🐈
» Forums » Freelancers » Re: Which one is best to use in upwork for a ...
Page options
bautistanestorjr
Community Member

Which one is best to use in upwork for a monthly retainer project, fixed-price or hourly-rate?

Hi All,

 

I have a client and we agreed to engage in a monthly retainer consultant service. I'm not sure what type of project should we use since we bill the client on monthly basis with minimum hours. I'm planning to use hourly-rate project and have them sign and agreement stating that we have minimum monthly hours and must be logged manually. Or shold I use fixed-price project and have the monthly billing as milestone?

 

Nestor

2 REPLIES 2
prestonhunter
Community Member

You may use any of the Upwork contract types and settings that are currently available, as long as you don't violate Upwork TOS.


My opinion:

You should not use fixed-price contracts AT ALL for this.

 

You should have the client set up an hourly contract with an automated weekly retainer payment. If the intended monthly payment is $400, then the client should set the weekly payment to be $100.

 

You should clearly explain to the client that there is no minimum number of hours, but that you will be paid that weekly retainer regardless of any work done, and you will bill for ALL time spent on the project IN ADDITION to the automated weekly payments.

petra_r
Community Member


Nestor B wrote:

I'm planning to use hourly-rate project and have them sign and agreement stating that we have minimum monthly hours and must be logged manually. 


No matter what kind of arrangement you make with the client, manual time is never protected, nor are weekly payments, so those are entirely at the discretion of the client. If at any point the client decides that they don't want to pay, you don't get paid.

 

Are you and your client in the same jurisdiction? If not, whatever you "have them sign" is worth the paper it is written on because you couldn't afford to enforce it and Upwork only enforce their own rules, which basically say that manual time and so on aren't protected.

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths