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sblorimor
Community Member

How to add hours when week has officially ended

Hello,

 

I worked my hours last week on a project for a client, and just went in now to report the hours. I did not realize that the time log would cut off on Sunday and not allow me to manually enter my time. I am used to operating on two-week time periods. How do I go back in and report the time? I need to get paid.

 

Thanks,

 

Susan

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Robin H wrote:

You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours.  The weekly billing period begins Monday at 00:00 midnight UTC and ends Sunday at 23:59 UTC.  Therefore you're not able to change last week's weekly log. 

 

That said, you can:
1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet

Or

2) Tell your client and perhaps he/she will be open to opening a new contract with the amount owed

Or

3) Ignore it and you just won't be paid for last week's work

 

I do not suggest #2 as it requires the client to do work.  You don't want that.  It's your mistake.  I'm sorry but now you've learned and won't do it again. 

 

 


Why open a new contract when the client could simply issue a bonus payment?

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35 REPLIES 35
robin_hyman
Community Member

You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours.  The weekly billing period begins Monday at 00:00 midnight UTC and ends Sunday at 23:59 UTC.  Therefore you're not able to change last week's weekly log. 

 

That said, you can:
1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet

Or

2) Tell your client and perhaps he/she will be open to opening a new contract with the amount owed

Or

3) Ignore it and you just won't be paid for last week's work

 

I do not suggest #2 as it requires the client to do work.  You don't want that.  It's your mistake.  I'm sorry but now you've learned and won't do it again. 

 

 


Robin H wrote:

You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours.  The weekly billing period begins Monday at 00:00 midnight UTC and ends Sunday at 23:59 UTC.  Therefore you're not able to change last week's weekly log. 

 

That said, you can:
1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet

Or

2) Tell your client and perhaps he/she will be open to opening a new contract with the amount owed

Or

3) Ignore it and you just won't be paid for last week's work

 

I do not suggest #2 as it requires the client to do work.  You don't want that.  It's your mistake.  I'm sorry but now you've learned and won't do it again. 

 

 


Why open a new contract when the client could simply issue a bonus payment?

"You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours. "

- I also didn't received this email.

The Email I received is today. i.e. on Monday "Your weekly timelog is ready for review" 

Is that the same email you talking?

 


Chandra Shekhar P wrote:

"You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours. "

- I also didn't received this email.

The Email I received is today. i.e. on Monday "Your weekly timelog is ready for review" 

Is that the same email you talking?

 


Yes. 

People in some timezones receive that email late on Sunday, other timezones receive it on Monday.

 

Just different timezones,


Same email.

Thanks. I did not receive a notification from Upwork to review my hours.
Otherwise, I would have know about the problem.

I wanted to be honest with the client, rather than simply adding extra
hours this week, so I proposed a new contract.

I can't not just get paid since I would lose about $675.

Thank you for your reply!

Not sure why I did not receive the notification from Upwork; I am set to
receive all notifications.

One thing to remember is:

 

As a client, I can close a contract AT ANY TIME.

I can close a contract WITHOUT WARNING.

 

If I close a contract, there is no way for you to log time.

No way for you to get paid, unless you send me a message and ask me to pay you a bonus.

 

What if you work 8 hours on Monday?

But you have not logged your time?

And then on Wednesday, I close the contract?

What are you going to do?

 

As a freelancer, I log my time using the time-tracker.

Or, if for some reason I must use manual time, I log that time immediately after work session.

That is safer for me. And this shows respect to my client.

It was simply an error.  But, of course, now I will record my hours differently.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

Hi Susan,

 

There is a notification sent to the freelancer at the end of the Work Week and in the beginning of the Freelancer Review Period to remind them to review the hours they tracked. Since no hours were tracked the notification wasn't sent. I see that others have already shared suggestions for the next steps on this thread. You can also learn more about Upwork Weekly Billing Cycle in this help article.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

did not receive an email.  I have done in the past and was almost certain that it told me I had up to midday Eastern time on Monday.

