Subcontractors and billing

[Renee McPhail <renee -at- balanceconsult -dot- com>]

A dozen years ago, I worked as a subcontractor for a tech writer who had contracts in the auto industry - user manuals, mostly. If she billed $50/hour, she paid me a percentage of her hourly fee based on the level of difficulty of my task. So, simple grunt work might be 25% and junior tech writing would be 50%. So two hours of my time at the 50% rate would be billed to the client as one hour. Any time she spent reviewing or incorporating my work was billed at her full rate.

It worked out to the benefit of all parties involved, I think. I gained experience, she got the needed relief from repetitive tasks, and the client got the deliverables a little sooner.


Renee McPhail
Publications Designer


From: "Jeff Jansen" <jeff2 -dot- 0 -at- modestsystems -dot- com>
Subject: Subcontractors and billing
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <61A35855C94E4EE4918C85643A68CF2E -at- DellE520>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"

Hello,
 
I am a freelance self-employed tech writer. I'm considering hiring a
subcontractor (more junior than I) to work on a project, but I've never
hired a subcontractor before. I'm wondering how those of you who have done
this handle the hourly billing arrangement with both the sub and the client.
Let's say I bill the client for my time at $75/hr. If I pay my sub $50/hr,
would you bill that time to the client at $50, and then directly bill your
time reviewing the work and managing the sub at $75? Or would you bill all
the sub's time at $75, and then let your review and management time come out
of the $25/hr difference, without billing your actual hours doing that
particular work? Does anyone use any other scenario that works for them?
 
TIA,
Jeff Jansen  :  Portland, Oregon  :  USA



--

This email message and any document accompanying it may contain information intended only for the person(s) named.  Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by another person is strictly prohibited. 
NOTICE TO PERSONS SUBJECT TO UNITED STATES TAXATION:
DISCLOSURE UNDER TREASURY CIRCULAR 230:
Any tax advice included in this written or electronic communication was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used by the taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding any penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer by any governmental taxing authority or agency.  This written or electronic communication does not represent legal advice. Persons in need of a legal opinion should seek competent counsel.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat