**Agencies

We’re updating all agency profiles to better showcase their services and expertise.

As context, we recently gave freelancers who sell multiple services the ability to differentiate each one with specialized profiles.

As clients hire agencies for larger projects, we’ve learned that clients want to review information about the agency, including:

• The ability to deliver a broader set of services
• Examples of solving similar problems
• Examples of working with similar clients

What’s new about these profiles:

• Agencies can clearly differentiate themselves from individual freelancers with this new format
• Agencies have areas to create a profile that’s consistent with their brand and tell their story
• Agencies can better organize pertinent information including:

• Services offered
• Agency company info: size, location(s)
• Minimum project size desired
• Featured clients
• Awards and certifications

Agencies can access their profile by logging in > going to their agency account context

• https://www.upwork.com/agencies/profile-settings
• Clicking on their agency profile URL
• On Nav Bar: Find Work > Agency Profile

Agency Owners (AOs) have access to exclusive agency freelancers’ My Stats reports in their agency account. This provides agencies with key activity and reputation metrics information to better understand and manage their reputation on Upwork.

AOs can select the exclusive freelancer’s name from the drop-down menu on their agency My Stats page to see the following info (only if they’ve applied for a job or have been hired on a contract will data show):

• 12-month earnings
• Feedback score
• % clients who would recommend
• % long term clients
• Recent account holds
• Invitation responsiveness
• Profile views

To understand the breakdown of My Stats, see this article.

Agency Freelancers can now remove themselves from their agency using the self-service feature on their Upwork account.

Before removing themselves from an agency, agency freelancers need to: close all their job proposals and active contracts under the agency. Also, if applicable, the freelancer may want to work out any final payments with the agency owner directly.

In order to leave the agency, have the freelancer follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings
2. Go to the My Teams tab
3. Click the arrow next the proper agency, click Leave Team

Will I be able to use my freelancer account as an independent contractor after leaving the agency?

Thanks for your question. As far as Upwork is concerned, your freelancer account is fully yours, including your work history with or outside the agency. If you have completed enough jobs personally or under the agency, your profile will display a score based on those jobs, instead of the agency’s JSS. However, the JSS belongs to the agency on agency contracts. If you ask us to delete your account so you may create a new one, we can do this. This sometimes happens when a freelancer had an agreement with the agency outside of Upwork that the freelancer would not use their Upwork account after leaving the agency.

I have this exclusive agency freelancer that wants to leave the agency, but I don't want to release the freelancer account for all these contracts are under my agency. Is it okay to have full control over this account?

Thanks for reaching out. Per the Upwork Terms of Service, freelancers who are part of your agency can leave at any time and take their freelancer account with them. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but the agency contracts they completed will continue to contribute towards the agency’s JSS. You may have a different agreement with the freelancer. If you have an agreement with the freelancer that the freelancer will not continue to use the profile, please reach out to the freelancer directly to resolve the issue. Upwork cannot assist in enforcing off-platform agreements.

If my exclusive agency freelancer becomes an independent contractor, will all the contracts they worked for under my agency still appear on their own freelancer profile?

Thanks for your question. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but their JSS will be based on the jobs they completed.

My exclusive freelancer left my agency, but we have a written agreement that they cannot continue using their account. Can you help with this?

Thanks for reaching out. Per the Upwork Terms of Service, freelancers who are part of your agency can leave at any time and take their freelancer account with them. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but the agency contracts they completed will continue to contribute to the agency’s JSS. You may have a different agreement with the freelancer. If you have an agreement with the freelancer that the freelancer will not continue to use the profile, please reach out to the freelancer directly to resolve the issue. Upwork cannot assist in enforcing off-platform agreements.

Is agency on the Basic or Plus plan?

1. Scroll down to own companies
2. Scroll further down to Team ID - find the words “Monthly Plan”
   

   a. Free plan = Agency Basic

   b. Paid plan = Agency Plus

   

Is this user the agency owner?

1. Scroll down to Own Companies
2. Look for “Owner” and click on the owner URL to be directed to the owner’s account

Is this user exclusive or non-exclusive with the agency?

If in AO’s account:

1. Scroll down to Own Companies
2. Scroll further down to Team ID
3. Within Team ID - find the works “Invitations” & click on All

   

4. Under Permissions column, look for “Exclusive” to see if FL is exclusive

If in a FL’s account that’s not the AO:

1. Scroll down to Contractor
2. Find the word Affiliation
3. Next to Affiliation, the agency’s name will display as well as if that FL is exclusive or non-exclusive

Hint: in OBO, do Ctrl +F (if PC) or command + F (if Mac) and type “exclusive” to see all the places where “exclusive” is visible - it should direct straight to this area

How do I see if a FL was part of an agency before?

1. Scroll down to Invited To Teams
2. Tick “Show inactive”
3. All the teams that this FL belonged/belongs to will now show up
4. Scroll down until “Monthly Plan” is shown - it should read either Agency Basic or Agency Plus
5. Now that the Agency team is pulled up, find “Invitations” and check off All
6. They should show up here! Hint: If the agency has quite a few members, do ctrl + F (if PC) or command + F (if Mac) and search the FL’s name in the search bar to quickly find them.

If in a FL’s account that’s not the AO:

1. Scroll down to Invited To Teams
2. Tick “Show inactive”
3. All the teams that this FL belonged/belongs to will now show up

How do I find assignments worked on by an agency FL?

1. Follow steps for How do I see if a FL was part of an agency before?
2. Unhide agency assignments and look through the following section:

How do I get more info on an agency’s JSS?

If the AO is exclusive:

1. Scroll down to Contractor
2. Look for JSS realtime and click on the JSS percentage

   

3. The JSS type should display agency as this AO is exclusive - the info here can be used to discuss the agency’s JSS

   

If the AO is non-exclusive:

1. Scroll down to Own Companies
2. Go to Invited To Teams
3. Find “Invitations” and click on All
4. Select an exclusive FL and utilize that JSS to discuss JSS for agency

If the AO is non-exclusive and there are NO exclusive agency FLs in agency:

In these cases, each individual contract of the agency would need to be viewed. In order to do this, follow these steps...

• In AO’s account, view Own Companies
• Go to Invited To Teams
• Click on “Show client assignments”
• Make sure Hide ended is NOT ticked
  - Individually, go through each agency assignment - to tell which assignment is for the agency, it’ll show under the Agency column

  

Agency Settings and Permissions (external article)

To view agency permissions:

Any permissions granted by the agency to the agency freelancers can be seen here:

1. In the AO’s account, go to Own Companies
2. Scroll further down to Team ID - find the word “Invitations” and click on All
3. See last column, Permissions, to see all the permissions granted to the agency freelancers (see Agency Permissions tab if additional info needed)

   

About Admin Permissions:

About Staffing Permissions:

About Work Diary Permissions:

About Chat Access Permissions:

For Clients

“Request Refund” and any dispute-related links are not available on agency contracts for the client

To request a refund: a client needs to ask agency owner for a refund OR CS can assist in contacting the agency owner on behalf of the client for a refund

To file a dispute: a client needs to reach out to CS; CS can initiate by sending a ticket to Mediation/Escalate. See **Mediation & Disputes > “Agent-Initiated Mediation Support” dropdown

For Agencies

REFUNDS can only be initiated by the agency owner OR by a user that has financial access granted

Please be aware that Agency Owners do not own and do not have control of any Upwork accounts aside from their own login; this includes exclusive freelancer accounts. Agency Owners should not be changing passwords in other freelancers' accounts, requesting name changes to these accounts, and they should not be keeping freelancer accounts from the freelancer. An exclusive freelancer owns their Upwork account just like any other user. If you have any questions or concerns, please see your TL.

If a FL reports this: send ticket to AS by following the **Account Takeover process

If an Agency Owner mentions they are doing this: ensure they are not a *Trusted Agency and if not, educate them on proper policy/procedure; still send to AS for review, but explain the situation that they opened up to you and you educated the CL

These are internal only FAQs.

Can a limited FL be part of an agency?

If a FL is invited to an agency as exclusive, they may be auto-accepted into that agency as long as they meet this criteria:

• AO must be Top Rated OR,
• the agency’s JSS is greater than 90%

If FL was invited as an exclusive agency member, but their profile is still limited, check if agency meets the criteria as listed above.

• If yes, ask the FL to resubmit profile.

• If after re-submitting their profile they are still not accepted even though the agency meets the criteria, assign ticket to Content_Engagement_Tier_1_TS425 with internal note “Meets the criteria to be invited to agency, but re-submitting profile did not work”

• If no, assign ticket to Content_Engagement_Tier_1_TS425 with internal note “Invited to agency, but limited. Manual review requested.”

Does the FL become limited again if they leave the agency?

If they choose to leave the agency, we don’t currently have a forcing mechanism in place that would put the FL through Limited Admissions again after an exception is made, but most likely, after they update their profile with their information, they may go through the Limited Admissions flow again.

Who can request (on behalf of their exclusive/non-exclusive agency members) to change locked profiles from private to public? Or, requesting that a limit be removed in order to get the agency freelancer to accept proposals?

An agency owner or admin can request that the profile of an exclusive agency member be reset to public. They cannot request this for the accounts of non-exclusive agency members. Anyone not designated as an agency owner or admin is not authorized to make this request. Note: Although we're not able to update the profile for any non-exclusive freelancers for you, they can do so directly from this Help article: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003975967-Profile-Changed-to-Private-

How do I switch my profile from a non-exclusive freelancer account to an exclusive freelancer account, or vice versa?

The agency owner and members with Admin permissions will be able to make this change within Settings > Members & Permissions > Edit the Agency Freelancer column to switch a non-exclusive agency freelancer to an exclusive agency freelancer, or vice versa.

How do you determine the agency hourly rate that is displayed on the tile?

The hourly rate on the agency profile shows the minimum and maximum rate on the last 50 agency jobs.

What information is displayed in search results when pulling up an exclusive agency freelancer?

Clients will see the agency’s logo, title, overview, Job Success Score, hours worked, hourly rate, and the associated agency member’s name and skills. Tips on how to craft an impressive agency profile found found here.

What do clients see when they click “Invite To Job” on an agency account?

A form page to invite the agency member and agency to work on a project.

If I am a non-exclusive agency member, how do I set my default team?

Default team can be set via Settings>My Teams>clicking into Set Default Team

How to set user to exclusive agency member?

Currently user must be a member of only one team to be an exclusive agency freelancer. If it is still needed, account owner should remove that user from all other teams and then make it exclusive freelancer in that team. Go to Settings > Members & Permissions > under the Agency Freelancer section > click Update Permissions.

Can a Business Manager hire an agency member to work on a contract already in progress?

A Business Manager cannot hire to a clients contract to bill hours. The client for the contract must hire each person to a new contract. In order for anyone to bill hours that get paid to the agency they must be hired by the client.

An Agency Contractor logged time to their own company team instead of the client. How do they fix that?

They will have to fix this the same as an independent freelancer who has logged time to the wrong team.

• Inform your client about this mistake.
• Download all the screenshots and send them to your client as proof.
• Depending on your client's preference:
  • You can log offline time for the week
  • Your client can issue payment in the form of 'Bonus' by going to My Jobs > Contracts > Click the contract > Select 'Give Bonus'.

What should a Business Manager do if he wants his AC to work on an assignment ? The Business Manager was hired for the contract.

That contract would have to end and the client would have to hire the correct person. Only the person hired is allowed to do the work. (Sometimes BMs think they can be hired for all contracts and delegate an agency member to do the work, that is against our policy... the person doing the work must be hired so they can log their time appropriately; unless FP... if FP then BM can deliver the work once complete and the client can pay if satisfied.)

As an Agency what do I owe taxes on? Is it the entire pay we receive or only the difference of what is left after we pay our members?

The account owner would be responsible for any taxes. As to what you owe for taxes that will vary from country to country and we would recommend that you consult a local tax consultant or advisor to confirm what is your responsibility regarding taxes.

How does an Agency add other people to their team if they do not know their user id?

An AM may only discuss joining their agency with freelancers they know. They can not contact users on our site unless they know their user ID.

Do my contractors set up their accounts with you just like I did, so they can receive their funds directly via ACH?

Yes your agency contractors would create an Upwork account with a contractor profile. They should create their accounts before you invite them to your team. However, agency's are not able to pay their contractor inside of Upwork so ACH is not an option. You will have to work with your contractors to pay them outside of Upwork.

How much information can my agency contractors see about payments I have received from a particular client vs. what they have received?

We practice transparency which is why we recommend that you speak with your members and advise them on how much they are getting for a contract. In terms of visibility to your account, payments will only show under your financial activity but will show the rates in their freelancer profile.

Do I have the ability to adjust payments to them based on negotiations with clients if needed?

How much the agency contractors are to be paid is up to you as the agency. It may or may not bear any relation to the earnings of their Upwork contracts. What's important is for agency contractors to be clear on how much they are getting for the contract.

Why is Agency member's rate not shown in his profile when logged in, but is shown when not logged in Upwork?

This is expected for Exclusive Agency Freelancers viewing their own profile or other profiles of members under the same agency.

Why is my profile not searchable / not displaying in Agency Profile list?

Profile may not be present due to:

1. Profile is set to "Private".
2. Blacklisted
3. Whitelisted
4. Profile is "Unavailable".
5. Non-Exclusive
6. Rate set on profile is below $3.00/hour.

Is there a limit on the number of Agency FLs showing in the agency profile?

The Agency Profile will display all the Staffing Managers and 10 Agency Freelancers. However, agency members that have their profile set on “Private” will not be displayed in the Agency Profile page.

How are hourly rates range calculated on Agency Profiles?

The hourly rates range shown in your agency profile is the lowest to highest rates of the contracts closed as shown in agency's Work History. These are the contracts which are recently closed and with recent "Last Date Worked". This helps to give the clients the most accurate picture of an agency’s recent work.

NOTE: If contract was ended recently, the last activity or last date the contractor worked on the contract was not recent, then such contract will not be listed and not calculated in the Agency’s rate range. If rates of all hourly contracts are the same value or there is only one contract, the hourly range on the agency profile is shown in single value.

Will I be able to use my freelancer account as an independent contractor after leaving the agency?

Thanks for your question. As far as Upwork is concerned, your freelancer account is fully yours, including your work history with or outside the agency. If you have completed enough jobs personally or under the agency, your profile will display a score based on those jobs, instead of the agency’s JSS. However, the JSS belongs to the agency on agency contracts. If you ask us to delete your account so you may create a new one, we can do this. This sometimes happens when a freelancer had an agreement with the agency outside of Upwork that the freelancer would not use their Upwork account after leaving the agency.

I have this exclusive agency freelancer that wants to leave the agency, but I don't want to release the freelancer account for all these contracts are under my agency. Is it okay to have full control over this account?

Thanks for reaching out. Per the Upwork Terms of Service, freelancers who are part of your agency can leave at any time and take their freelancer account with them. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but the agency contracts they completed will continue to contribute towards the agency’s JSS. You may have a different agreement with the freelancer. If you have an agreement with the freelancer that the freelancer will not continue to use the profile, please reach out to the freelancer directly to resolve the issue. Upwork cannot assist in enforcing off-platform agreements.

If my exclusive agency freelancer becomes an independent contractor, will all the contracts they worked for under my agency still appear on their own freelancer profile?

Thanks for your question. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but their JSS will be based on the jobs they completed.

My exclusive freelancer left my agency, but we have a written agreement that they cannot continue using their account. Can you help with this?

Thanks for reaching out. Per the Upwork Terms of Service, freelancers who are part of your agency can leave at any time and take their freelancer account with them. The freelancer’s profile will still display their work history from their agency contracts, but the agency contracts they completed will continue to contribute to the agency’s JSS. You may have a different agreement with the freelancer. If you have an agreement with the freelancer that the freelancer will not continue to use the profile, please reach out to the freelancer directly to resolve the issue. Upwork cannot assist in enforcing off-platform agreements.

How many jobs can be displayed in my account if I migrate my agency?

Migrated agencies will show a maximum of 50 of their most recent Elance jobs, plus their Upwork jobs.