What do "Awaiting Milestones" mean?

[zacatbeckhorn]

I joined Upwork last week, submitted a proposal, was offered a contract, completed the work, submitted the work, and my first client approved it! Hooray!

However, when I go to My Jobs I see that I have zero (none) Active Milestones, however my contract (which only had 1 milestone defined in it) has 1 Awaiting Milestone.

Does this mean that I haven't been paid? Does it mean the contract hasn't been approved by the client? Does it mean my client or I have to do something to "finalize" the contract and end it?

If possible I'd like to give my client a good rating/feedback, but I don't think I can do that until the contract is "ended". Any advice on what I need to do here? Thanks!

[lysis10]

It just means the job is open with no milestones. Upwork has a weird way of wording things that makes certain aspects of the platform confusing.

If it's just sitting there for a long time (I often wait up to a year depending on how often the client hits me up), you can close it.

I like to keep open contracts too so I can push bad reviews down my profile too, so keeping them around for a while is good too.

[zacatbeckhorn]

Thanks Jennifer!

Two quick followup questions if you don't mind:

1. Is it possible to give my client a good review/feedback/rating if the contract is still considered "open"? If so, do you know how?

2. I'm interested in what you mean when you say "I like to keep open contracts too so I can push bad reviews down my profile too", can you elaborate a bit more? Please remember I am brand new to this platform so I honestly don't know what that means!

Thanks again so much for the help here!

Cheers,
Zac

[lysis10 · Accepted solution]

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Zac H wrote:

Thanks Jennifer!

Two quick followup questions if you don't mind:

1. Is it possible to give my client a good review/feedback/rating if the contract is still considered "open"? If so, do you know how?

2. I'm interested in what you mean when you say "I like to keep open contracts too so I can push bad reviews down my profile too", can you elaborate a bit more? Please remember I am brand new to this platform so I honestly don't know what that means!

Thanks again so much for the help here!

Cheers,
Zac

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1. When you close the contract you'll be forced to give feedback, so yes.

2. I probably shouldn't have said that just because information overload, but reviews show on your profile chronologically by default so you can use old contracts to push bad reviews down the page. I should say I also like to say this because it makes a lot of my haters COPE and SEETHE over it. 😎😎

[viktahugo91]

At this point in the awaiting milestones phase, is the money already guaranteed? Because it doesn’t reflect in your earnings