[Hidden-tech] Billable hours question

Stefan Gonick stefan at DatabaseWebWorks.com
Wed Mar 8 16:03:32 EST 2006


Hi Ann,

I work just like you do. Emails are billable. Fixing CSS stuff is billable.
Any time you are working for the client, you are not able to work for another
client, so it should be billable. When I put up a site, I tell the 
client that it
is in beta or test mode so that we can find any issues and correct them.
That's all billable.

Stefan

At 02:28 PM 3/7/2006, you wrote:
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>
>Hi all,
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>I certainly don't want to cheat this client, or any client. If it were you,
>what would you do in this situation?
>
>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.
>
>Thanks very much for any feedback!
>
>-Anne
>
>
>Anne Campbell, annebcampbell at yahoo.com
>http://www.annecampbelldesign.com/
>http://www.annecampbelldoula.com/
>
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