Terminated contract with manual time entries

[650a788e]

Hi,

I have a question about how a contract with manual hourly entries. So, I had been working with a client for the past three weeks. The first week payment is already available in my account but the second week is still "In Review" status and the third week is in "Work In Progress" status. My client terminated the contract on the third week because the client wanted to change it to a fixed contract. We deal using manual entries in the hourly payment and now that the contract is ended, will the second week and third week payment will go through?

[petra_r]

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Douglas J wrote:

We deal using manual entries in the hourly payment and now that the contract is ended, will the second week and third week payment will go through?

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They will be paid as normal. The contract does not have to be open.

Do bear in mind that there is no protection for manual time, and if the client were to dispute or fail to pay, you would lose the money.

[650a788e]

Yes, that is my concern. We do not have any dispute going on. However, as the contract is already closed and there is quite a sum of money involved, I would not want the second and third week worth of work goes down the drain. What do you mean by "fail to pay"? If its already locked, then it should go through, yes?

[petra_r]

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Douglas J wrote:

... there is quite a sum of money involved, I would not want the second and third week worth of work goes down the drain. 

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Why would you do work with a new to you client for "quite a sum of money" with manual time? Knowing fully well that there is no protection? I only use anual time with trusted clients I have worked with for a while.

You never know if money has gone through until it shows as "Available" on your Reports Overview.

Almost always it has done.

Until it hasn't.

[650a788e]

I work on this because I understand that I can dispute the timing if the contract is still in effect.

But for this case, the client ended this hourly contract. And after the client ended the contract, the second week and third week work fund are still "Work In Progress" and "In Review" status respectively. So, I would just like to know what might happen.

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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Douglas J wrote:

I work on this because I understand that I can dispute the timing if the contract is still in effect.

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The client can dispute. You can not. YOU can't dispute a thing on an hourly contract. On an hourly contract, if there is an issue (dispute or non-payment) and the time logged was manual, you lose the money. End of story.  It also makes no difference if the contract is open or closed.

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Douglas J wrote:

I work on this because I understand that I can dispute the timing if the contract is still in effect.

But for this case, the client ended this hourly contract. And after the client ended the contract, the second week and third week work fund are still "Work In Progress" and "In Review" status respectively. So, I would just like to know what might happen.

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Best case scenario: The client has successfully been charged on Monday for the funds in review and won't dispute them, and the client will pay successfully for the hours under "work in progress" on Monday and won't dispute them, and you get paid.

Anything else would result in you not getting paid

[650a788e]

Correct, sorry for not being clear for my first sentence. If the client disputes my hours, to my previous understanding I still can refute or defend my position IF the contract is still in effect.

Now that you are letting me know it does not matter if it is still open or it is already closed and the client still can dispute the hours, which is the answer I am looking for.

Thank you.

[petra_r]

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Douglas J wrote:

If the client disputes my hours, to my previous understanding I still can refute or defend my position IF the contract is still in effect.

With manual time, there is refuting or defending anything. If there is any issue at all, the money is always 100% gone.