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Re: charging for the "commuting" part of telecommuting?
Subject:Re: charging for the "commuting" part of telecommuting? From:Emily Berk <emily -at- armadillosoft -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Apr 2002 15:44:56 -0700
On Mon, 15 Apr 2002 08:17:36 -0300, "Suzanne Townsend" <suzyt -at- hfx -dot- eastlink -dot- ca> wrote:
>Just as a point of interest -- a few years ago a banker told me that Arthur
>Andersen was the ONLY consulting company that charged for time and expenses
>in travelling to their clients. If you are self-employed, this is usually a
>cost of doing business. I agree, build it into your hourly rate -- and/or
>deduct the expenses on your tax return!
A few years ago, I ended up with a very low-volume (but prestigious) customer who would frequently call me into their office for 15-minute meetings at which nothing useful was said, and often kept me waiting for an hour or two before the meetings. I decided to bill slightly more for on-site hours than I do for off-site hours.
So, I don't charge for the commute time, but I do get paid back for some of the time.
And then there was that project that started with the two weeks (of hard work, really!) on the tropical island in the Caribbean. My feet never actually touched sand or salt water except what wafted up to the mat in front of my hotel room, sigh.
During contract negotiations, client insisted on my billing by the hour; I wanted to bill by the work day. Client won.
So, my first invoice billed for the 9 hours of air travel time each way. (The route they had picked featured a four-hour layover in Haiti -- this was just shortly before the US invaded Haiti. It's about 105 in the shade on the unshielded tarmack on a cool day at the airport there in Haiti, where disheveled beggars bombard you with petitions, and you really did have to bribe someone to get your passport back when you re-boarded the plane. Seemed a lot like work to me...)
After a short discussion, we decided it was easier if I billed by the day.
--Emily
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~ Emily Berk ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc. ~
~ Project management, developer relations and ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
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