Hi all.
I just wanted to get the general consensus about charging for troubleshooting a Drupal project. This is something that's been daunting on me for some time.
As I'm sure it's the same with everyone in the field, every project introduces it's own unique set of problems and circumstances. I find that even after over three years of Drupalling, at some in any project I find myself plugging away at Google, hours at a time, researching a very specific issue. Usually I'm trying figure out whether I can get away with a contrib module, or how to implement my own custom solution (which usually involves much time spend at the Drupal API website).
I love the problem solving, but I'm at a loss as whether this should be considered "billable hours". I realize as I become more experienced that the amount of time I spend researching will become less. So this leads me to the question: Should the client be on the hook for research/ troubleshooting? Is effectively finding solutions considered part of my skill set?
If this is true, should I charge only (let's say) half the hourly rate for "research"? Or is all is fair in love and war?
All input is much appreciate!
Comments
Is effectively finding
Is finding a solution equivalent to developing one? If you are satisfying a customer requirement, then in my opinion, the answer to your question is an unequivocal "yes."
Whether, and how much, to charge is another matter; what is your time worth to you?
It depends
How much I bill a client for troubleshooting depends on the situation. Sometimes if I have to research something for a problem to solve or bug fixing, then I won't bill 100% of those hours to the client, especially if it's one of my regulars who give me good repeat business. If it's for a feature that's specifically requested by the client, then they get billed for those hours in full.
I don't think the client should have to pay for the learning curve all the time. :)