Answer of just work for free is not acceptable.  Upwork has responsibility to be more flexible


Colin B wrote:

did not receive an email.  I have done in the past and was almost certain that it told me I had up to midday Eastern time on Monday.


No, it is noon  UTC.  Always has been.

 


Colin B wrote:

Answer of just work for free is not acceptable.  


Nobody said you should work for free. You could have tracked your time, then you wouldn't have to remember to add time for the previous week.Or at least added the hours after each session. That is more respectful to the client as well as they know what is coming.

 

You can ask your client to issue you a bonus for the hours you forgot to add, or ask if you may add them to this week.

 


Colin B wrote:

Upwork has responsibility to be more flexible


More flexible? How? All hours are billed and charged  after noon UTC, so how could they charge your client if you had not added your hours? You have a full 12 hours after the end of the work-week. Surely that is enough?

 

The natural time for me to think about entering my hours is Monday morning - the start of the new week.  And for freelancers in Europe, or pretty much anywhere except the US, that would be fine.  But the whole of the US market is locked out.  Moving the deadline back by 24 hours would be an example of being flexible.  But nobody from Upwork is able to explain why the deadline is so early.  As I understand it the clients have until the Friday to approve (or not disapprove) the hours entered.  Why on earth do they need 4 or 5 days?  Again, nobody at Upwork can answer.

The only response is to repeat ad nauseam that "the deadline is 12:00 UTC on Monday".  Which I understood from the first 2 minutes of my chat session with customer support.  Since then, no answers to any of my questions.

If Upwork *IS* going to keep the deadline where it is (for whatever reason) then they should at a minimum do the following:

(1) Send out a (one time) notification to all US freelancers notifying them that if they don't enter their hours by end of day Sunday, THEY WON'T BE PAID;

(2) Generate an email to all US freelancers with active contracts that have not entered any hours by end of day Saturday, say.  Nobody at Upwork has confirmed this (!), but it seems like an email notification only goes to those freelancers that HAVE entered their hours.

Going forward I am now painfully aware of the deadline, but there must be numerous other US freelancers that have run into this.  And absent any changes on Upwork's part, there will continue to be others.  Yes, we all learn the rules (the hard way) so don't repeat our mistakes.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

 

I'm not really sure with your contracts why you don't just turn on the timer then you have nothing to do? You may have a good reason but adding hours is risky because if the client ever doesn't pay or their card is declined (fixable admittedly) you could lose a whole weeks money and you won't have any recourse. At $50-60 an hour I'm guessing that could add up to a reasonable amount.

re: "The natural time for me to think about entering my hours is Monday morning - the start of the new week."

 

The correct time to enter manually logged time is immediately after every work session.

 

To delay is risky to you and disrespectful to the client.

I realize you probably wouldn't have seen it, but I posted the following elsewhere  On this contract, and (have pity on  me!) others too, I work way more hours than I am able to bill.  With this contract I have been working about 50 hours a week but the client has it capped at 30 hours max.  Given that, I don't bother tracking how many hours I work each day because it doesn't matter.  So given that the client is getting work done for free, it's certainly not a question of being "disrespectful" - they are getting a phenomenal deal.  So all I've been doing is recording a mythical 10am - 4pm of work every Monday to Friday.

I appreciate your reply, but it's not about me - I now know what I need to do.  My only point in all this is that there's no way I'm the first person to fall foul of the rule.  So my focus is to encourage Upwork to either move back the deadline or else notify US freelancers of their requirement.  Too late for me, but if Upwork doesn't do anything other US freelancers will inevitably fall into the same trap.

After this happened I tried (and failed) to do that.  I was led to believe that it's not possible unless the client allows for it - i.e., adjusts some setting so that the option becomes ungreyed out for me.  Is that not true??

