Billing for consulting...

audamy · January 2012

I have recently picked up a side job doing some consulting within my field and I have been wondering about how people traditionally bill in these roles? It's fairly common for people in my field to do consulting on the side but it's generally frowned upon to ask about billing practices because it can seem like price fixing.

So for those of you who do any sort of consulting on your own, how to you usually bill for your time? I have a contract with a set hourly rate and I am just trying to determine the best way to bill for time spent doing things like answering e-mails. Obviously, it would not take me an hour (or at times even a half hour) to formulate an appropriate response to an e-mail but at the same time it's not as though it makes sense for me to bill for minutes of my time. Is there a "typical" way that you would bill for your time in this scenario?

katarczyna · January 2012

I'm not an independent consultant, I work for a large consulting firm. Here and at my former employers (also consulting firms), we always tracked our billable time to the client in 15-minute increments.

I'd track the minutes for your own evidence and bill the client (rounding up) for 15 minutes.

Golfer'sLady · January 2012

I bill for my time hourly. I keep track on a spreadsheet (but there is free online software you can use) in case I need to provide back up but I've never been asked for it from my clients.

I invoice on the first of the month for all work done in the previous month (Feb. 1 bill will include hours accumulated in January). But if a client would prefer an adjustment, like billing on the 15th of the month, I'd be happy to accommodate. I email a PDF of my invoice each month to my main project contact and they forward it as needed.

*sparky* · January 2012

I bill on the first of the month for the previous month. I track all of the time I spend throughout the month and then generally round to the nearest half hour. Most of my clients just get a summary bill, showing total hours, but I give one client all of the details of my time spent throughout the month. I get paid by the 15th of the month. I generally do not bill for quick questions answered, like a 5-minute email or a quick phone call - I figure I capture that sort of thing in my rounding.

Aaron'sWife · January 2012

I bill either hourly or by the project. I work in music (commercial viability, publishing, ringtones, etc...) so for something finite like a single song, I would have a flat fee with a overage clause built in.

For hourly billing, I usually count 30 minute blocks with some wiggle room given to the last 15 minutes.

My invoices go out monthly for the bigger projects, though they typically never span longer than a quarter and weekly for one time appointments. Since I work almost exclusively with rappers and hip-hop producers, one time consults are usually paid at the time of service.

audamy · January 2012

Thank you all for your input. It's been very helpful to see the similarities and differences in how you each handle billing for your time. Like I said, this is all new to me so your advice is definitely appreciated.

Billing for consulting...

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