Hourly job - Client sent bonus payment by mistake

[brijesh555]

Hi Upwork team, please help. I finished working on an hourly project. Client sent a bonus of $450 by mistake. After reviewing everything, including payment reports and refund request, I am confused.

Q1: How are hourly job payments processed?
Q2: Refund request shows me the below.
Refund amount: $450.00
Current Balance: $412.14
Your Balance Will be Debited: $360.10
Q3. What do the above payment amounts mean?
If the client has sent $450 then how is my current balance less?
Q4. Also how much refund will the client get? Why can't it be as simple as click "refund" button?

Profile:**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Job link inside jobs in "progress". Title is UI/UX designer for IoT web application.

Many thanks!

[NikolaS · Accepted solution]

Hi Brijesh,

We will look into this further and will get back to you once we have more information.

Edited to update information: 

Q1:

As a freelancer, your billing period for hourly contracts* begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. Your funds are available 10 days later.

When working hourly contracts, all time logged in the Work Diary by the freelancer is automatically invoiced to the client using the schedule below.

• Week 1 – Freelancer logs time using the Upwork desktop app and Work Diary.
• Week 2 – Hours within the weekly limit invoice to your clients on Monday. They have until Friday to review the work. Then the review period ends.
• Week 3 – Earnings become available on the following Wednesday.

You can find more information in this help article. 

Q2 and Q3:

Please note that while refunding, you can choose a specific invoice you wish to refund and enter the amount. The Upwork fees are also being refunded when you select the amount. For example, if you refund $100, only $80 will be deducted from your account as $20 are the fees.

Q4:

The client will receive the full refund which is "Your Balance Will be Debited" plus the Service fee.

Thank you,

[brijesh555]

Thank you so much for the explanation Nikola. I've successfully refunded the amount to the client. Thank you!

[3f1ee3ee]

Hello,
I am a client and I made a payment to my freelancer. It shows as a bonus in invoice.. I made a payment on Saturday, today is sunday. Freelancer reached out to me, he has not received payment yet.
What should I do?

[prestonhunter]

re: "What should I do?"

You should do nothing. If you made the payment, then you made the payment. Your own client-side records show you that the payment was made.

The freelancer can see the money if he looks here:

Upwork -> Reports -> Overview

If the freelancer has further questions about the timing of when bonus payments become available for withdrawal, he may come to the Forum to ask his questions.

[3f1ee3ee]

Hello,

Thanks for your response !
This is helpful. My questions was focused on - I wanted to pay the freelancer for his hours worked and as far I remember I made payment for his work and not as bonus. But it shows as bonus on the freelancer window, and actual hours payment shows due.
Should I get a refund and make the payment again or bh any chance bonus should be converted to hours worked payment ? Or I just do nothing and ask freelancer yo accept the bonus as payment but freelancer closed the contract already.
I’m confused what to do

[prestonhunter]

re: "I wanted to pay the freelancer for his hours worked and as far I remember I made payment for his work and not as bonus."

As a client, I hire many freelancers using hourly contracts.

I never "do anything" in order to pay them for their hours.

Because Upwork handles that automatically.

I do not click any buttons.

I do not approve anything.

I do not send a payment.

I do nothing.

Based on the hours that each freelancer works, they get paid automatically. Upwork charges my credit card automatically.

[prestonhunter]

re: "but freelancer closed the contract already."

It does not matter if the contract has already been closed.

Freelancers get paid automatically for the time that they have logged, regardless of if a contract is closed or open.

Freelancers can issue a refund to a client, regardless of if a contract is closed or open.

Clients can send a bonus payment to a freelancer, regardless of if a contract is closed or open.

[3f1ee3ee]

This is helpful ! Thanks !