re: "Hello, I am a newbie upwork freelancer and having an active conversation with the client, my job is to create an account on gumtree and do job posting, but it cost around £11 to pay via card or paypal, the client also sent me a payment as reimbursement. Do I have to pay it or not."
Chenita:
There are some general concepts you should keep in mind:
- Freelancers work to earn money. Freelancers don't lose money by working.
- It IS possible for a client to hire a freelancer to do something, and that freelancer has to pay money in order to accomplish the task. If that's the case, then the client needs to pay the freelancer enough money to cover the cost. All payments must go through Upwork.
- If payments need to be made, it is better if the client MAKES THOSE PAYMENTS DIRECTLY. For example: Helga worked on a project for a client in which she posted job postings on Gumbush. Helga's client created an account on Gumbush. Helga's client added her own credit card (the client's credit card) to the site to pay for job postings. Then Helga's client created a delegated assistant account on the Gumbush account for Helga to use. That way Helga could do her job, but Helga never had to pay anything.
- If the freelancer pays for something herself, that IS ALLOWED on Upwork. The client can reimburse the freelancer using client-side "reimburse expense" tool. When the client sends money to the freelancer this way, Upwork keeps the standard fee. For example: For example, if you spend $100, and the client sends you a $100 reimbursement payment, then Upwork would keep 20%. That means you spent $100, but you receive only $80. You would lose $20. So a freelancer would want to calculate how much the client needs to send in order to cover the freelancer's actual expenses once Upwork fees are taken out.
- It is also possible for the freelancer to work, and incur expenses, but NOT CHARGE the client. For example: A client hired Betty to create a photo-based poster for her company: "Crabs by Clowns". Betty hired a clown to pose for the photo. It cost $150 to hire the clown. But Betty charged the client $1600 to create the poster. Betty did NOT charge the client anything specifically for the clown fees, or submit a reiumbursement. Betty calculated her expenses for this project into her quote, and charged the client accordingly.