If you mean the desktop timer you download the desktop app and it will show your contracts when you login to the app. Then you just turn on the timer for the contract you are working on at that time. It will take a screenshot about every 10 mins. That will always be available for hourly contracts, clients have to enable manual time but not the timer.

Thanks.  Am confused as to what I mean/need .  Just whatever allows my hours to be recorded.  I haven't been able to figure out whether the reording is via the browser app or a separate stand-alone app.  I did download a separate Windows app but gave up because of the continual error as seen in the attachment.

From what you say, it sounds like that *IS* what I need.  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but same thing.  Any ideas?

Thanks

Sounds like a technical issue so you may have to speak with their tech bods but that should resolve the problem and put you in a much safer position earnings wise as well.

Thought I'd try again.  So I uninstalled whatever it was I had installed.  Then I tried to find where to re-install it from.  First try was the Microsoft Store, since it must be a Windows app.  There was some 3rd party app for finding jobs on Upwork (I think), but nothing about tracking hours worked.

Next stop was the Upwork website.  I saw somewhere a reference to "Time Tracker', but I can't find where to download it from.  Searching for that returns nothing.  

If "Time Tracker" sounds right to you, where do I get it from?

Scroll down this page its on the bottom right.Desktop App Link.PNG

This section won't help with genuine technical problems, but it may help you get a better idea of the intricacies of the Upwork ecosystem:
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001189073


Colin wrote:

The natural time for me to think about entering my hours is Monday morning - the start of the new week.    But nobody from Upwork is able to explain why the deadline is so early. 


It is because the client is charged for the previous wek's hours on Monday, after noon UTC. So the deadline has to be before the client is being charged as the client can't be charged for hours that aren't in the work diary.

 


Colin B wrote:

But it doesn't have to be that way.


Indeed. Track your time correctly (using the tracker) and you are not only protected in case something happens with your client's payment method, you also don't have to worry about adding hours.

 

With this contract I have been working about 50 hours a week but the client has it capped at 30 hours max


Why in the world would you do such a thing?

 

Navid Z wrote:

1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet"

I didn't get it. Can we add extra hours from last week to current week?


Theoretically, but in this case it would be utterly pointless as then there would be no available hours left for this week.

Petra, I work those hours because I enjoy the work.  Once I start working on a problem I an unable to switch off and continue either thinking or working on how to solve it.  And yes, I realise that makes me unusual(!).

Regarding somebody else's comments about adding the extra hours the following week, I can confirm that that's not possible.  The days show up as selectable, but then the manual hours button doesn't appear.  It would be possible to combine the hours, except for the fact that almost all clients have the weekly hours capped.

The time tracker is a different topic.  I have finally been able to set that up and have started using it.  So I'm ok.  But as with this whole thread, I'm trying to help other people to make sure that they don't run into the same problem I did.  I didn't initially know about the time tracker, but then saw it mentioned somewhere.  I tried installing it but kept getting an error.  But I didn't pursue it since I believed that the client had to approve that method of billing.  I now know that the reverse is true.  They HAVE to accept the time tracker, and may or may not allow manual billing.

In common with the rest of this thread, the important thing is communication.  There are things that I wish I knew when I started with Upwork.


Colin B wrote:

Regarding somebody else's comments about adding the extra hours the following week, I can confirm that that's not possible. 


What they meant was adding the hours to this week's work diary, which would solve the problem but of course you'd then not have any available hours to work this week. Unless the client removed the weekly limit.

Just use the tracker.

1c6d25dd
Community Member

Goodٰ One !!


Robin H wrote:

You should have received an email on Sunday to review your week's hours.  The weekly billing period begins Monday at 00:00 midnight UTC and ends Sunday at 23:59 UTC.  Therefore you're not able to change last week's weekly log. 

 

That said, you can:
1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet

"1) Add your hours to this week's timesheet"

I didn't get it. Can we add extra hours from last week to current week?

Thanks, Robin.  There's a Catch-22 going on though.  Upwork notifies ONLY the people that have entered their hours, not those that haven't.  So no good for those that have forgotten or didn't know about the deadline.

re: "So no good for those that have forgotten or didn't know about the deadline."

