Do you have a minimum period you charge clients for?

[Bogeyface]

I have a client that often calls with small jobs that only take a few minutes but I charge for 15 minutes as a minimum. He can call several times a day with jobs like this, which is fine but then I find myself billing for an hour when the jobs themselves actually took less than half that time.

Am I doing the right thing? I feel that I am and he has never questioned it (probably because he has no idea how long these tasks take!) but someone else has said that I should only charge for the minutes I work.

But I feel that if I did that then it would be worth me doing any work at all for him.

I should add that he knew about the 15 minutes thing when I agreed to work with him.

If hs calling a few few times a da could you not just add up the time and then charge the appropriate amount rather than 15 minutes for each task?

If he's not mentioned it being an issue and was fully aware of it then it's not really a problem. Although it would make me feel a little awkward charging for so much time if it only took half the time.

Sometimes he can call 5 times a day, other times just once and I dont want to be billing for 8 minutes (or whatever!) Tbh, he is being a bit of a PITA at the moment, he asked if he could borrow my laptop so his son could take to his GF online, when I said I only had my PC (so, no you cant) he asked if the son could come here to use it!

Errr...no! Got a big job coming up so I am thinking of getting rid when that starts.

If he's a valuable / valued client a gentle reminder of the services you are contracted to supply might not go amiss. For example if you're providing admin services you could offer to source a computer leasing company for the loan of a laptop - and charge him of course. If he's not valuable / valued up your rates (min charge for 30mins ) or give notice.

Sometimes clients are just more hassle then they are worth.

He did ring to apologise the next day, I dont think he really thought through what he was doing when he rang me!

If he oversteps again then I will be giving notice.

I think charging for a minimum block of time is perfectly fine. I will rarely (except for one client I do the odd favour for) charge less than half a day - because my work tends to take more time and comprise bigger projects.

I also use a virtual PA who charge in 15 minute blocks. To break it down further than that and charge for 8 minutes etc is utter madness - think about how long it would take you to sort out all the admin and billing if you charged every single client to the exact minute. I think you are perfectly reasonable in saying you charge to the nearest 15 minutes, or whatever.

He could always plan to make better use of your time by gathering requests together...

Absolutely. My minimum charge is an hour and that's only for one specific client who gives me loads of work - I'll charge them an hour to write up a job ad for them on the basis that I know they don't have any in-house staff. I very rarely charge less than half a day for my other clients, although I do keep timesheets and charge my total hours rather than rounding up for bigger jobs.

I think for this kind of short task, 15 minutes is a bit of a bargain. Remember you have to invoice, deal with payment, then deal with tax etc on this 8 minute job... that's all time.

But it's not 15 minutes is it? it's your experience he is paying for as well as all the admin you need to do to support your business and the fixed costs of running a business. You ought to factor those in to any fees because it's not just the actual on the job fee they are paying for.

I do minimum half day blocks. But normally I'm booked by the day or multiple days.

yes I do a minimum order = any less than that and they have to pay for it anyway.

Depends on how/when he needs the tasks done by.

If he rings at eg 9am and needs the work done by 10, then rings at 11.30 and needs it done by lunchtime, then rings at 2pm and needs it done by 4, etc then of course you can do nothing other than charge your minimum period charge for all those jobs. Even if it does mean you end up 'overcharging'

If he rang at 9, 11.30 and 2 and needed it all by close of play, then you could (if you wished, depending on how you organise oyur work day) tot it all up and charge for total worked or one minimum period charge (if applicable).

But intrinsically, there is nothing wrong with charging a minimum period. You have been upfront about it. Part of what this client is paying for is the immediacy of the work, it sounds like.

Yes it usually is a case of the jobs need doing straight away, so I suppose he is also paying for my availability iykwim