It's important for buyers to have an accurate indication of when freelancers can carry out work. Failing to meet the buyer's expectations in terms of availability can lead to lower CERT and even suspension of the freelancer's account. This applies to all Freelancers with approved applications to sell on PeoplePerHour.
There are four important tools that allow freelancers to control when they can start working on a new project or how much work they take on and manage delivery date expectations:
1. Availability status - Switch accessible from the main menu when logged in.
You can use the switch and set your status to either "Available" or "Busy". Beware that if your status is "Available" you should promptly respond to the Buyer’s message and be able to start work immediately after you agree on terms with the Buyer. Available means you are ready and available to start a new project.
2. Max open orders - Accessible under Settings > Availability when logged in.
Automatically pause live Offers when you reach the maximum in-progress (not delivered) amount set by you. When you deliver one or more, your live Offers get automatically resumed.
3. Working days - Accessible under Settings > Availability when logged in.
Set which days of the week you want to regularly work. This is very useful if you only work on PeoplePerHour part-time or aren't prepared to work on weekends. This setting does the following:
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it automatically adjusts the Offer delivery date when it is purchased. For example, if the Offer's delivery is set to 2 working days, you have indicated that you do not work on Saturday and Sunday and your Offer is purchased on Friday then the delivery date will be the following Tuesday.
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it automatically updates your availability status in real time. For example if on Friday you have set your status to "Available" and you have indicated that you do not work on Saturday and Sunday, then during the weekend your status will be automatically set to "Busy" and on Monday it will be set back to "Available".
4. Off days - Accessible under Settings > Availability when logged in.
Specify the time you take off (e.g. holiday dates). This is similar to working days and does the following:
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it automatically adjusts the Offer delivery date when it is purchased. If including off and non-working days, the Offer delivery date is more than 8 days, PeoplePerHour will automatically pause the Offer and automatically resume it when it gets less than 8 days.
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it automatically updates your availability status in real-time.
5. Some extra information follows:
Availability Status
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This allows Freelancers to set themselves to either "Available" or "Busy"
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The status is automatically updated according to working and off days as specified in settings.
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The status is automatically updated according to the Freelancer's online activity. If the Freelancer has not logged in for the last 24 hours then the status is automatically set to "Busy". When Freelancer is back online and logged in then the status is automatically set to the last status the Freelancer had specifically set.
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In case a Freelancer is "Available", a special indication is shown to Buyers next to the Freelancer's profile photo in various places (Profiles, WorkStream, Freelancers listings etc)
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If logged in as a Freelancer, your status is shown next to your profile photo in the main menu.
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To update your availability click your profile photo in the main menu and change the status of the switch that appears underneath.
Max Open Orders
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This allows Freelancers with active Offers to set the maximum number of simultaneous Offers that they can work on
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If at any time, the specified number of Offers is in progress (sold and being worked on by the Freelancer), the Offer listing will automatically be paused to stop other Buyers from repurchasing this.
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Offers will automatically be unpaused when the number of in-progress Offers reduces (the work gets completed)
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By default, the field is left blank, which means there is no limit.
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To set a limit, go to the Settings section and click Edit next to the Max Open Orders.
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Freelancers will receive a notification on their top-menu bar if an offer is paused in this way and they can simply click resume.
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Once an offer has been paused due to a maximum number of open orders, the Offer page will list the Offer as 'Sold Out'.
Working Days
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Freelancers can set which days of the week (i.e. Monday-Sunday) they will work on PeoplePerHour projects.
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Any non-working days that are included in an Offer delivery timeframe are automatically added to the expected delivery date.
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For example, if an Offer has its delivery time set for 3 days and the Freelancer has set their working days as only Monday - Friday (not Saturday or Sunday) then if the Offer is bought on a Monday the delivery date will be Thursday (3 days later) but if the same Offer is bought on a Wednesday, the Offer delivery date will be the following Monday (3 working days + 2 days for Saturday and Sunday).
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During non-working days the status of the Freelancer is set to "Busy".
Off Days
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In addition to regular Working Days, Freelancers can specify their holiday/vacation times when they are available to work.
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This will automatically block out this chunk of time and adjust Offer delivery dates accordingly.
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During off days, the status of the Freelancer is set to "Busy".
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Click Edit next to Off days and enter date ranges when you are unavailable for PPH work.
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You can enter multiple time periods to cover all upcoming work breaks.
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