Support with my first client abruptly ending my contract

[sowingseeds]

Dear fellows

I need your help. I just got my first client last week. I have not uploaded my working hours on Upwork since I am new to this platform and had other clients and work to attend to. The client abruptly ended my contract because she changed the job spec. I had tremendous google security issues (signing in with her company's google workspace) 

Not having complete permissions and access to the gmail account and syncing issues with other platforms (Slack & Notion) significantly hindered my onboarding process, delaying my ability to begin executing tasks promptly. These technical issues were beyond my control. I invested considerable effort and time, consulting with two IT specialists in South Africa to address the Google security challenges. To resolve these issues, I even dedicated a lot of time and energy.

She now ended the contract and I havent submitted my hours on Upwork yet. In my opinion the client was very unreasonable and didn't even give me a chance to discuss the matters on a video call. I feel that I'm entitled to the hours I dedicated to her (even the technical issues), but not sure how Upwork can support me with this or how I should go about to resolve this matter in a professional and amicle way. 

I will highly appreciate your help with this matter.

Kind regards,

Corliette Heyns

[NikolaS]

Hi Coriette, 

I am sorry to hear your first contract went that way. I see that you are new to Upwork so I would like to clarify that when working hourly contracts, we automatically invoice all time that you log in the Work Diary to the client. Hourly contracts may be covered by Upwork Hourly Protection. For all of your hourly contracts, your clients are automatically invoiced and billed for the hours you log according to the weekly billing cycle.

I checked and it looks like you have some time logged on the contract. You can find more information under In review tab on your Overview page. 

You may want to check this help article for more information about getting paid for Hourly Contracts. Additionally, I encourage you to check available Learning Paths in the Academy section to help you get a safe and successful start. 

[sowingseeds]

Dear Nikola

My apologies for the delayed reply. Things are crazy-busy with year-end deadlines on my side and I'm also dealing with a traumatic family crisis at the moment. As previously explained I did not log my hours every day because a) I'm new to Upwork and b) getting onboard with my client's systems was a higher priority than spending time figuring Upwork's time tracking system out. The client did allow manual time to be submitted, but before I had the chance to do this she abrublty ended the contract. I've attached my manual timesheet (which I did discuss with the client and she agreed that I could keep track of my time manually until I settled in).

Where do I go from here? The role the client advertised and the contract we signed via Upwork changed within a week. How can Upwork help me to resolve this?

I will highly appreciate your help with this matter.

Kind regards

Corliette Heyns

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[ArjayM]

Hi Corliette,

We certainly understand your situation and we genuinely appreciate you taking some time to reach out and sharing this information. However, please remember that manual time is not covered by Hourly Payment Protection. This is why we encourage our valued members to log time with the Time Tracker.

To qualify for Upwork Hourly Protection, you need to log time using the Upwork Desktop App (Time Tracker) and accurately describe what you are working on with the memos and activity labels.

Additionally, please be aware that bonuses can still be paid on closed contracts. You may discuss this with the client and request to be paid for the missing hours via a bonus.