 

That's true.

But this no longer applies to you.

Because you now know about the deadline and you are not going to forget about it.

Correct.  As I've said (several times in this thread!), I'm not doing this for myself.  I'm just trying to "pay it forward" by pointing out improvements that could be made so that others don't run into the same problem.


Colin B wrote:

Correct.  As I've said (several times in this thread!), I'm not doing this for myself.  I'm just trying to "pay it forward" by pointing out improvements that could be made so that others don't run into the same problem.


Your impulse to help others is commendable but you're trying to "pay it forward" with my UW fees. Personally, I'd prefer not to see UW spending resources on extra communications and reminders to accommodate people who don't take the time to learn in detail how the platform works before starting to use it. Full disclosure: I got mixed up one time, years ago, and thought I had until Monday noon local time to log hours from the previous week. (I hadn't done an hourly project for a while and relied on memory instead of checking.) My client was cool with adjusting the following week and after that, I set a calendar reminder. 

 

(Preston's position notwithstanding, I use my own time tracking app and run a timesheet once a week for all my projects, on and off UW. For UW clients on hourly contracts, I review my process with each one when we begin work together. There is no disrespect involved.)

Thanks, Phyllis, but I'm confused by the implication that I'm costing you money (you said "my UW fees").  As well as this thread I do have an open ticket with Upwork themselves.  I was told I'd get a response within 24 - 48 hours, but that was a week ago so I've given up on that.

I have made several suggestions as to what Upwork could do to improve their processes, but have had no response.  That is the ONLY possible benefit in all this, but at this point I don't believe Upwork will change anything.  So given that, and given your comment about my costing you money, I'll make this my final post.

I don't think any freelancer here intends to show "disrespect" to a client when they don't log their manual time promptly.

 

But here is my perspective as a client:

I have hired 130 freelancers on Upwork.

But mostly this has been for personal projects, that come out of my own money.

I don't have a budget coming from a big multinational corporation.

 

So if I hire a freelancer with an hourly contract, and I allow manual time... That's a show of trust and respect on my part. But I also need to know what's going on.

 

If I think something is going to take about 4 hours of time, and that's all money coming out of my pocket, and then at the end of the week, while I'm sleeping, suddenly a freelancer adds a bunch of unexpected time that costs me a lot of money... That can be a problem for me.

 

As a freelancer, I have worked for all kinds of clients. Some of them couldn't care less about the budget. My billing is a tiny part of their overall budget. And for some clients, they're watching every penny and my billing is a big expense for them.

 

I don't necessarily know where a client fits into this spectrum.

 

So for me, I always want to log my hourly time promptly. Having been on both sides of the fence, I do so partially to protect my hours and make sure I get paid, and partially out of deference to the clients who really may want and need that information.


Colin B wrote:

Thanks, Phyllis, but I'm confused by the implication that I'm costing you money (you said "my UW fees").  As well as this thread I do have an open ticket with Upwork themselves.  I was told I'd get a response within 24 - 48 hours, but that was a week ago so I've given up on that.

I have made several suggestions as to what Upwork could do to improve their processes, but have had no response.  That is the ONLY possible benefit in all this, but at this point I don't believe Upwork will change anything.  So given that, and given your comment about my costing you money, I'll make this my final post.


You've suggested UW send an email reminder to FLs who have hourly contracts and haven't logged hours for the week. Or maybe you meant send the reminder to everybody with an active hourly contract. Either way, IMO it would be a misallocation of resources. Not to mention generating a weekly deluge of unwanted, unneeded email. Many of us (possibly most of us) want UW to involve itself less in our business, not more. Introduce us to clients, handle the money, and let us take it from there. 

I think the billing period locks at Monday noon UTC , so hours can be reviewed for previous week to that time , It actually happened to me and I was able to log new work hours for previous week on Monday before noon

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