RE: Contracting/Freelancing question: what is billable?

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

Hi Tracey,

>From the point of view of the client - I don't believe that charging
travel time is reasonable (having been a client). 

However, as the contractor, I realize now that it is reasonable.
However, I would negotiate on this - I do not think driving should be
charged your full value per hour. 

In addition, the US Govt. has a set price that you can deduct mileage
(if you are driving).. Which could be considered compensation.

Everything else, I think is reasonable. I had a project that required
unique learning and the client knew up front that they were paying for
my learning. What is important is that there is no hiding behind the
numbers... But it sounds to me like you are already quite transparent.
As a client that is what I appreciate.

Biggest burn for me? Was when I was working elsewhere and we implemented
a certain type of tool at the contractor's recommendation - but the
contractor had never tested the tool and never checked our real needs...
(though they implied that they had.) Then when we got burned, we were
told it was not their problem. 

The contractor got paid, and sadly, lots of picking up after them... So
I would recommend that if you are urging them to use a new tool, find a
way to validate that the tool will really work as promised. 

Hope this is helpful.

Deborah

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+dhemstreet=kaydon -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+dhemstreet=kaydon -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Tracey Bean
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 2:29 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Contracting/Freelancing question: what is billable?

Hi all -- I'm sure this has come up before, but I've not been able to  
find anything recent in the archives.

I'm doing some freelance work at the moment. I'm puzzled as to which  
activities are billable and which are not. The client has not  
specified anything -- they're a small company. Most of the people on  
the project are contracting, on site, through agencies. I'm a 1099  
employee, working off site.

When I've contracted as a W-2 employee at a client site through an  
agency, I did whatever the client had me do -- learn applications,  
edit, write, attend meetings, wash the manager's car... okay, not that  
one.  Anything I did for them was billable.

The first thing the client wanted me to do was to help them select a  
help authoring tool. We agreed what I would do, I did it, I billed  
them, they paid me. So far, so good. Their on-site agency contractor  
has since left the project. I was asked to take over the writing  
duties, create the help, the printed doc, the whole shebang.

I am confident that these activities are billable:
-- learning their application (in order to document it, not to get a  
job using it, obviously)
-- creating the various requested deliverables: researching, writing,  
soliciting/incorporating feedback... all the "normal" production  
activities
-- participating in teleconferences
-- attending on-site meetings

What I'm unsure about:

1. Time spent learning Flare
2. Time spent learning CSS well enough to work with Flare

The client knows that I did not know how to use Flare. Even though I  
recommended it to them, I am not an expert in its use. (I could write  
a short store, at the very least, on the inherent illogic in this  
situation, truly, I could. However, it is what it is.)

So is the time I spend learning to use the tool billable, given that  
they knew going in that I would have to learn it?


3. Time spent traveling to on-site meetings (over an hour each way;  
hasn't happened yet, but we've talked about the possibility)

Is there a standard approach to travel time?

Thanks,
Tracey



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