Invoice charges vs Actual Billing on Direct Contracts (Client Side)

[skodtdesign]

I recently had a client cancel a contract due to the difference between what I was invoicing and what was being charged.  According to the project manager the service fees on his side were not being clearly articulated, which caused an issue in their accounting department.  The client showed me the generated invoice which showed the time I billed and also showed me the bill showing a different amount being charged with any explanation.  I had nothing to say for this as I am seeing what I am billing and the service charges I am paying on my side of the transaction.

This was a signifigant contract and I am working on securing another contract outside of UpWork to continue the work to which they have agreed to as the value my continued work on the project, but are adamant about not using the UpWork Platform.

My questions are these:
1.  How do I articulate the fees to be expect on a Direct Contract to a potential client that has never used the UpWork platform? 2.  Why are the Service Fees not being thoroughly explained on the clients billing like they are on the freelancers?

[ArjayM]

Hi Jarrett,

Thank you for reaching out to us. 1. Your client will need to place funds in escrow with Upwork Escrow before the contract can start. With that said, Your client will pay a payment processing fee. The fee is 3% of the payment when they use a credit card, debit card, or PayPal. As a freelancer, you will be charged a 3.4% payment processing fee. 2. The time that you create and send contract proposals to your clients who aren’t on Upwork, it already includes all information they need to know about being on a Direct Contract with you. Additionally, you and the client can read through this help article to be more acquainted with how the service works.

[skodtdesign]

Thank you for that.

The core issue is not the actual fees, it is the fact that those fees are not being explained on the invoice/bill that the client recieves.  This is something that probably needs to be addressed/explained to the client when starting the contract and certainly needs to be explained on the bill they recieve.