I just had a new client send me a message that included the request, ""Please do not invoice me until we have had a chance to review the final" version of the work
It is always surprising to me that so many freelancers and clients make so little effort to understand the basics of how Upwork works. I understand that Upwork's voluminous documentation can be daunting to someone whose first language is not English, but even the English-speaking ones don't bother to learn the basics.
This particular client has set an informal limit of 10 total hours and I have told him that should be doable and I'll let him know if the billable time gets close to that limit. But he hasn't even tried to figure out how Upwork's own reporting allows him to do the same thing.
I absolutely respect budgets and tell prospective new clients my estimate for time needed to complete their work. If that doesn't fit their budget, I recommend they find someone else to do their work. But I can no more precisely know ahead of time how much time a project will take than a referee will know at the beginning of a game precisely when the game will end.
If I knew exactly how long a project would take I'd be as happy to do a project on a fixed price basis as on an hourly basis, except for the fact that fixed price contracts have no enforceable payment protection.
