Should web designers and developers bill time spent in meetings?

John Reeve | January 15th, 2009 | , , ,

Absolutely, and i’ll tell you why:

  1. Meetings are a usage of your time. If you are not billing them for that meeting, than you aren’t billing anyone for that time. Too many meetings and you start losing money.
  2. Meetings will almost always require some transfer of knowledge from you to the client. We’ve never been in a meeting where we weren’t helping the client figure out the solution to their web site. They’ve hired us for our expertise, so we need to bill for it, regardless of the medium in which we are working with them.
  3. It sets a precendent. If you don’t bill for meetings, clients may start to question your billing of other time spent on their project. When you bill for a meeting it reaffirms that all of your time is billable. And, it will encourage the client to keep meetings to a minimum. They will be far less inclined to waste your time if they are paying for it.

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John Reeve
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John Reeve

John is a co-founder, web designer and developer at Pelago. His blog posts are inspired by everyday encounters with designers, developers, creatives and small businesses in general. John is an avid reader and road cyclist.
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Jennifer Payne
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Jennifer Payne

Jennifer is the Director of Quality and Efficiency at Pelago. Her blog posts are based largely on her experience working with teams to improve harmony and productivity. Jennifer is a cat person.
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Michael Payne
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Michael Payne

Michael is a co-founder and product architect at Pelago. His contributions stem from experiences managing the development process behind web sites and web-based applications such as Intervals. Michael drives a 1990 Volkswagen Carat with a rebuilt 2.4 liter engine from GoWesty.
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