We currently have a process in place for how we bill customers for change requests and I'm finding recently that the types of client requests coming through are fairly small (IE: 1 hour here, 30 minutes there etc)
Our process is not defined well enough to handle these gray areas, but upwards of 70% of these changes are of this nature.
Obviously we don't want to nickel and dime our clients, but since I've put proper metrics in place, we're spending about 1 week of person time per month on these items that we are not billing for. While that number is pretty small, it has steadily increased over the last 3 months and our client list is growing so I expect this number to continue to rise.
Our clients already pay a subscription fee for our software and these requests are not part of that fee.
What I want to do is bank hours spent on these type of activities and bill quarterly up to a maximum allowed 'maintenance' number. IE: give the client 10 hours per quarter for free and bill on top of that.
This is relatively new to me, so I was curious how others have dealt with type of thing. Saving Changes...
Chuck, I didn't see anyone responding to your question, and I'm sure you've solved it by now. However, in the spirit of communications - here's an approach I've used in the past. When presenting the project costs to the client, include a baseline dollar number for changes less than x hours of work. I assume a 15% small change number based on experience, but your number might be higher or lower. Underscore that the 15% is an estimate and that the actuals will tracked and managed, with ample review time for them when you reach 80% of the 15% dollars. This puts your numbers up front without any surprises - if the client requests you cut that to meet their cost case - your decision on whether you plan to recover that cost - it WILL come our of your profit line - so either up the baseline price to accommodate it or give free service..... I've done all three... the free service was very painful.... the others - not so much. Some clients appreciate the candor - others don't. You'll know which way to go based on how they engage your services - i.e., we're looking for a low cost bid... or the equivalent... Hope that helped.... Regards, Don Saving Changes...
Working with local government processes, we are required to write up every little change request, and obtain customer approval before making the change. One concern I would have about saving them up and invoicing all at once on a monthly or quarterly basis is the concern of customer debate as to whether that particular work effort should be billable or not. I would assume you are getting some form of pre-approval for each change you make prior to doing the work so that you're paid on the invoices. Saving Changes...
