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moonriver62
Community Member

What are Upwork's policies regarding securing payment when a contract is paused?

My client messaged me that she's pausing the contract for now because of money troubles. I log my time for her manually in my work diary.

 

My question is, will the payment from work I have done this week (March 25-31) come through without a problem if the client pauses the contract today (March 27)? Or is there a need for me to advise her to pause the contract instead when the payment becomes available from my end?

8 REPLIES 8
petra_r
Community Member


Trixie C wrote:

My client messaged me that she's pausing the contract for now because of money troubles. I log my time for her manually in my work diary.

 


Manual time is never "safe" as any issue with the client's payment method will result in the freelancer not getting paid.

If you need protection, use the tracker properly and in line with the terms of the hourly protection.

 

Whether the contract is paused or not is irrelevant. Manual time is 100% unprotected.

 

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Trixie,

 

As you may know, even if there is no problem at all with your client's payment method, she can refuse to pay any manual hours you book, even if she has "allowed" you to book them. You will have no recourse through Upwork to force her to pay for any manual hours.

kat303
Community Member

It all depends on the client. If you say this client has money problems, you may not get paid whether the contract is paused or not. Tracking time manually does not qualify for Upwork's payment protection plan. I'm not saying this will happen, but the client can "dispute" ALL manual hours and all those hours will be deleted. Then this client won't have to pay, and her money problems will be over. 

 

You'll just have to wait and see what happens next week. In the future, use the Tracker so if there are financial problems with clients, and you use the Tracker properly, Upwork will pay you if the client doesn't. 

moonriver62
Community Member

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for your response. I think you took my statement regarding my client's "money troubles" as a reason for concern on whether she'll pay me for the manual time or not. Let me clarify that.

 

I understand the risks of logging my work time manually. My client and I have a good working relationship, and I don't doubt she will pay me for the manual hours. We are simply trying to pick the right date to pause the contract.

 

Like I said, the work week in question is March 25-31. Assuming there are no disputes with the work hours I rendered, the money for this week will be available on April 10, right? So, I just advised my client to pause the contract on April 11 to avoid any problems regarding the payment coming through.

As Petra mentioned, pausing the contract has no bearing on your getting paid for work performed. So to be very specific, she can pause the contract immediately and you will still be paid for work you have already completed and logged on UW. 

petra_r
Community Member


Scott B wrote:

As Petra mentioned, pausing the contract has no bearing on your getting paid for work performed. So to be very specific, she can pause the contract immediately and you will still be paid for work you have already completed and logged on UW. 


... provided the client's payment method does not fail. Whether the contract is paused or not is irrelevant.

browersr
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Scott B wrote:

As Petra mentioned, pausing the contract has no bearing on your getting paid for work performed. So to be very specific, she can pause the contract immediately and you will still be paid for work you have already completed and logged on UW. 


... provided the client's payment method does not fail. Whether the contract is paused or not is irrelevant.


Yes, but she seems to be aware of all of that. Her question is whether UW process payments on paused contracts. The answer is yes. 

Adding to the conundrum of supposed guaranteed payment protection -

 

Charge backs can hit both fixed and hourly jobs.  As such, a solid working relationship which is apparently the case, is the best possible guarantee.

 

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