Double billing 1

[swearingen]

Sitting here on a 12 person international conference call that the client requires me to be on, while marking up drawings on another job got me thinking. Can I bill both clients for the same hour? I actively participate in the call, but when the conversation wanders or some of the meeting occurs in another lanquage, I continue my markups.

What do you guys think?

Of course that also brings up the question of when I'm on a plane. The client that required me to be on the plane is paying for my time there to get to his facility, but I can also work on other client's material while confined to that little seat.

I'm curious to see what you guys have to say...


-5^2 = -25 ;-)

http://www.eng-tips.com/supportus.cfm

 

[urgross]

If questioned on it, claim schizophrenia.

 

[McLJ]

Double billing is not appropriate and could land you in legal hot water.

There was a story some years ago (when once upon a time I was married to a lawyer) where an attorney was sued by a client for doing just that. The client won an then the attorney was sanctioned by the state board.

I would say that if you do work for a client while traveling for a different job, the client you are traveling for should receive equal time at some other point in schedule.

I frequently do this while on the Ferry to a job on the Islands (I charge a flat fee for these all day trips). An island job is typically a 1-1/2 to 2 hour ferry ride. On the way to the site I often don't have a clear picture of the problem that triggered the trip, so I will work on something else, but I make sure that I provide equal time to the client who paid for the trip that evening or the following day.




LJ McGrew
Evergreen Engineering & Design, LLC
Everson, WA

http://www.evergreeneng.com

 

[woodman88]

I know it may not be legal but I disagree with a situation that results in somebody being forced to do nothing merely because they are on a plane, boat, ferry, spaceship, etc being paid to go somewhere. But then I am an engineer not a lawyer.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[moltenmetal]

What, no jokes about "serial billers" (the slackers who bill a few hours to every project number they know in the hope that the PMs don't notice), or "drive-by billers" (the ones who bill you for dropping in at a meeting or on the site just to have a look around)?...I'm sure there are others!

 

[TenPenny]

woodman88

If you do not like 'being forced to do nothing', then you must ensure that you are not making your clients pay you to do nothing, ie, you should not charge for travel time. Your client is paying you to travel to their site. That's not 'doing nothing', but if you believe that it is, you should not be billing your clients for travelling, that would be unethical, billing them for 'doing nothing'.

 

[woodman88]

TenPenny, I agree X dollars for showing up at the jobsite, x dollars a hour for being there.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[TenPenny]

As long as you are not billing for your travel time, then you aren't double billing. You just have to make sure that your time allocated to that customer job does not include the specific time spent travelling, and that you're not billing the customer for the actual travel.

 

[urgross]

I think you would have to include contract details to get a reasonable answer. Is the travel time to be dedicated solely to your client by contract, and are you working in both cases on a T&M or firm fixed price?