Need payment advice

MrRain

New Member
Hello! I started doing freelance webdesign only a few months ago, and I realized that I usually have a hard time setting my salary for a project. It's hard for me to charge a fee for the entire project at once, so I thought it would be easier to have a fixed rate per hour of work. But one of my clients (who I once worked for) had doubts as to whether I actually worked all those hours that I said I did (as I work remotely). So, he suggested I have an employee time tracking program installed on my PC. But I'm worried that the projects of my other clients might be compromised, or that if my screen is recorded, ideas would be stolen. So, I 'm wondering if you've got any advice for me? Or maybe you know a similar program that's going to track time but isn't going to record videos?
 
Wow! Er, no. You're not an employee any more, you tell him how much it's going to be.

Track your time so you can work out yourself how much to charge, but you need to start quoting per job.
 
One of the reasons I work for a flat fee is that I've had issues with working on projects where the client seems happy to let the project run and make changes as they feel fit "do this...do that" and then they seem a little surprised when I hit them with the bill.

I've not had any experience with time tracking app's but the idea slightly horrifies me to be honest.
I'd imagine there must be ways of filtering the info the client sees and I can see a lot more of this kind of working as employees starting to work remotely sparked by Corona but as Wardy says: "You're not an employee any more".

Would an Architect or Accountant be happy with some sort of spy app installed on their machine?
I very much doubt it.

Also, it kind of implies a lack of trust from the client which is not very reassuring.
 
Flat fee here too....plus extra if they change the brief etc part way through (this thread covers this bit pretty well)

As said above... you're not their employee, they're your client. You also need to remember this when they try to 'delay payment' to fit around them.

Personally I don't have any program installed on my pc's that could record what I do.... hell I run a non disclosure policy as standard so 'security' is pretty high on my list and also my clients.
 
Last edited:
You're not an employee any more, you tell him how much it's going to be.

I agree with Wardy.

You are not an employee, you are a party to a contract with the same rights as the other party. Your client can not dictate what you install for as long as the work is done. Also, instead of charging per project, I think it is better to charge per hour. If you're still figuring that out, you can check out what other freelancers charge.
You can also try time tracking software provided you do everything with that software via your laptop or PC to see how much time you spend on different processes. You can check out worktime.com-It Provides reports that show you how much time you spent browsing (and on separate tabs in your browser) and how much you spent on your editor (or other programs).
You can try to track your time like this for a while, and after a month, you'll be able to distinguish projects from the most complex to the least. It's all about practice and experience, to be honest.
 
Back
Top