Do you bill the initial onboarding period?

[jayn200]

Not sure. It's quite common to come into the office for a new contract and for it to take a week for them to get you set up with access/hardware/software but you're in the office so of course you invoice for it.

You should technically invoice for this too but I'm not sure if I would... you need to make a judgement call about whether this is an onboarding process (which you should bill for) or if it's a delayed start (which you wouldn't bill for)

[Lance]

talk to the company you're contracted to.
If their client is slow they may well be happy for billing to commence. EThis only works if they can bill the client whilst waiting though.

If you just bill them when they know you've done no work, it could set alarm bells ringing about your ethics.

Pick up the phone and ring your handler.
Be polite but forthright.
I can't advise you what to say as I don't know the full ins and outs. You're going to have to make a judgement call.

[bbp]

Keep hunting for another contract - given the lack of priority in getting you started the work you are doing isn't important so could easily be binned.

I'm not really sure about that as they needed me to join immediately. The 'interview' to signed contract took only 3 days, compared to others that have been going on for 2 months now!!

1. What are your thoughts on billing for this period? Should I bill and let them challenge it if they want?
2. Also, its 4-week notice as per the contract. Can I leave right away given that the work hasn't started?

[DaveB]

Hi,

I recently signed a contract with a company that works for another client. Although my contract has officially 'started', the company is being incredibly slow in onboarding me. They didn't even mention that there is an onboarding process going on. So, this is my best guess as to why they haven't given me any work yet. Communication is very poor, with my reporting person only interested in responding to what I ask on the text messages- if they feel like it. A call is always cut short.

No email account created yet, got the laptop after a week, no documentation is being sent over to get me up to date, nothing. All my previous works started on day one. So, this is new to me.

Is this fairly common? Do they expect me not to bill for this period? I rejected another opportunity for this and now I might lose billing if that is the case. Can someone please shed some light on this and give me some sanity.

Thanks,
B

Submit time sheets or invoices and keep looking for something else. You've turned down billable work in order to be available for them, if they haven't got themselves organised that's their issue, you are still on the clock.

[eek]

Hi,

I recently signed a contract with a company that works for another client. Although my contract has officially 'started', the company is being incredibly slow in onboarding me. They didn't even mention that there is an onboarding process going on. So, this is my best guess as to why they haven't given me any work yet. Communication is very poor, with my reporting person only interested in responding to what I ask on the text messages- if they feel like it. A call is always cut short.

No email account created yet, got the laptop after a week, no documentation is being sent over to get me up to date, nothing. All my previous works started on day one. So, this is new to me.

Is this fairly common? Do they expect me not to bill for this period? I rejected another opportunity for this and now I might lose billing if that is the case. Can someone please shed some light on this and give me some sanity.

Thanks,
B

Keep hunting for another contract - given the lack of priority in getting you started the work you are doing isn't important so could easily be binned.

[bbp]

Hi,

I recently signed a contract with a company that works for another client. Although my contract has officially 'started', the company is being incredibly slow in onboarding me. They didn't even mention that there is an onboarding process going on. So, this is my best guess as to why they haven't given me any work yet. Communication is very poor, with my reporting person only interested in responding to what I ask on the text messages- if they feel like it. A call is always cut short.

No email account created yet, got the laptop after a week, no documentation is being sent over to get me up to date, nothing. All my previous works started on day one. So, this is new to me.

Is this fairly common? Do they expect me not to bill for this period? I rejected another opportunity for this and now I might lose billing if that is the case. Can someone please shed some light on this and give me some sanity.

Thanks,
B