Today I am going to talk about something I hate: accountants that feel they are selling their time and sell it in 15 minute (or 10 or 6 minute) increments. They keep timesheets and try and bill every minute of every day. They feel more productive if they can bill all their time.
This absolutely drives me nuts. Not only do I have to keep track of all that time and bill somebody 1/10 of an hour because he called to confirm an appointment (don’t laugh; some actually do this and bury it in their billing schedules as part of a project) but I feel pressured to get stuff done quickly because if I don’t the client is going to complain about the bill. Plus the client may not call me when something happens in his life or business because he is afraid of getting a bill. He will wait until his next meeting to tell me (which might be too late to do something that could save taxes or avoid other problems). Accountants have become taxi drivers and the meter is always running.
As my website says, I don’t charge for phone calls and don’t bill on an hourly basis. I will try and quote a fee for a project when a client and I originally discuss the project. I will try to be fair to the client and to myself. All time involved in the project (phone calls, meetings, etc) will be in that fee. This way the client knows what they are paying and we can discuss thngs as they go along. If I underestimate the job then it is on me. I find that over time everything will work out and my clients are more willing to call me and tell me when something happens in their life. No wonder people complain about taxi drivers all the time.