee i paid. is there a way to charge that amount in full?

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Yes there is, you need to increase the amount so it covers the fee when upwork deducts their fee. And no, they don't have any method to account for expenses, as this would be misused to circumvent their fees. The easiest solution is to let the client pay for expenses directly. 

[prestonhunter]

I need to buy this photo to use in the website I created.

The photo costs $10.

I purchased it.
Then I asked the client to pay $10 using the client-side Expense tool.

I received $8.

I lost $2.

On another project, I needed to buy a photo for $10.

I sent the link to the client.
She purchased the photo directly and sent me the license code.

I didn't lose any money.