A launch meeting is a good way to start a project.

You have complete control over how the task is completed, and your clients will rely on your experience to get things started. Consider holding a launch meeting or sending a note to your customer before you begin working. Another popular strategy is to create a customer communication plan that specifies how frequently you’ll update them on your progress. You may connect with your customer via Upwork Messages, email, or chat; but, to minimise confusion, pick one channel and stay with it.

Managing and completing hourly contract work

How to Use the Team App: If you’re starting an hourly contract, you’ll need to download the Team App in order to track your hours and get paid. The Team App’s Work Diary function allows you to keep track of your time and take photos of your work in progress at random 10-minute intervals. These screenshots convince your online clients that you worked all of the hours invoiced to them through Upwork, ensuring that you’ll be paid even if there’s a disagreement. (Any photos you don’t want shared and paid to your customer may always be deleted.)

Your customer may impose a weekly limit on the amount of hours you may log in. Know your limit and let your customer know when you’re approaching it. This gives them the option of increasing the limit or deferring until the following week. Before your timelogs are finalised and payment is handled, you and your customer have the opportunity to evaluate them at the end of the week. Every Sunday, the billing cycle finishes, and your profits are available 10 days later.

Organizing and delivering projects Contracts with a set price

Payments depending on milestones and escrow: You and your clients will construct a set of milestones for fixed-price contracts. Each milestone will be prefunded with escrow, and the funds will be visible on the Upwork site. It’s a good practise to notify your customer and submit your work to them on Upwork after you’ve completed the work for a milestone. If they approve of your work, the cash will be transferred to your account, and you’ll repeat the process for the following milestone. If your customer is unhappy with the services, you will need to speak directly with them and negotiate changing the conditions of the delivery in order to reach a mutual agreement and get paid.

If you and your client are unable to reach an agreement, you or your client can contact Upwork for free dispute resolution support. In this instance, we will organise and moderate a meeting so that you may reach a mutually acceptable agreement on the release of escrow money.

Confidence and security Payment security on Upwork

Every hourly contract created with the Team App qualifies for Upwork Hourly Protection, which ensures that an hour completed equals an hour paid. Upwork Fixed-Price Protection protects every fixed-price contract with escrow and milestones. Simply set up your contract conditions on Upwork, handle the work and payments, and you can be assured that you will get paid.