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smithsf
Community Member

JSS impact for keeping contract open for future work vs close and opening new contracts

  I have been resisting the impulse to raise a question when my JSS dropped from 100% to 80% on April 28. From my limited understanding of JSS I figured it was due to a fixed bid project that had been open for a couple months without any payment activity.

 

  The customer was easy to work with, but the project was not a high priority so they were slow in responding to deliverables. I checked in every so often, but did not want to pester them. Once my JSS dropped, I did reach out and request they complete their validation. Within a couple days they did and I submitted the milestone which they promptly released payment for. I also asked the client to close the contract.

 

Today I received this message from the client:

  Hi Scott, do you need me to close the contract, or can I leave it open and just add milestones to it? Now that we have this connection working, I need some help with <***redacted for community standards**>. I figure I will just message you for the cost and timeframe and then add a milestone each time. If you prefer we create a new job, I can do that too, but it's a bit more work on my end. Whatever is easiest for you, let me know.

 

My questions are:
  Now that a payment has been made will the negative impact of that contract be gone when the score is recalculated on May 12?

 

  What is the preferred approach in this case? Do I leave the contract open and keep adding milestones as they come up or should it be closed and new contracts opened for future work?

 

Thanks!

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
petra_r
Community Member


Scott S wrote:

  I have been resisting the impulse to raise a question when my JSS dropped from 100% to 80% on April 28. From my limited understanding of JSS I figured it was due to a fixed bid project that had been open for a couple months without any payment activity.


If there had never - ever been any payment at all, it could have been at fault, yes.

 


Scott S wrote:

 

My questions are:
1)   Now that a payment has been made will the negative impact of that contract be gone when the score is recalculated on May 12?

 

2)  What is the preferred approach in this case? Do I leave the contract open and keep adding milestones as they come up or should it be closed and new contracts opened for future work?


1) If that was the problem, then the payment should fix it. If that was not the problem, it won't.

 

2) Now payment has been made, leaving the contract open won't hurt. It is only inactive contracts that never (!) had any earnings for 2-3 months that are problematic.

 

Will L wrote:

 

From my experience with the JSS and many comments on the JSS from other freelancers here, it seems unlikely a single inactive project caused your JSS to drop from 100% to 80% in a single week solely because of that project's inactivity

 


It will if it was a 0 paid contract and the grand total of contracts in the calculation was 5

 

Open contracts with nothing ever paid hit at 2 months, if hourly, for certain and maybe at a bit past that for fixed rate (not certain of the timing, as has not happened to me)

With 5 contracts (4 closed successfully and one unpaid one gone over the "bad" line) that would make it 80% exactly.

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8 REPLIES 8
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Scott,

 

From my experience with the JSS and many comments on the JSS from other freelancers here, it seems unlikely a single inactive project caused your JSS to drop from 100% to 80% in a single week solely because of that project's inactivity. Something else is at work to make that happen.

 

At any rate, I'd recommend you ask the client to close the project for the time being, so you can get feedback from them and other potential clients won't think you're busy on what you know is an idle project. If I remember correctly, you can initiate a new contract with a former client, so they would need to do little to re-start this contract.

Thanks Will,

 

  Since I only have a small number of jobs so far, I had assumed a single negative job would have a high impact.  The other jobs were one long term hourly contract and 4 quick fixed rate projects I completed the same day I started, and those were all finished by mid February.  Unless it takes a couple months for negative feedback to show on the score.

 

I will request the contract be closed and have him reach out to me so I can initiate a new contract.

petra_r
Community Member


Scott S wrote:

  I have been resisting the impulse to raise a question when my JSS dropped from 100% to 80% on April 28. From my limited understanding of JSS I figured it was due to a fixed bid project that had been open for a couple months without any payment activity.


If there had never - ever been any payment at all, it could have been at fault, yes.

 


Scott S wrote:

 

My questions are:
1)   Now that a payment has been made will the negative impact of that contract be gone when the score is recalculated on May 12?

 

2)  What is the preferred approach in this case? Do I leave the contract open and keep adding milestones as they come up or should it be closed and new contracts opened for future work?


1) If that was the problem, then the payment should fix it. If that was not the problem, it won't.

 

2) Now payment has been made, leaving the contract open won't hurt. It is only inactive contracts that never (!) had any earnings for 2-3 months that are problematic.

 

Will L wrote:

 

From my experience with the JSS and many comments on the JSS from other freelancers here, it seems unlikely a single inactive project caused your JSS to drop from 100% to 80% in a single week solely because of that project's inactivity

 


It will if it was a 0 paid contract and the grand total of contracts in the calculation was 5

 

Open contracts with nothing ever paid hit at 2 months, if hourly, for certain and maybe at a bit past that for fixed rate (not certain of the timing, as has not happened to me)

With 5 contracts (4 closed successfully and one unpaid one gone over the "bad" line) that would make it 80% exactly.

smithsf
Community Member

Thanks Petra,

 

  To confirm, now that something has been paid on the job, the contract could stay open indefinitely? 

 

  Is it worth having him close it to get the feedback, which I believe will be positive? 

 

  If the contract is closed and a new contract is opened later, will that help with the repeat customer metric in the JSS calculation?

 

  Scott

petra_r
Community Member


Scott S wrote:

Thanks Petra,

 

1)  To confirm, now that something has been paid on the job, the contract could stay open indefinitely? 

 

2)   Is it worth having him close it to get the feedback, which I believe will be positive? 

 

3)  If the contract is closed and a new contract is opened later, will that help with the repeat customer metric in the JSS calculation?


1)  Exactly, just don't aquire too many

 

2) Positive feedback is always good but do balance that with keeping the client happy. Personally, as the client says he has regular work imminent, I'd leave it open as to not inconvenience the client.

 

3) It does not matter if it is "repeat" or "ongoing" - after 3 months of regular payments they count as a long term client. It does not matter of that is one contract or several.

 

smithsf
Community Member

 

 


Petra R wrote:

Scott S wrote:

2)   Is it worth having him close it to get the feedback, which I believe will be positive? 

2) Positive feedback is always good but do balance that with keeping the client happy. Personally, as the client says he has regular work imminent, I'd leave it open as to not inconvenience the client.

 


Based on this feedback I have left the contract open.  Looks to have bee the right choice for a happy customer:

"Awesome. It is much easier for me, so that is great."

Thanks again!

smithsf
Community Member


 


Scott S wrote:

 

My questions are:
1)   Now that a payment has been made will the negative impact of that contract be gone when the score is recalculated on May 12?

 


1) If that was the problem, then the payment should fix it. If that was not the problem, it won't.

That seems to have been the problem.  Now that the contract has a payment, my JSS went back up to 100% this week.

petra_r
Community Member


Scott S wrote:

 


Scott S wrote:

 

My questions are:
1)   Now that a payment has been made will the negative impact of that contract be gone when the score is recalculated on May 12?

 


1) If that was the problem, then the payment should fix it. If that was not the problem, it won't.

That seems to have been the problem.  Now that the contract has a payment, my JSS went back up to 100% this week.


All's well that ends well.  🙂

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