Ask HN: Freelancers, do you usually bill more or less than your work hours?

Post by sirobg » Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 1:25 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #8

sirobg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. So you're billing a week of elapsed time instead of working time, correct? If correct, do you find yourself working more or less than the usual working time in a day for freelancers during this week?

> So you're billing a week of elapsed time instead of working time, correct? Yes, indeed. > do you find yourself working more or less than the usual working time in a day for freelancers during this week? As much as the job will require, usually that's roughly between 35 and 45 hours but there have been some very bad exceptions on the high end which ended up me working the weekend as well to finish the job on time. H…

It all makes sense, thanks!

And the week/day pricing seems like a good idea as well.

I suppose it works best if your clients mostly have "more than a week long projects", though.

Otherwise, they would have to pay your increased daily rate most of the time, which would make you above market.

When I think about this for myself, I think my only chance to close weekly deals with some clients would be to discount my weekly rate instead of increasing my daily rate, which is not ideal.

Post by gwbrooks » Thu, Aug 03, 2023, 5:21 AM UTC

sirobg wrote: post #3

gwbrooks wrote: post #2

Possibly unhelpful but: I only do fixed-fee projects, which eliminates the need for time tracking. That said? About 15-20% of my projects run longer than budgeted.

Interesting. I've had this problem several times as well. Are you getting better at budgeting over time? Or are these 15-20% constant? Also, budgeting and defining project limits takes time. Do you manage to bill more to take this into account?

I'm pretty good at budgeting and estimating because I've been at it a long time. The 15-20% are just things that go sideways -- usually on the client's side and I typically make a snap judgment not to get into a scope/billing dispute because being easy to work with is part of my brand.

And I find I can often avoid detailed budgeting and scope, controlling the latter via project management once the engagement starts. (I have a pretty sophisticated spreadsheet if I need to get deep in the weeds on estimating, but it's a relic of when I did time-and-materials work.)

Example: If past experience says a project is going to take about X thousand dollars per month worth of effort spread across Y number of months before we're likely to see results, then my whole budgeting and project definition processes come down to understanding the business metrics success will be judged on and building scope around that. We can manage task backlog and progress reporting with weekly check-ins.

Re: Ask HN: Freelancers, do you usually bill more or less than your work hours?

Re: Ask HN: Freelancers, do you usually bill more or less than your work hours?