Consulting Work

[manlymatt83]

I did some consulting work a few weekends ago for a company who bought out the old company I worked for. According to them, they wanted ME to debug the issue. I drove 800 miles round trip from Boston to Atlantic City, then to Philadelphia, back to AC, then to Boston, and paid $150 for a hotel room.

I also worked about 12 hours total at my hourly rate I gave them.

I have to send them an invoice. Do I bill the 12 hours, and then deduct the rest on my taxes or something? Or do I send them an invoice for the 12 hours, and also invoice them for the mileage and the $150 hotel room?

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
I did some consulting work a few weekends ago for a company who bought out the old company I worked for. According to them, they wanted ME to debug the issue. I drove 800 miles round trip from Boston to Atlantic City, then to Philadelphia, back to AC, then to Boston, and paid $150 for a hotel room.

I also worked about 12 hours total at my hourly rate I gave them.

I have to send them an invoice. Do I bill the 12 hours, and then deduct the rest on my taxes or something? Or do I send them an invoice for the 12 hours, and also invoice them for the mileage and the $150 hotel room?

You can do either.

Bill them for 12 hours, + mileage (whatever your mileage rate is....), and hotel room

OR

you can bill them flat rate 12 hours, and then deduct your expenses later

 

[KLin]

You bill them for the time it took to travel, and bill them for the hotel room as expenses.

 

[manlymatt83]

KLin: OK, so since I drove to jersey for 8 hours there, and 8 hours back, I'm supposed to bill them 16 hours? Should I bill them the 16 hours, or should I just bill them 842 miles @ 50 cents per mile.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Were travel and expenses negotiated when you contracted with them? Or did they merely offer an hourly rate?

 

[AmpedSilence]

I found that billing for the TIME it took to drive somewhere was more advantagous that billing for the DOLLAR VALUE. You can bill for the time, the take miles off on your tax return as expenses (since you technicially reimbursed for them). Same can be said for hotel, but i would bill the company for that directly.

 

[DaveSimmons]

These are details you should work out in advance next time.

It didn't come up when I was consulting since I worked from my home office and sent the updated software via FTP or snail mail.

If I had been asked to spend 16 hours travelling I defintely would have charged a lot more than 50 cents a mile, but possibly something lower than my hourly rate for development work.

Depending on your rate, you could bill them for travel time as something like this on your invoice:
Travel - 16 hours x $xx = $xxx
Hotel - 1 night - $150

Or if there is some reason you need to charge a consistent hourly rate :
Travel - 12 hours x $xx = $xxx (actual time 16 hours)
Hotel - 1 night - $150

Be sure to save receipts and such for doing your taxes. What they pay you will show up as income, so you'll need to then count expenses on your schedule C so you don't pay self-employment and income taxes on the hotel.

Edit: If they tried to pay me nothing for my travel time, I'd have (very politely) given them two options:
1. Pay a much higher hourly rate for the work time then, to cover the travel that way, or
2. Find someone else.

 

[Leros]

My dad does consulting work. He charges for (time driving) + (expenses while driving) + (hotel) + (food) + (time spent doing consulting work)

I think he deducts his mileage from his taxes. Something about deprecation to the value of his car.

 

[SoulAssassin]

You can't really bill them for the hours you were driving and charge a mileage expense unless that was negotiated first. It's a little shady. Charge them hourly rate for what you worked + mileage/expense.

 

[AmpedSilence]

Originally posted by: Leros
My dad does consulting work. He charges for (time driving) + (expenses while driving) + (hotel) + (food) + (time spent doing consulting work)

I think he deducts his mileage from his taxes. Something about deprecation to the value of his car.

Bingo, thats what i did. I think thats fairly standard practice.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
You can't really bill them for the hours you were driving and charge a mileage expense unless that was negotiated first. It's a little shady. Charge them hourly rate for what you worked + mileage/expense.

That really depends. Maintenance work for the owner of an ex-employer is a little different than bidding on some new job. It's also 16 hours gone forever + staying in a hotel instead of at home.

I'd have worked it out in advance, but not doing so is an easy mistake to make for someone new to consulting.

In this situation I'd talk to the company and let them know that I forgot to work out the payment details for travel time in advance, but that we should do it now to cover this job and any future ones.

If they say no to travel time reimbursement, I'd say that I have to accept it for this job since we had no agreement, but that I won't be able to help them out in the future (or that I'm going to have to raise my work rate sharply to cover the extra day beyond actual work time).

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Bill them for all expenses occurred that were required to fulfill the task. If you drove, send an invoice for miles times the tax write off amount per mile for it. If you got food any time after leaving your house, put that on there, along with your hotel, and everything else.

Edit: There's a better way to say the part I put in bold with the proper legal terminology, but the basic idea is that if you had to do something to fulfill the agreement, then you can bill it to the client.

 

[Descartes]

As a consultant for almost 8 years now, I too wouldn't bill for the hours you drove. As others have said, we have agreements with all clients with respect to expenses, but even then your choice to drive (and then bill) for 16 hours would seem extremely suspect unless it was negotiated first. Of course, this might depend on your hourly rate, but 16 hours for most consultants will be considerably more than a plane ticket. If you did work for me and I got a bill for 16 hours of travel, you better believe I'd reject it. I could fly across the country twice in the same amount of time.

We have agreements with most of our clients to bill the time for half-travel; that is, one way. We also have a per-diem pay.

I just read what DaveSimmons says. I agree.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

AC is 6 hours MAX

That said why do you have total inability to decide anything on your own. I would bill them the 12 hours and a flat fee for travel expenses(what you think is fair).

 

[compman25]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
AC is 6 hours MAX

That said why do you have total inability to decide anything on your own. I would bill them the 12 hours and a flat fee for travel expenses(what you think is fair).

:thumbsup:

 

[alkemyst]

usually this is all worked out esp when you are needing to travel...most companies if they are hiring a consultant would rather have you there now than waiting for you to drive across the country.

A flight may have been cheaper than driving and food/lodging.

Anyway this is all stuff that should have been laid out ahead of time and a reasonable estimate given.

 

[Dunbar]

Don't know about consulting but when I contract with people to do maintenance I pay 8hrs/day (plus actual expenses) whether they are traveling or doing the maintenance. Travel time shouldn't be charity IMO. Airline tickets and rental cars aren't free and flying doesn't always save time (I personally hate driving though).

If you did all that for a mere 12 hours of billable time I'd charge them the full rate for the 16 hours of travel time, 48.5 cents a mile, plus actual expenses.