Upwork job/project posting requires knowledge of a paid software

[dmitri_kozlov]

Hello

In many technical job postings on Upwork, a client posting is asking for a knowledge of a paid software which has either a monthly or a yearly payment.
One good example is Tableau which has $70 per month.

Other examples: Snowflake, Airflow, Salesforce, Power Automate, Power BI (non-desktop), Office 365, etc. The most expensive: Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.

1. Who should pay for this software the client or a freelancer?
2. If a client is asking the freelancer to pay for the software, then would it be reasonable to charge the client the extra for the software?

Thank You

[petra_r]

In general, with a freelancer being an independent business (as opposed to an employee), the client would usually expect that the freelancers have the software that is required. Our clients don't buy our computers either, do they?

There are some exceptions, but usually clients expect that frelancers have the tools to complete the work they applied for.

Clearly software licences (as well as hardware and electricity and so on) are business expenses and need to be factored into the freelancer's rate or price.

[prestonhunter]

Dmitri:
Typically a client who is hiring a freelancer expects that freelancer to have the tools already in her possession.

As a practical matter, if I am hiring somebody to use a software package (for example: Office 365), then I would ONLY want to hire somebody who has that package already, on their computer, at their fingertips. I want to hire a freelancer who is using that program almost every day.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are not really in the same category as the software packages you mentioned. These are hosting services.

As a client, I may want to hire somebody who is a great deal of expertise with these services, or not. It depeneds on what I'm hiring the freelancer to do. As a client, I might hire a person who has developer access to these services, which costs little or nothing. But that developer access is not sufficient to run my company's website on.

But also: There are many things that I might hire freelancers to do on my AWS/Azure/Google Cloud-hosted site which does not require the freelancer to have prior experience with these services, or an active developer account for these services.

As a freelancer, I have been hired to work on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, even though I do not maintain active accounts of my own on those services. I have been hired based on my specific expertise, and then provided with access to the clients live or development accounts on those services. I was hired as a database designer and not a service configuation specialist.

For AWS/Azure/Google Cloud: If I was a client hiring somebody to be a DBA or site administrator or configuration specialist, I would want to hire somebody with extensive experience with the specific service. That person probably has their own developer account on such a service. But I would still be paying for my own hosting account.

[jennifervh · Accepted solution]

Hi Dmitri,

I'm a Tableau Developer. I do pay Tableau's annual subscription fee to have my own license to their products, and consider this part of the cost of running a business (I definitely claim it on my taxes). I want to have full access to Tableau even if I'm not currently working on a project so I can play with new features, work out how to do new things, etc.

If my client needs me to access their Tableau Server or Tableau Online, then I leave it to them to assign a license to me to log in.

I think you have to do a cost/benefit analysis... Like, I think I'd be interested to learn Alteryx and use it in conjunction with Tableau, but there is no scenario in which I would be happy paying that subscription price, and I couldn't learn it thoroughly without having access to it on my own, so I've let that go by the wayside. 

[a_lipsey]

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Dmitri K wrote:

Hello

In many technical job postings on Upwork, a client posting is asking for a knowledge of a paid software which has either a monthly or a yearly payment.
One good example is Tableau which has $70 per month.

Other examples: Snowflake, Airflow, Salesforce, Power Automate, Power BI (non-desktop), Office 365, etc. The most expensive: Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.

1. Who should pay for this software the client or a freelancer?
2. If a client is asking the freelancer to pay for the software, then would it be reasonable to charge the client the extra for the software?

Thank You

---

Dmitri, I suggest you do some basic business budgeting to figure out all your costs and the appropriate rate so you will be able to cover all your costs. 

Create an annual business budget with all your expenses, including how much you want to pay yourself, all the software licenses you need, any hardware you need, insurance, subscriptions, office supplies, Upwork fees, any other fees from other platforms, etc. 

Then, look at the total expense and determine how much you need to bring in to break even for the year (or if you want to set a profit goal, then include that as well). 

From there, divide your total revenue needed either by your fixed project rates or your hourly rate, you will see either how many projects you need to do and X rate or how many hours at X rate, and you can figure out how to set your rate accordingly to cover all your expenses. 

Don't forget to include sick days or vacation time for yourself in your estimate. 

Hope this helps. 

[prestonhunter]

If you have too many software licenses, then I don't want to hire you.

I want to hire an expert. Not a dilettante.