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Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:48 pm
by Tossica
Anyone else here work in IT on a "billable" hours scale? If so, how many hours do you bill per week on average and if there is a bonus type system in place, how many hours much you hit to get your bonus?

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:59 pm
by Jay
So...who answers the questions in "Ask Tossica" when Tossica is asking?

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:28 pm
by 10sun
It isn't: Ask Tossica?
It is: Ask Tossica!

More of a command where Tossica is required to ask questions.

I bill ~25 hours a week, bonus is anything over 40 hours a week. I work in a slightly different field though doing data analysis /reports rather than hardware / software installation/support.

-Adam

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:31 pm
by Tossica
10sun wrote:It isn't: Ask Tossica?
It is: Ask Tossica!

More of a command where Tossica is required to ask questions.

I bill ~25 hours a week, bonus is anything over 40 hours a week. I work in a slightly different field though doing data analysis /reports rather than hardware / software installation/support.

-Adam


You don't get a bonus unless you bill over 40hrs a week?

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:52 pm
by Tikker
where I am, we don't get "bonus" per se, but rather overtime

If I get called anytime after normal office hours (8-4:45) I get paid minimum 2 hours of OT (double time, ie I get a 5 minute phone call, I earn 4hours regular pay)

if I work anything over 35 hours in a week, all those hours are billed a double time

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:09 pm
by Tossica
But all your time is billable right? I work about 40 hours a week but I only bill for an average of 25 of those. The rest is spent in driving, learning, doing sales engineer stuff for potential clients, "warranty" work (ie cleaning up install messes, etc), sitting around waiting for stuff to do.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:16 pm
by 10sun
You should always bill either for your time driving to the client or back to the office from the client's location.

As Tikker stated, my "bonus" is overtime.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:22 pm
by Tossica
I bill 30 min max driving time one way. Most of our clients are within 30 min. We never bill for the trip back. It's pretty standard.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:21 pm
by Tikker
seems odd to me

any of my time that's taken up on work is billed for

single time during regular hours, double time after that

doesn't matter if it's windshield time or not

if it's a company vehicle that is

if it's my own vehicle, I charge time plus mileage

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:10 am
by Lyion
Tossica wrote:Anyone else here work in IT on a "billable" hours scale? If so, how many hours do you bill per week on average and if there is a bonus type system in place, how many hours much you hit to get your bonus?


I do. If you have specific questions, PM me.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:48 pm
by Gaazy
Yeah, Im not in IT, but I dont see how you dont bill for the time you are drivin. Any minute myself or any of my service guys are out of the shop going to a jobsite, its billed for with the labor hours. And we just pay overtime for any hours worked over 40 for the week (or over 8 hours a day)

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:05 pm
by Tossica
Gaazy wrote:Yeah, Im not in IT, but I dont see how you dont bill for the time you are drivin. Any minute myself or any of my service guys are out of the shop going to a jobsite, its billed for with the labor hours. And we just pay overtime for any hours worked over 40 for the week (or over 8 hours a day)



Because there are several other companies just like us that would be willing to take the hit on the drive time to get the contracts. It's standard. 30 minute max bill one way for each client each day. It rarely takes me more than 30 min to get somewhere and if it's a short call, I bill for my time driving to my next client as well. No biggie.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:11 pm
by Tikker
obviously the local market will dictate that


what actually prompted the initial question? just idle curiosity, or was there something else behind it?

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:17 pm
by Tossica
They are setting a bonus system where I work based on billable hours and I am wondering how many hours the average engineer like myself bills on a weekly basis in other markets.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:03 pm
by Gaazy
Yeah I guess you're right, its all based on what the rest of the market does. Its just standard here and thats how everyone does it.

also out of curiosity, what do you charge in labor per hour? My charge is $80/hour most of the time, and thats what we charge as shop labor too when we do a rebuild

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:33 pm
by Tikker
$89/hour here

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:49 pm
by Tossica
$145 hourly for standard network stuff, $160 for Cisco.

Re: Billable hours?

PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:36 am
by Evermore
when I was contacting I billed for everything. Anything over 40 hrs is billed at an overtime rate, travel is billed at a travel rate etc.

we varied between 140 and 165 an hr depending on what you contracted for.