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ioanacalin
Community Member

End of contract payment with no remaining milestone

Hi there,

 

I wrapped up a project with a client with whom I had 2 milestones: delivery of first draft and delivery of 2nd draft. 

 

I have successfully delivered the 1st draft to the client's expectations and first payment was made. The client did not request any edits and was happy with my work, so basically the 1st draft became the final draft. Now, the second milestone no longer appears for some reason (client has responded late so I don't know if the platform removed automatically since "it was not delivered") but we need to end the contract and process the remaining payment. 

 

If I close the contract on my end, will I still receive the remaining payment from the initial contract amount I proposed and client accepted? Or it will cancel it? Do I have to request a separate payment? How do I do that?

 

Thanks so much in advance! 

4 REPLIES 4
robin_hyman
Community Member


I wrapped up a project with a client with whom I had 2 milestones: delivery of first draft and delivery of 2nd draft. 

 

I have successfully delivered the 1st draft to the client's expectations and first payment was made. The client did not request any edits and was happy with my work, so basically the 1st draft became the final draft. Now, the second milestone no longer appears for some reason (client has responded late so I don't know if the platform removed automatically since "it was not delivered") but we need to end the contract and process the remaining payment. 

 

If I close the contract on my end, will I still receive the remaining payment from the initial contract amount I proposed and client accepted? Or it will cancel it? Do I have to request a separate payment? How do I do that?

 


This is a very important lesson. If the budget is small (< $1,000), the entire budget should be within one milestone - even if you offered a revision. Why? Because if not, the client can disappear after paying only a portion of the agreed-upon price. It sounds like that is exactly what happened here. 

 

If the client hasn't funded the 2nd milestone, you have no claim to it. If you end the contract, you will be left with just the first milestone as payment for the entire project. 

 

After the client approved of the first draft, you should have immediately (or ASAP) written something like "awesome! If you have no revisions, please fund and approve the final milestone and end the contract. It was great working with you!"

 

Question: How long has it been since the client approved the first draft? That will help determine what you should do next. 

 

Thanks so much for replying, Robin!

 

The client approved the 1st milestone July 13, after I delivered it on July 10th (due date). 

 

He's a very busy person so I could give him the benefit of the doubt. I reached out today to wrap this up and he agrees but that's all he responded. I don't think he knows how Upwork works either so we're both confused on this. He's happy to wrap up and pay the other half, we just don't how to go about it. 

 

I will keep in mind the one milestone payment for the future, you are absolutely right! 

Ioana:
If this was my client, and I was in this situation, I would suggest simply using the client-side "Pay Bonus" tool to pay whatever amount remains to be paid.

At this point that would be simpler than setting up another milestone.

As the freelancer, I would add the second milestone and send the client a change request. The client would accept and end the contract. Ending the contract means he will be prompted to provide feedback. If the client doesn't know what to do, he needs to be educated. 

 

Here is the information you need for how to add the milestone:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000990268-Add-and-Edit-Milestones

 

Good luck!

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