Newbie questions

[ikitipova]

Hello, 

I am very new to Upwork, and I find the system a bit confusing. I got a job on Monday on an hourly contract and the job was filled for exactly one hour. As I understand, I have to wait until Friday for the client to approve and the money to be added to my profile, as well as their review.

I do not get either. I get that I cannot get paid/withdraw anything until I get to a certain amount. But how can I ever know that the client has paid anything? My earnings stay at $0.00, isn't this supposed to be updated? 
As a freelancer elsewhere, I am used to only send half the work until I don't get paid. On Upwork how am I supposed to be sure that the client will pay me and how can I check if any money have been transferred to my earnings? There is also no client review, so I am starting to think I might not have ended the process properly...
Please, point me to a comprehensive guide where I can see what should be done when I do a contract, when is the amount in my profile, what to do if I don't get any earnings (how long should I wait) and how should I build a reputation, if my clients won't leave a review?

Thanks!

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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Iva K wrote:

I am very new to Upwork, and I find the system a bit confusing. I got a job on Monday on an hourly contract and the job was filled for exactly one hour. As I understand, I have to wait until Friday for the client to approve and the money to be added to my profile, as well as their review.

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That's not how it works at all. First of all, go to Reports Home Page 

Explore all the little question marks, which explain what all the stages mean.

Then click on the link When will I get paid 

Choose Get paid for hourly contracts 

You'll find the money under "Work in Progress" because the work week has not ended, provided you tracked or logged the time correctly.

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Iva K wrote:

I get that I cannot get paid/withdraw anything until I get to a certain amount.

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This is not true. You can withdraw whatever is on your "Available" tab on your Reports Home Page at any time you like.

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Iva K wrote:On Upwork how am I supposed to be sure that the client will pay me and how can I check if any money have been transferred to my earnings? 

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The client will be billed for all hours you tracked or logged on Monday. If the client does not dispute and you have tracked / logged your time correctly, you get paid the following Wednesday. 

As far as ending the contract is concerned, it is always better to let the client end the contract, so you are guaranteed feedback.

[ikitipova]

Thank you so much! That cleared a lot of misunderstandings. I need the contract on my end because my first client was also a first-time user on Upwork, so a lot of things were unclear to both of us. I see that she has put in Weekly Limit 40 hrs/week, but we agreed that the job can be done for 1 hour, basically, so I was afraid that if I didn't end the contract, she might get automatically billed for more than 1 hr. Is this how it works? 

[petra_r]

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Iva K wrote:

Thank you so much! That cleared a lot of misunderstandings. I need the contract on my end because my first client was also a first-time user on Upwork, so a lot of things were unclear to both of us. I see that she has put in Weekly Limit 40 hrs/week, but we agreed that the job can be done for 1 hour, basically, so I was afraid that if I didn't end the contract, she might get automatically billed for more than 1 hr. Is this how it works? 

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The weekly limit is set to 40 hours by default, so no, if you tracked / logged one hour correctly, the client only gets charged for 1 hour. Did you use the Upwork time tracker to track the time you worked? 

You do want to familiarize yourself with how things work a bit more before your next job, especially as fixed rate contracts work quite differently 😄 This post has just about all the resources you need, or just ask here!

[ikitipova]

Thank you, Petra, all that really helped! I'll follow your advice and get to reading 😄