Solved: Re: Payment of a part of a milestone

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

Dear community,
I have an issue with a drastic fell in my JSS. Since I did not have any closed contracts, my guess is that it is due to an « inactive » contract that does not even appear in my jobs list in the profile. In fact it is not inactive : I have been working on it for over 2 months already but the 1st payment is agreed in March 2020.
I find the system is faulty. I guess that we all agree on it. And help from the « customer service » is not to be expected.
But what can be done to resolve the situation ? How can my client pay a part of a milestone ?

petra_r · ‎12-09-2019

Natalia S wrote:

I have an issue with a drastic fell in my JSS. Since I did not have any closed contracts, my guess is that it is due to an « inactive » contract that does not even appear in my jobs list in the profile. In fact it is not inactive : I have been working on it for over 2 months already but the 1st payment is agreed in March 2020.

Such a thing is not possible. When the contract reaches 90 days, Upwork will auto-close it and refund the Escrow funds to the client.

And why in the world would you ever agree to work 6 months without seeing a single Dollar?

As was mentioned, get a token payment, or the contract will be closed anyway soon.

Delwar H wrote:
Is there an active milestone, need create and activate one if not done yet.

Of course there is, given that it is completely impossible to create a fixed rate contract without funding the first milestone

View solution in original post

dreamseller · ‎12-09-2019

You can ask your client to release a token amount (say $5, for example) once every two months and your JSS should be fine.

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

Thank you! How can my client pay 5$ if no milestones are completed?

Actually my client tried to pay a part of a milestone today, but the system wouldn’t let it.

dreamseller · ‎12-09-2019

Is there an active milestone, need create and activate one if not done yet. You should see the 'Submit Work / Request Payment' button on my jobs page. Your client can edit the amount in Escrow while approving the request to release fund.

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

There is an active milestone that is due in March 2020. The amount is much superior to 5$ and it is already funded.
Do I understand correctly the steps:
1) I should request payment . Let’s say 10% of a milestone.
2) my client needs to approve but change the amount of a milestone ?

prestonhunter · ‎12-09-2019

A client can click the pay button for a fixed-price contract and can always EDIT the amount before sending a payment.

If the amount is lower than the full amount in escrow, then the freelancer will be asked to approve the lower amount. The remaining funds will remain in escrow.

petra_r · ‎12-09-2019

Natalia S wrote:

I have an issue with a drastic fell in my JSS. Since I did not have any closed contracts, my guess is that it is due to an « inactive » contract that does not even appear in my jobs list in the profile. In fact it is not inactive : I have been working on it for over 2 months already but the 1st payment is agreed in March 2020.

Such a thing is not possible. When the contract reaches 90 days, Upwork will auto-close it and refund the Escrow funds to the client.

And why in the world would you ever agree to work 6 months without seeing a single Dollar?

As was mentioned, get a token payment, or the contract will be closed anyway soon.

Delwar H wrote:
Is there an active milestone, need create and activate one if not done yet.

Of course there is, given that it is completely impossible to create a fixed rate contract without funding the first milestone

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

Dear Petra,

Tank you very much for all the tips. I shall definitely follow your advise and request the payment of something before it expires.

The 6 months is reasonable time for that project. As the final delivery is in the end of June and the majority of work will be done between March and June. That is a usual dyamics for a Conference Project Management.

PS: what is a token payment?

prestonhunter · ‎12-09-2019

re: "The 6 months is reasonable time for that project."

Yes, but that does not mean you should wait that long to get paid.

On Upwork, when I have an hourly contract, I get paid EVERY week for the work that I do.

With fixed-price contracts, I divide up the work into small chunks, usually each is for no more work than I can do in a day. Sometimes I complete more than one fixed-price milestone for the same client in a single day.

Of course other freelancers don't need to structure their fixed-price contracts the same way that I do. But to me, working for a long time without receiving pay is illogical and can lead to problems on the Upwork platform.

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

Thank you very much for your guidance! I have requested the payment and modified the amount. Let's see what happens.

petra_r · ‎12-09-2019

Natalia S wrote:
Thank you very much for your guidance! I have requested the payment and modified the amount. Let's see what happens.

The client can approve the amount requested and then set up a new milestone using the remaining escrow funds.

Once you have received a payment, your JSS should recover at the next update on the 22nd of December

You'll need to keep doing that again before three months from this (current payment) are up as well, or the contract will auto-close.

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-09-2019

THANK YOU PETRA! Very useful information!

nataliasavitcaia · ‎12-22-2019

Hi,

This is to let you know that I have followed Petra's advice and closed one contactt that was only open on a reason that a client did not want to lose my contact) and got a part of a milestone paid by the other, but JSS does not change... How come?

It could not be a bad feedback from a closed cotract as they asked me to book the dates for 2 projects in 2020 and the client is very happy as he received more than expected....

Can anybody explain me that?