how disciplined are you when you have a big project spread over more days than you're being paid for?

[hatwoman]

I'm finding this a tough one. I've just finished a big project and have just been offered a new one. In both cases I will get a lump sum for delivering a report. on paper the lump sum is said to be for x days at £x. Now I know this is just a guide and ultimately the money is for the end product. but in the recent case and, I suspect, the new one, the project has been awfully elastic because

• the time line has been spread over a much greater time than you would need to complete x days' work

• I want to do a good job and, to an extent, the quality can be enhanced by spending more time on it

• the client just forgets that you're not a f-t employee and adds stuff (eg meetings) whilst not taking into account that time spent in meetings is less time on the report.

• it's hard (though not impossible) to find smaller pieces of work that can fit round a bigger project like this.

any tips on how to handle this?

You should probably put a clause in your contract that provides for you to be paid for extra stuff eg meetings.

not a bad idea, but certainly in the new project meetings will be an integral part of the work. and there's no extra money (it's in the non-profit sector so budget's are tight. very tight). but I could think of way of making it more obvious that meetings take up time.

If you had the clause, you wouldn't have to enforce it all the time, necessarily. But it would give security to negotiate better terms for yourself after the project has got started.

at my rogue apostrophe

sneaky bump

I've had this problem, and here's how I now handle it:

At start of the project I break the budget down into an estimate: e.g.

Set up/ briefing meetings - 1.5 days
Initial analysis & research - 2 days
Project management & Admin - 1.5 days
Draft report - 3 days
Amendments and final presentaion 2 days

I then keep a spreadsheet for the client/project which keeps a tally of cumulative hours/ days.

On the 30th each month I invoice for full days completed (sometimes round it up to the next full day e.g if it's 2 days 5 hours to date)

If things begin to slip because of extra meetings/ revisions etc I matter of factly inform the client by way of a short project update/ consultancy days summary.
Sometimes I ask them how they'd liek to use the remaining time (and suggest if it doesn't seem to make sense for me to attend a meeting etc).

If things get added into the project I say "yes, I'd be delighted to do that - I'll send you a revised project estimate tomorrow@

As you say, most clients forget that you're not an employee, and the extra days here or there is your 'margin', so protect it!

thanks legacy - when I started out s-e I was determined to be strict with my time and I did do spreadsheets - more for myself than the client - but you;ve reminded me and I'll start to do them again.

another reason the last 2 projects have stretched is that I've been working in partnership with someone who just seems really really willing to go way over. and with a third person who isn't doing the work but deals with the client (almost like a broker). I can see that there's a continuum - from "complete muggins willing to do twice as many days as paid for without a whimper" to "totally inflexible ogre totting up every minute" and one of the problems is that my partner and I are in different places on that spectrum. and in the interests of working relations - and because we split the fee 50/50 I've just gone along with it. next project I'm on my own so I'll feel a bit more in control.

The problem is that once you start to do additional time free for a client they begin to accept it as a matter of course.

I do I.T. support for a school, spending 1/2 a day each week there. I spend at least an hour of that time searching out resources that they have lost, finding people, etc etc. simply because they don't plan for my time properly, and I believe I never get to finish a job properly because of it.

I've just told them that from next term they will need to pay for 1 day per week, and suddenly they are beginning to plan, get their act together.

Sometimes you have to tough about billable time as a way of managing the client, so they manage the project properly.