Do you always charge for full day?

[abtx]

One of my gigs has a timesheet system that doesn't get the concept of anything less than a full day. I asked the admin how I input a half day worked and was ignored so, should the situation arise, I will just work it out with the person who signs off the timesheet.

For another gig, it's more of a gentleman's agreement. That's because I know them well and we trust each other. The work is remote so they don't truly know how much time I'm spending but I will save up the odd hour here and there and just charge a full (or half) day when it reaches what I think is worthy of either. I usually charge half day for up to 4 hours and full day for anything more.

That's what I was thinking. I think it's sensible to charge at least 1/2 day, but if the common practice was to charge a day I'd have no trouble doing that instead. Will have a chat with the client ask what they think is best way to go from their point of view too, find a compromise.

Thanks for the reply

[northernladyuk]

True story, I worked with one guy who put 27 hours for one day on his time sheet. It got rejected. He put it back in with an explanation that the day involved a change from day to night shift for which he was entitled to 8 hours pay. It was paid in full, 27 hours pay for one day.

Nice. Even at minimum wage, that will help PC pay back the hardship loan for the new fridge.

[northernladuk]

OP. What does your contract say and what discussions have you had with your client about this. Startups are notorious for wanting their pound of flesh and not paying for it so I'd make sure it's absolutely all above or you'll not see a penny.

[FrontEnder]

So you only bill 2 days a week?

I bill 2 days for Friday

[Fred Bloggs]

True story, I worked with one guy who put 27 hours for one day on his time sheet. It got rejected. He put it back in with an explanation that the day involved a change from day to night shift for which he was entitled to 8 hours pay. It was paid in full, 27 hours pay for one day.

[northernladuk]

I've currently got 2 clients, so once a week I charge them both for a full day.

So you only bill 2 days a week?

[FrontEnder]

I've currently got 2 clients, so once a week I charge them both for a full day.

[ChimpMaster]

I barely do one hour, then I put my clothes on before the first conf call, that's more professional.

WTFH = Working Totally-starkers From Home.

[WTFH]

Do you always charge for full day?

I barely do 1 - 2 hours work each day for my client.

I barely do one hour, then I put my clothes on before the first conf call, that's more professional.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

If I'm charging a daily rate then I invoice for the full day. If I wanted to only get paid for a few hours a day I'd charge an hourly rate (I don't).

If I paid a brickie a day rate to come and build a wall and he finished after a couple of hours on the last day he'd still want paying for the whole day as we agreed a day rate!

The only exception is where I'm unavailable for part of a day for my own reasons - illness, other appointments etc. in which case I'm happy to pro-rata my rate.

This is all a lot less of a hassle when you're billing on a weekly rate and focus more on delivering value each week instead of set hours. This isn't a license to doss around but it does take the emphasis off of working full 8 hour days (who actually manages a full productive 8 hour day of coding anyway?).

[ChimpMaster]

I barely do 1 - 2 hours work each day for my client. But I always charge a full day

[ladymuck]

One of my gigs has a timesheet system that doesn't get the concept of anything less than a full day. I asked the admin how I input a half day worked and was ignored so, should the situation arise, I will just work it out with the person who signs off the timesheet.

For another gig, it's more of a gentleman's agreement. That's because I know them well and we trust each other. The work is remote so they don't truly know how much time I'm spending but I will save up the odd hour here and there and just charge a full (or half) day when it reaches what I think is worthy of either. I usually charge half day for up to 4 hours and full day for anything more.

[woohoo]

It depends. If it's a morning work then I will charge for a half-day - usually will agree this with the client.

But where I've been waiting around and not able to do anything else, which happened a couple of weeks ago (they only needed me when a 3rd party was ready). I charged my full day rate. In the end I did about 16 hours work over the course of 7 days. I charged my full rate for the 7 days.

[northernladyuk]

Hi, I started contracting recently with two different start-ups, work for each about 1-2 days per week. One of them will book me in for couple of days, but sometimes - like this week - they won't have work ready, so I spent maybe 1-2 hours each of the two days. Do you usually charge per hour in that situation, half a day, or full day price?

To me it's only fair that if I'm booked in a commitment has been made, and I'm hanging for good part of the day meaning I cannot work on my personal project. I wonder what do you do in cases like this?

You really need to agree this up front with them, and work out to what extent you want to do this by gentlemen's agreement or instead contractually.. I've had an agreement before where I do 1 days per week for a client but spread over the week.

It doesn't make sense for you to have 1 say out and then bill for 0.2 of a day, so make a proposal to them as to how you will bill for work done to date and then agree how to do this going forward.

[abtx]

Hi, I started contracting recently with two different start-ups, work for each about 1-2 days per week. One of them will book me in for couple of days, but sometimes - like this week - they won't have work ready, so I spent maybe 1-2 hours each of the two days. Do you usually charge per hour in that situation, half a day, or full day price?

To me it's only fair that if I'm booked in a commitment has been made, and I'm hanging for good part of the day meaning I cannot work on my personal project. I wonder what do you do in cases like this?