How Do Hourly Payments Work?

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What Is An Hourly Project?

On an hourly project, a freelancer is paid for the number of hours that they have worked, rather than being paid a fixed price for a specific deliverable. This payment occurs on a weekly basis.

When Should Hourly Projects Be Used?

Hourly projects are best suited for the following project types:

  • Long term or ongoing projects.

  • Projects where the scope is not clearly defined.

  • Projects where you have an ongoing relationship with the freelancer.

How Do Hourly Payments Work For Employers?

When awarding an hourly project, employers are not required to create a Milestone, and are instead required to have a verified payment method. This is to ensure the security of the freelancer who is completing the work.

Time Tracking

Hourly projects are paid through time tracking and automatic Milestone Payments. Freelancers track the time they work on your project, either through the Freelancer Desktop App or by manually entering the time worked.

Automatic Milestone Payment

Every Monday morning at 00:01 in the employer’s local time, we will generate a Milestone Payment for the hours tracked by the freelancer in the past 7 days. The Milestone comes with an invoice.

The Milestone Payment will be drafted from your existing Milestone Payment for the freelancer, from your available account balance, or from your payment source. The Milestone Payment will be held temporarily, and it will be automatically released 48 hours after it was created. 

As an employer, you then have until Wednesday morning at 00:01 in your local time zone to review the work completed by your freelancer, and raise a dispute if required.

If you decide to manually release the Milestone between Monday and Wednesday, that can be done, and no funds will be automatically released on Wednesday morning (as your freelancer will already have been paid). 

What if I have an issue that needs to be resolved with my freelancer?

It is important that you always check your freelancer’s work between Monday and Wednesday morning, to ensure you are satisfied with the payment being released to them.

If you do not wish for us to release the payment, you need to raise a dispute on the Milestone that we have automatically created for you, before Wednesday morning at 00:01 in your local timezone. This will prevent the Milestone from being automatically released, and allow you to resolve the dispute with your freelancer.

 

How Do Hourly Payments Work For Freelancers?

Time Tracking

As a freelancer, you are required to track time on hourly projects to ensure that you are paid for every hour that you work.

You can either automatically track your time through the Freelancer Desktop App, or manually enter the time you have worked.

Project Fees for Freelancers

Freelancers will be charged project fees at the time a Milestone Payment is released. Please note that you will not be charged any fees when accepting an hourly project.

 

Where do I go to get help?

If you need any assistance with an hourly project, we will be happy to help! Contact us at support@freelancer.com, or visit our support pages for further assistance.

Posted 25 July, 2017

flDyan
flDyan Staff

Junior Product Marketing Manager at Freelancer. Outside of work, I'm into wedding coordination, entrepreneurship, beach trips, badminton, reading novels, and binge-watching TV series on Netflix.

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