For "on-call" service, I would have what most lawyers do for their corporate clients...a retainer.
I would set a monthly rate to have me "on-call" and then, if they did actually call me in for some work, I would charge my normal hourly rate for service and take the first half of the charges out of the retainer fee *for that month*. For instance, if I charge $50 an hour for service and they pay a retainer of $200 per month to keep me "on-call", the first $100 or two hours of work would come from the retainer. After that it's an additional $50 per hour. Of course the retainer is paid monthly and there are no "roll-over" hours. Previous months' retainers do not apply to the current month's charges. Also, I would have different rates for "after-hours" on-call service than I would for 9-5 service. Probably double my 9-5 rate...call me at 10pm and it's $100 per hour. Seems reasonable and fair... Thoughts? Rick -----Original Message----- From: Phillip Vector [mailto:vec...@mostdeadlygame.com] Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:01 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Need help figuring out how to bill for on-call support I provide to an ex-employer... When you are on-call, are you expected to be available during the time for immediate working on the problem or are you on a "On call and will get to it ASAP" kind of thing? If the former, bill it like straight time (since effectively, you are at your computer waiting for the call to come in). If it's the later, then just overlay the on call time and have an invoice with your straight time and then your "extra" time for on-call. On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 7:58 PM, Chris Johnson <u...@askugg.com> wrote: > > In a unique situation here (well, hopefully not)... > > I've been helping a friend get his company automated and we've developed a damned fine management system that handles mostly everything internally. > > I've been working full-time for him on a very reduced salary for the past year due to being in a pinch after being laid off last year and also wanting to finish this project we started several years ago but never had the chance to spend the right amount of time on. > > The system is built, but being on a shared server (there's not enough in the budget to justify dedicated at the moment), there are occasional "kick the box" support services they need me to be on-call for. > > There will also be additions and upgrades. I have a good idea on what to charge for those. > > But the on-call billing is throwing me for a loop. I'm stuck between a fixed amount and some usage-based amount. > > Anyone run into something like this? My friend was bought by a slightly larger company so he's letting me be a little creative to make sure I'm fully compensated. I already have a "base" amount I receive per month for normal tasks like database updates, slight changes that don't qualify as projects, etc. > > The on-call would be on top of that and for the life of me I can't figure out how to bill it. > > Thanks in advance :) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:328589 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
