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davidgraphics001
Community Member

Responsible Team work

Hi, i am a freelancer on upwork, i have a team of non upwork members who happen to work for me using my specialized profile to indicate the respective skills, aimed at solving business problems. Am i good to go on this? No intention to violate any policy, just that they will be working for me as a non upwork freelancer, i  deliver back to clients who hires me on upwork and get paid. Is that ok? In summary, i use my account to to market team skills, get hired, outsource the jobs to the team who happens not to be on upwork, they deliver back, i deliver back to clients, and i get paid on upwork. however, most of my task is to followup with clients from upwork. The primary reason is to create more business solution to upwork client. The account information is still controlled by me, they have no access to my account anyway.  if i may ask, is this a good idea for acceptance on upwork?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Adedeji D wrote:

Hi, i am a freelancer on upwork, i have a team of non upwork members who happen to work for me using my specialized profile to indicate the respective skills, aimed at solving business problems. Am i good to go on this? No intention to violate any policy, just that they will be working for me as a non upwork freelancer, i  deliver back to clients who hires me on upwork and get paid. Is that ok? In summary, i use my account to to market team skills, get hired, outsource the jobs to the team who happens not to be on upwork, they deliver back, i deliver back to clients, and i get paid on upwork. however, most of my task is to followup with clients from upwork. The primary reason is to create more business solution to upwork client. The account information is still controlled by me, they have no access to my account anyway.  if i may ask, is this a good idea for acceptance on upwork?


No, you are not allowed to do that. 

View solution in original post

23 REPLIES 23
robin_hyman
Community Member

You need to create an agency and have your workers log in with their individual freelancer accounts. They can all be part of your agency. 

 

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211067598-Create-an-Agency?flash_digest=bb80e994f2b18a3...

Ok, thanks for your response. But they are not on upwork and don't think they are willing to open a freelance account. They are colleagues in college, we have been working as team traditionally, I think there is really nothing wrong, since after all, all payment is on my upwork account.

Clients would want to know if the person they hire ISN'T the person doing the actual work. Work needs to be consistent. Opt for the agency account. 

Hmmm, that's a great point you provided ma'am. Is it free to upload to an agency account? And as earlier stated, they the 3 of the team are not interested in opening any freelance account, what should I do in that case ma'am?

Click on the link I added above.  Yes it is free. I would have them open the account. That is free too.

Ok, if I upgrade to agency, and we work as a team as an agency, will payment be made to my account directly as a whole or to the team


Adedeji D wrote:
And as earlier stated, they the 3 of the team are not interested in opening any freelance account

They have to in order to work through your agency.

 


Adedeji D wrote:
 Is it free to upload to an agency account?

It costs $ 20 per month plus connects

Ok thank you, since it costs $20 per month using an agency account, what if we don't make any earning in a month, does that mean we would be removed from.tye agency platform?


Adedeji D wrote:
Ok thank you, since it costs $20 per month using an agency account, what if we don't make any earning in a month, does that mean we would be removed from.tye agency platform?

No, it does not mean that.

But your 3 other team members must make their own profiles, which you can then add to the agency.

Anyway, it is also clearly indicated that we work as team. And each specialised profile indicates the different services we can offer as a team to provide business solutions.


Adedeji D wrote:
Anyway, it is also clearly indicated that we work as team. And each specialised profile indicates the different services we can offer as a team to provide business solutions.

Your account is supposed to represent you as an individual; you are not supposed to have your specialised profiles representing different members of a team. So yes, the correct thing to do is to have an agency account.

 

Also, many clients prefer to have freelancers work on an hourly basis, using the time tracker. It will be impossible for your team members to work on that type of project unless they're registered here.

 

And even if a client accepts manual hours, I believe it is a violation of the ToS to sub-contract on an hourly project. It's permissible on a fixed-rate project if -- and only if -- the client approves.

 


Phyllis G wrote:

And even if a client accepts manual hours, I believe it is a violation of the ToS to sub-contract on an hourly project. It's permissible on a fixed-rate project if -- and only if -- the client approves.

 


It's permissible to sub-contract on fixed price projects, but I can't imagine that it's okay to have a different name under each of your specialised profiles.

Ok then, I will make some adjustments when am free


Adedeji D wrote:
Anyway, it is also clearly indicated that we work as team. And each specialised profile indicates the different services we can offer as a team to provide business solutions.

Again, you are not allowed to do that. Your freelancer profile can only represent one person, which has to be you, and nobody else. You will get suspended if you keep this up. 

Thank you for your time ma'am, so if I upgrade to Agency account, how will payment be received?

Hi, i have been able to upgrade to Agency account, however, while seting the Tax Information, i came across W-8BEN, asking me to provide my legal business name. Curently, i dont yet have registered business name with the government of my country. in this case, what should i do?

Hi Adedeji,

 

In the W-8BEN under your Settings> Tax Info, you can enter your first and last name as it appears in your official documents. The W-8BEN form is used to confirm you're not a US taxpayer.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Adedeji D wrote:

Hi, i am a freelancer on upwork, i have a team of non upwork members who happen to work for me using my specialized profile to indicate the respective skills, aimed at solving business problems. Am i good to go on this? No intention to violate any policy, just that they will be working for me as a non upwork freelancer, i  deliver back to clients who hires me on upwork and get paid. Is that ok? In summary, i use my account to to market team skills, get hired, outsource the jobs to the team who happens not to be on upwork, they deliver back, i deliver back to clients, and i get paid on upwork. however, most of my task is to followup with clients from upwork. The primary reason is to create more business solution to upwork client. The account information is still controlled by me, they have no access to my account anyway.  if i may ask, is this a good idea for acceptance on upwork?


No, you are not allowed to do that. 

Ok,I will adjust that. Thanks. But it's costly to establish upwork account in Nigeria, sometimes, accounts don't get approved and I don't know why, it is difficult to establish an account in Nigeria. That's one of reasons probably is preventing my non upwork team members from registering an account on UPWORK


Adedeji D wrote:
Ok,I will adjust that. Thanks. But it's costly to establish upwork account in Nigeria,

How is it "costly?"

 

Read the ToS. You cannot submit a proposal for someone outsite Upwork. You would need permission from the client even before sending your proposal.

The ToS now say:
Fraudulent or misleading uses or content, including:
falsely stating that one Freelancer will perform the work on a job when another will in fact perform the work, including submitting a proposal on behalf of a Freelancer that is unable, unwilling, or unavailable to do the work;

Ok, thanks, I will make the necessary changes, all I just care about is not to violate the upwork rules. I am sorry, I may have been guilty so far, that's why I sought for permission and make know this. Thank you, I will make the proper changes on the account.
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