[Hidden-tech] Billable hours question

[Rich]

Responses below

Anne Campbell wrote:
> One of my clients has recently raised a question about what activities are
> billable. I'm a Web designer, and I pride myself on my honesty in billing (I
> don't dawdle or pad my hours). I'd love to have some feedback about what's fair
> to charge for.
>
> When I'm working on an hourly basis rather than a flat per-project rate, I bill
> for time spent: discussing plans for the design (whether on the phone, in
> person, or by e-mail); creating and revising the comp; creating the graphics;
> coding the HTML and CSS; debugging so the site looks good in all browsers;
> uploading files; and all the project-related correspondence that happens along
> the way. 
>
> I *don't* bill for time spent generating invoices or contracts, or
> correspondence about same. If a client and I are friendly and spend ten minutes
> chatting about what we did over the weekend, of course I don't bill for that.
> If I make an obvious, careless mistake that's my fault, I usually don't bill
> for the time it takes to fix it.
>   
All the above is fine - although if you have to do especially complex 
billing because of client request, I do change,
this is specifically true of time spend for some government projects.  
As for mistakes, time is time, it would take
a really dumb mistake for me not to billing a client. You are being paid 
for the time, and the rate is set based on
your level of experience, and since all humans make mistakes 
occasionally -- that is part of the project and hence
billable.

> This particular client was concerned because on a recent project, there were a
> lot of CSS-related incompatibilities between browsers, which took time to
> unravel. She thought the "time spent correcting things that really ought to
> have been part of the original work, designing for a variety of browsers and
> screens" was unreasonable. She also believes that if I "answer the odd e-mail,"
> that should not be a billable activity. 
>   
Both are very billable in my book -- they are part of the complex world 
of the Internet.
> I certainly don't want to cheat this client, or any client. If it were you,
> what would you do in this situation?
>   
It sounds to me like this client has no qualms about getting some of 
your time for free.
> BTW, my work is pro-rated by the quarter-hour. This client is a small
> for-profit company but is paying the hourly rate I normally charge nonprofit
> organizations. 
>   
Even more of a verification that this client is looking to getting 
paying less than they should.

-- 
Rich Roth
CEO On-the-net

Bringing you complex online systems since the net was young
http://www.tnrglobal.com - http://www.on-the-net.com/rr/