Client cancelled after you started work. Should freelancers still get paid?

Singaporean influencer Tiffanie, better known as @miratgx on TikTok, recently got people talking after revealing that she was going to court over an unpaid job.

On Aug 1, the influencer posted about going to court to get her money back. She followed up on Aug 4 with another video explaining what had happened and what she learnt about taking a dispute to the Small Claims Tribunals (SCT).

According to Tiffanie, she had been engaged by a small business to shoot and edit a TikTok video. After she submitted the first draft, however, the client was unhappy with the work and decided to cancel the project. The video was ultimately neither used nor posted.

The disagreement came down to payment. Tiffanie felt she should still be compensated for the work and time that had already gone into producing the video, while the client’s position was that since the final product was not delivered or used, payment was not required.

Unable to reach an agreement, Tiffanie decided to pursue the matter through the SCT.

When an unpaid job becomes more than just a bad client experience

While researching the process, Tiffanie realised there wasn’t much readily available information aimed specifically at freelancers and creators dealing with similar situations.

So after going through the process herself, she posted another TikTok explaining what she had learnt, including what the SCT can be used for, the criteria involved and how to make a claim.

Her experience also raises a larger question for freelancers: if a client cancels a project after work has already begun, should you still be paid?

For freelance designer Zandra, the answer is yes.

“‘Time is money’ it does not matter if the work is completed or used. If I worked on it, I should be compensated for the time and effort put into it,” she says.

While she acknowledges that creators also have a responsibility when work doesn’t meet a client’s expectations, she believes freelancers should still be compensated according to how much work has been completed before cancellation.

“If we order a dish and we did not like it entirely and ate it halfway, we still pay full price for it at restaurants, no?” she says. “I’m not asking for full payment. Partial payment, or whatever is equal to the amount of work spent before cancellation, should be paid.”

Despite this, Zandra says she probably wouldn’t take a client to the SCT herself.

“I don’t have the time to do that, especially in this economy. Usually I suck it up and take the loss, but I will warn my fellow creatives about this particular client,” she says.

Protect yourself before the work even starts

Freelance editor Shen, however, says she would consider going to the SCT depending on how much money was involved.

“If it’s like $100 or $200, I won’t. Any higher, I would,” she says. “It’s more about the principle than anything else. You asked me for work, I did it, so you need to pay.”

But she also sees the issue from the client’s perspective and believes freelancers need to protect themselves by setting clear terms from the beginning.

“When I engage with a client, I make sure to stipulate that work done has to be paid. If 50 per cent is done before cancellation, then payment will be 50 per cent of the cost,” she explains.

There’s also the opportunity cost of accepting the job in the first place.

“If I got cancelled and no payment, it’s essentially a loss for me as I could have done another job where I got paid,” Shen says. “I feel like sometimes clients forget that we’re also working to survive and we need the money.”

Tiffanie’s experience is therefore a good reminder to get the important details in writing before starting a freelance job.

Payment schedules, cancellation terms, revision limits and what happens to work already completed might feel overly formal when everything is going well, but they can become very important when it isn’t.