Waiting for client to fund a new milestone

[odeo_tamaguru]

Hello everyone,
I have completed a 'Fixed Price' job, and client is rarely online. He never check my whole messages on reviews and questions for almost 2 days.
Finally he was online last night and ask me to send him the finalized work.
And then he went dark again.
When I want to submit the work, I cant find the "SUBMIT' button, and I found
"Waiting for *client name* to fund a new milestone" under the "Awaiting Milestones" tab.
I messaged him about the situation but he wasn't there
What should I do?
- Should I send him the work through UpWork messages and then 'end the contract'? There is a pending balance in my overview report, so will I get paid when I end the contract from my side?
- Or should I wait for him, which I dont know till when, so he could sort out the problem from his side? and what advice I should give him to deal with this problem?

Thank you in advance.

[NikolaS]

Hi Odeo,

For Fixed-Price jobs, freelancers are advised to use the submit work link next to the funded milestone on the contract details page to share work with their clients and, at the exact moment, request payment. Once you submit work and request payment, the client will have 14 days to review it and approve or ask for changes. If they take no action in 14 days, the funds in Escrow will be released to you. You may read more about Fixed-Price Protection here.

You may also want to check this helpful article for more information on getting paid for fixed-price contracts. 

[odeo_tamaguru]

Hi Nikola,

Thanks for replying.
But it still not clear to me on my spesific problem.
The 14 days is after I submit the work, right?
But I can not submit the work since the submit button is not there.

[yofazza · Accepted solution]

Mas Odeo,

Budgets are irrelevant. The one that matters is the funded amount. Your milestone was not funded, there's $0 in escrow.

Sorry this happened to you. Some people will just blame you for not knowing how things work, but I'll say you're not informed enough. Ideally, Upwork should find another method to make sure problems doesn't repeat, instead of sticking with something that didn't work.

In the future... Make sure clients fund the milestone, and only work as much as the fund. If you agreed with a $30 budget and client fund $15, do 50% of work and click the Submit button without hesitation. The purpose of the button IS to tell the client to either check the job or release payment in 14 days, without having to actually say anything. 

--

Btw you can still hope that the client is nice and get back to you with the money.

[odeo_tamaguru]

Hi Radia,

Yeah, Escrow shown $0. I guess I've worked for nothing. 
This client has great reviews from other freelancers, that's why I felt confident working with him.
Well, what happened, happened. Let's move on.

Thanks for replying.

[5a23daa2]

yes if you completed a 'Fixed Price' job and client is not resposne than you can recive the payment by 14 days 

[wlyonsatl]

Odeo Tamaguru S,

Do not begin work on a milestone until:

a) that milestone has been funded, and

b) payment on all previous milestones for the same project have been released to you.

You won't see the "Submit" button on an unfunded milestone.

No escrow = no work performed or submitted by any means