[Anonymous]

There was another post recently about billable hours and I am curious about what others have experienced with this.

Some employees like to work as fast as they can and complete work as quickly as possible.

Some like to take their time on tasks and hit as close to the budgeted time as possible.

And others are completely unaware of a budget and just log their hours as honestly as possible even if they take several hours to complete a simple task.

1. What is your step by step procedure and advice for those working with billable hours?

2. Do you use “unbillable/admin” often? What about time spent for IT issues/troubleshooting, socializing with co-workers, or time spent in the rest room?

3. How specific is your time tracking and how closely is it observed by management/partners at your firm that you are aware of?

4. Have you ever been warned or fired for being too far under or over budget? What happened?

5. Also, how do you maximize your salary review/performance by tracking your time and billable hours?

[Pete]

It really depends on the firm.

I would aim to keep with the group average. For example, if the firm requires employees to work a minimum of 80 hours/week, you better make sure you're recording at least 80 hours/week. Even better, if the minimum is 80 hours/week, but the average employee works 90 hours/week, you should aim to bill 90 hours/week.

You can work more than this average, but you might be viewed as inefficient if your hours run too far above it, depending on the task. The hours themselves won't show the inefficiency, but your manager will probably observe it/say something. Again though, this really depends upon the manager/firm. You really have to feel it out. In some cases, you might have to eat a few hours here and there.

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[Anonymous]

Also I wonder about asking a company what their billing rate would be before starting a position and asking how many clients the company has and what the average engagement fees are for their clients.

I am not sure if it's advisable to ask this type of question during an interview, but I'd imagine it gives you an idea of how busy you might be or how closely you would have to adhere to a budget.

I've had a part-time position in the past and when they wanted me to go full-time, they said they can only offer $60,000 because they didn't have enough billable work to pay any higher.

[Anonymous]

[livealittle]

if your firm lets you put biller notes in on your timesheet, do so.

if it's the client's fault work is taking longer than it should, say so in the biller notes.

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[Author]

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