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Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:28 pm
by Jonah Bron
Hello, world! Long time no read.
Just got settled, back out of school for now. Hoping to re-integrate myself into the forum.
I have a question. Do you typically charge for time spent uploading stuff? Like say, you have to upload several hundred megabytes of site data via FTP (ugh), and it takes 30 minutes. You're not actively working on the project, but it's on your mind, and the client's project is a part of your life at that moment. What do you do? Charge like normal? A reduced rate? Thoughts?
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:44 pm
by headbull
Would charge, lot of things can happen while you upload.
The amount/rate I would have charged would offcourse had to been justified by the total size of the project and work hours/amounts.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:49 pm
by califdon
Are you saying that the uploading is a necessary part of the project? Of course you would charge, assuming that you are billing on an hourly basis. If you are billing on a fixed price basis, you would not charge.
Glad to see you back, Jonah, and glad you survived the year!

Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:54 pm
by Jonah Bron
califdon wrote:Are you saying that the uploading is a necessary part of the project? Of course you would charge, assuming that you are billing on an hourly basis. If you are billing on a fixed price basis, you would not charge.
Well, at that moment, I'm not really doing anything, I could just sit there and stare at it, do something else, etc.
califdon wrote:Glad to see you back, Jonah, and glad you survived the year!

Me too

Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:52 pm
by califdon
Jonah Bron wrote:Well, at that moment, I'm not really doing anything, I could just sit there and stare at it, do something else, etc.
I'm not real sure I know what you're asking, then, but in general, you can charge to a project only the time you spend doing something that is necessary to do in order to achieve the project objectives. Normally that does not include learning time that the client can reasonably expect you to know, etc. (unless the project itself is a research project). So, if a project requires you to transfer files, that time would be legitimately charged to the project, but if you are just sitting there trying to figure out what to do next, it should not be. There are gray areas, to be sure, but that's where professional ethics comes in. At least, that's my take on it.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:14 pm
by Benjamin
It costs you money NOT to bill for that time because if you do not bill for that time you are losing money you would have made working on anything else.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:01 pm
by Christopher
Agreed. Put another way: If your not billing for it, why are you doing it?

Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:16 pm
by califdon
Christopher wrote:Agreed. Put another way: If your not billing for it, why are you doing it?

Just for the sheer joy of it, right?

Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:12 pm
by Jonah Bron
Excellent point.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:32 pm
by VladSun
Depends on what you are really uploading - sites updates or the whole site. To clarify - "rsync" vs. "scp".
Or "git pull" vs. "ftp put -R" (i.e. recursive FTP put)
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:22 am
by Jonah Bron
Whole site is what I was talking about.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:32 am
by matthijs
Don't charge for your time. Charge for the value you provide for the client.
Uploading a few pictures of a charity event for a small non-profit client is of modest value to them. So it's only worth to them a modest pay. On the other side, uploading a critical file for the CEO of a big fortune 500 company is of great value to them. You could and should charge lots of money for that.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:34 am
by greyhoundcode
matthijs wrote:Don't charge for your time. Charge for the value you provide for the client.
Nicely summed up; I think this can often happen organically anyway, even when an hourly rate is being mooted, as part of the overall negotiation.
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 11:54 am
by califdon
matthijs wrote:Don't charge for your time. Charge for the value you provide for the client.
+1
If we had a rating system, I'd give matthijs 5 stars!
Re: Charge for Upload Time
Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:12 pm
by Benjamin
I don't think that's ethical. I don't charge my wealthy or high value clients more just *because ___*.
What I will do however on important sites is spend more time, such as a situation where a rollback may be required. For example, when updating 3rd party software I'll create a snapshot of the site including the database before uploading anything.