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How do you bill for site maintenance?

4 years ago from Steve Orchosky, Digital Designer & Illustrator

  • Jonathan EngstromJonathan Engstrom, 4 years ago

    We work in two ways, and leave the client to choose which billing method we use:

    • The first option is hourly, where we collect all the hours spent and bill the client at then of each calendar month. Client's who take this option are usually more tech-savvy and capable of managing their site on a day-to-day (some with an in-house web or IT team, others that just know their shit).
    • The second is by way of a maintenance contract, where we agree a singular monthly cost based on the level of service they think they need. That runs for 6 months, before we review the cost and (usually) the client signs up again. This is usually for clients that are less comfortable with running a website/CMS.

    PS. It's worth mentioning that we're a smallish design agency, and our clients range from local businesses with just a few employees, to multi-nationals with large numbers of employees and technical resources.

    PPS. When I worked freelance, I billed everything that wasn't fixed cost in batches of 10 hours. That worked great too.

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    • Steve OrchoskySteve Orchosky, almost 4 years ago

      Great feedback. I'm hesitant about billing hour to hour since I'm fairly new to freelancing web design and I try to factor in time for any research I may need to do to solve issues. I like the batched idea because it limits invoicing on my end. Also because I think it would better manage scope creeping that I've had to deal with contracting project to project. As for a maintenance contract, do you limit the total hours per day/week/month per client?

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