To ask a really basic question about invoicing?

[Fannydango]

I'm subcontracting for a company and use their timesheet system to log my hours. It times my work to the minute. So I asked them if they want me to invoice them to the minute or round it up. They requested I round to the nearest 15 minutes. Fine.

But say I work 8hrs 9 mins, for example, on my invoice should I put "8hrs 9 mins" but round the fee to the nearest 15 minutes or should I put "8 hrs 15 minutes" and obviously again round the fee up too?

Sorry, it's a bit of a simpleton question...

I work in finance and I think in your situation you should always round up to the 15 minutes in description and in cost.

Even if you work 8 hours 1 mins - round to 8 hours 15 mins as you obviously wouldn't work for free, and they have asked for it to be rounded to the 15 minutes.

I highly doubt anyone will ask for clarification on several minutes here & there.

I would probably record whatever hours you actually worked in the body of the invoice. Include a footnote somewhere that hours are rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes so put the charge for 8hrs 15 mins. (Although I would find it hard for, say, 2 minutes to round it up to 15, irrespective of what the employer said. I'd feel I was taking the Mickey).

Do you work in a company where your employer charges your time out to clients rounded up to 15 mins?

@bringthethunder
It depends on the industry. In many the employer wants to be able to determine the actual cost of labour hours so they can calculate the cost of jobs and therefore profit correctly. (Labour hours variances - Management Accountancy).

Thanks for all the comments.

They're happy for me to round up or down as appropriate, which I think is fair. The footnote idea is a good one - thanks.

What do you do that's timed to the minute? Just curious.

I'd write on it:
"8hrs 9 minutes, rounded to 8hrs 15 minutes" and attach the timesheet print-out or link to it.
If you're new to invoicing, just in case you haven't already, make sure you include from the first invoice about payment being due a maximum of 30 days from issue and late payments being subject to statutory interest charges. Most companies will want the invoice dated as the last date of the month it's for.

Thanks MRex. I've been invoicing for years. But I've only ever charged a day rate before, not hourly. This company only needs me for sporadic hours here or there.

And what I do doesn't need to be timed to the minute - it's just the timesheet system has an online stop clock so when you start working you hit start and then stop it when you've finished. Which means it logs your time exactly. It's really useful for industries where you have lots of different clients (don't want to say exactly what I do in case it's outing!)

Ok that's fair, and explains why they don't care about rounding up or down. I was imagining all sorts of odd scenarios to charge by the minute.

Is the general rule for rounding that 50% or more you round up, less than 50% you round down? So anything 7.5 minutes or over would be rounded up & under 7.5 minutes rounded down.

Yes, that’s right Eileen.

Round up in the description and in the price