🐈
» Forums » New to Upwork » Re: Working before the start date
Page options
nptco
Community Member

Working before the start date

Hi, I am new to Upwork. I was hired yesterday and accepted the offer already today, but my start date will be on the 29th of May 2019. I already started working since yesterday. The client said that I can only manually input the time worked from April 30 to May 28 once my contract starts on May 29th, and I will still wait for the next rolled out date of payment of Upwork. My worry is if Upwork won't accept and pay the manual hours worked before the contract date. Please advise what to do? I have read that he can cancel the contract and offer a new start date so I can input my hours worked real time. Thank you.

12 REPLIES 12
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Nelda Princess C wrote:

Hi, I am new to Upwork. I was hired yesterday and accepted the offer already today, but my start date will be on the 29th of May 2019. I already started working since yesterday. The client said that I can only manually input the time worked from April 30 to May 28 once my contract starts on May 29th, and I will still wait for the next rolled out date of payment of Upwork. My worry is if Upwork won't accept and pay the manual hours worked before the contract date. Please advise what to do? I have read that he can cancel the contract and offer a new start date so I can input my hours worked real time. Thank you.


Why does the client want you to input hours manually? You are not payment-protected by upwork if you do. I would think a client would always prefer hours tracked, because he gets a screenshot every 10 minutes and can check if you are really working on his project. So, what's his rationale?

Hi Martina, I am not sure what the reason behind, but his assistant said that's upwork policy for the start date. What should I tell him? Could Upwork possibly pay me still for the hours worked being entered manually before the start date? Thank you
hodgesh
Community Member

Manual hours do not qualify for payment protection, so you will get no money from anyone if the client decides to not pay you. Jobs don't have to start a month after the contract starts. The client (or the assistant) seems to be misinformed or scamming you.

 

If you want to get paid, tell the client and start tracking hours or wait until the client actually wants you to start and then begin tracking hours.

 

Read Upwork's Help and Support articles before you get yourself scammed.

nptco
Community Member

Hi Heaven, can he cancel the contract and give me another one?


Nelda Princess C wrote:
Hi Heaven, can he cancel the contract and give me another one?

Of course he can, but it seems he doesn't want to?

Hi Nelda,

 

you and the client can both cancle  a contract at any time. BUT: a contract without pay has a negative impact on your JSS.

 

As others said before, manually hours are not protected and you might end up working without getting any payment. Ask the client to correct the date or to create another contract in the meantime. Right now you are not obliged to do work since there is no active contract.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Nelda Princess,

 

Please note that you won't be able to add manual hours for inactive contract. You'll be able to do this only once that contract becomes active. 

When working on Upwork, please make sure that you have a active contract with a client before doing any work. Ensure that they have a verified billing method so that the work you do can be covered by Upwork Payment Protection.

It is always good to communicate and politely explain everything to your client to avoid any misunderstanding. You can discuss the terms of further engagement on contract and attempt to resolve the situation amicably.

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork
fbe711fd
Community Member

This was was very helpful. Thank you for clearing this up, Bojan.


Nelda Princess C wrote:
Hi Martina, I am not sure what the reason behind, but his assistant said that's upwork policy for the start date. What should I tell him? Could Upwork possibly pay me still for the hours worked being entered manually before the start date? Thank you

No, that's not upwork's policy, that's nonsense. Upwork is not paying you, the client is, but if you enter manual hours, he does not have to. Upwork discourages using manual hours. 

You have to discuss this situation with your client. Tell him you prefer using the time tracker and that for his convenience, he will be able to monitor exactly what you are doing. That should be in his interest.

So in short, don't do it. 

Edited out. I didn't see Bojan's reply. Sorry.


data_divas
Community Member

Also, if the contract hasn't started yet you won't be able to use the tracker to track hours as the job won't be available on the tracker.  You should wait to do any work on the project until the date of the contract, May 29th.  If they want you to start on it sooner they need to change the date.

kat303
Community Member

Nelda- At this point, stop working. Don't do any more work until the date that you're supposed to work. On that date when the contract becomes active, aside from using Tracker, enter the hours you've worked on for those 2 days. The client may or may not pay for that manual time. if they do, great, if they don't, expect that. 

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths