Upwork’s work diary visually logs a freelancer’s activity during hourly contracts via screenshots and activity meters. It captures about six screenshots per hour, tracks keyboard and mouse activity, and highlights billable vs. non-billable time. Clients can view diaries to monitor work progress, but cannot edit or communicate through them.
The work diary helps you monitor your freelancers’ activity and helps smooth out the billing process. It’s a visual record of your freelancer's activity on a project.
Here’s how it works:
- You set up an hourly contract with your freelancer
- We request that your freelancer track their time via our Time Tracker
- We take real screenshots of what your freelancer is working on about six times an hour when your freelancer uses the Time Tracker. You can view these work-in-progress snapshots when you review your freelancer’s work diary
- Your freelancer adds more details in their work diary about what they were working on
- You review and discuss any issues with your freelancer
View your freelancer's work diary
- Go to Manage work > Your contracts
- Find the contract you wish to view and select the contract's (...) menu
- Choose View work diary from the menu's options
You can adjust the date range to see specific days. You can also switch between time zones — UTC (the default), your own, or your freelancer’s.
Although it's useful to see what a freelancer is working on during the week, the diary is a billing tool. It is not:
- A way to communicate or set work expectations
- A place to add or delete time for your freelancer
- A place to edit your freelancer's work
Reading the work diary
When a freelancer tracks time using the Upwork Desktop App, the Time Tracker automatically takes a screenshot about six times per hour. These screenshots, along with an activity summary, are automatically uploaded to the work diary.
Screenshots are grouped into sets based on when the freelancer starts and stops tracking time. To scroll through a set, select a screenshot, then choose Next or Previous to view others from that same time period.
The memo bars in the diary are color-coded to indicate the status of that billing segment.
- Dark green: Auto-tracked time, billable on hourly contracts
- Light green: Manual time, billable on hourly contracts
When a freelancer tracks time using the Upwork Desktop App, the Time Tracker automatically takes a screenshot about six times per hour. These screenshots, along with an activity summary, are automatically uploaded to the work diary.
Screenshots are grouped into sets based on when the freelancer starts and stops tracking time. To scroll through a set, select a screenshot, then choose Next or Previous to view others from that same time period.
- Red: Time over the weekly limit agreed with your client. Not billable
The time your freelancer tracks in their diary is only billable on hourly contracts and excludes time over the hourly limit that you and your freelancer originally agreed to. If your freelancer works over the hourly limit, you should discuss the proper course of action with them, which may include releasing a bonus or increasing the hourly limit on the contract.
The row of green blocks you see under each screen capture is the activity meter. It shows the number of minutes out of a 10-minute billing segment that included activity. The meter records the total number of mouse clicks, scroll actions, and keystrokes per segment. It doesn't record what a freelancer clicked or typed. Select the meter for a detailed view, including minute-by-minute activity counts.
Note:
Activity levels during a stretch of logged time will fluctuate depending on the task. Some tasks, such as phone calls, reading, and thinking, will show low activity. For this reason, it's possible that you'll see zero mouse clicks and zero keystrokes, but other activity will still be recorded. If you are concerned about significant portions of the work diary with low activity, please discuss them with your freelancer.