Help me with Web / IT consulting and billable time. Consulting firms make their money on billable hours - what percentage of a 40 hour work week needs to be billable for different roles within the company? I work for what I'll call for neutrality's sake a "web shop", though it fancies itself a consulting firm as we do things by the billable hour. I've worked in the industry before, but I really don't know what sorts of things are "relatively standard / commonplace" in the industry.
My google-fu almost exclusively finds me stuff on lawyers, so here comes my request for help...
We have developers, designers and project managers, each of which have their own billable hour expectation (much like I understand lawyers do). I'm trying to understand what expectations are reasonable while still maintaining profitability, so I want to know the following:
- What is a reasonable billable hour expectation in a 40 hour work week for a developer? A designer? A project manager?
- In a project estimated at say 100 hours of billable work by the designers and developers combined, how much project management time do typically add? Fixed amounts? A percentage? We have a standard - I'm curious if it's in line with yours.
- What sorts of things do you consider billable beyond development, design, and "obvious" project management stuff like creating documentation, requirements gathering, etc. Do you bill for internal but unplanned conversations about client work (i.e. a 5 minute catchup between the PM and a developer). Do you bill for estimates of additional work, even if the client elects not to go through with the work? Do you bill for every email and phone call you spend time reading/responding to from a client?
- What sorts of things are definitely nonbillable in your company, or just your mind?
My google-fu almost exclusively finds me stuff on lawyers, so here comes my request for help...
We have developers, designers and project managers, each of which have their own billable hour expectation (much like I understand lawyers do). I'm trying to understand what expectations are reasonable while still maintaining profitability, so I want to know the following:
- What is a reasonable billable hour expectation in a 40 hour work week for a developer? A designer? A project manager?
- In a project estimated at say 100 hours of billable work by the designers and developers combined, how much project management time do typically add? Fixed amounts? A percentage? We have a standard - I'm curious if it's in line with yours.
- What sorts of things do you consider billable beyond development, design, and "obvious" project management stuff like creating documentation, requirements gathering, etc. Do you bill for internal but unplanned conversations about client work (i.e. a 5 minute catchup between the PM and a developer). Do you bill for estimates of additional work, even if the client elects not to go through with the work? Do you bill for every email and phone call you spend time reading/responding to from a client?
- What sorts of things are definitely nonbillable in your company, or just your mind?