Work diary

When you log time with the Upwork Desktop App, it "takes a screenshot six times per hour". Upwork places the screenshots and your hourly activity into billing segments in the diary and records the total number of mouse clicks, scroll actions and keystrokes per segment. It does not record what you clicked on or typed. Upwork deletes the screenshots after one year.

On the web the diary is under Deliver work, then Hourly work diary; in the desktop app it is View work diary. There the freelancer adds memos and activity tags and can delete time segments, for example time logged against the wrong contract. Manual time, where the client allows it, appears in the same diary.

The diary is the evidence for Hourly Protection, which is why its requirements matter: screenshots that show work for this contract, memos that describe it, fair activity levels and hours within the weekly limit. Meeting them is necessary but not sufficient. Upwork adds that the time must also meet the other protection requirements, including a verified identity, a client with a verified billing method and an account in good standing.

The diary is also what a client reads before filing a dispute over hours, so empty memos and idle segments are the usual weak points. For an agency, members' diaries are the record of delivered hours that clients actually see, and they are worth reviewing before the weekly invoice goes out rather than after a client objects.