Ask HN: Freelance - when to start the clock?

I'm sure it's best to gauge the employer, but unless commuting or meeting sessions are part of your offer I usually wouldn't start the clock until I've actually started working.

That's how I run things, maybe I'm too honest buy the win/win aspect of freelancing is that employer only pays for one specific thing and employee does one specific thing and thus commands higher rates.

Don't bill for travel as income. Either bill it as an expense, or what is often more convienent/easier to manage since the client doesn't worry about it is if you have a car, is take the tax write-ff at 58 cents per mile (or whatever that figure is). For airfare, bill if you are doing work on the plane. The rest is the cost of doing business and should be built into your hourly rate.

If you are under contract, yes bill for the first meeting. If not, depending on the relationship, there are two ways of handling this. The first, and what I do with the clients I am most comfortable with, is simply add those in at a later date as line items. The rationale is because the second way to do it is bake it into your hourly rate post-contract (Notice everything is either they pay directly or indirectly). Many clients, when you explain how you need to structure rates go with option 1, BUT and this is a huge BUT, with new clients, never explain option 1. Sales is all about slanting and simplifying. Trying to sit down and explain this subtlety will likely mean you lose the business.

So moral of the story is the easier it is for the client to do mental math, the easier it is to win business. Trying to explain subtleties that are important to you are a waste of time. Add in a clause to your contract that expenses are not included in your quote and will be billed separately. Depending on your field, you also may want to include things like stock photography, software licenses, and/or hardware are not part of the quote.

My policies are:

1. Travel within town is free as long as it's not excessive. Daily travel during rush hour is excessive.

2. Travel time outside of town is charged at 50%,

3. I don't travel to the US.

4. Time I spend in my office is billed only while I'm working, not while I'm receiving instructions.

5. Time I spend out of my office is billed from when I arrive to when I leave.

6. I bill in 0.1 hour increments, but "quick questions" (defined roughly as "something I can answer on the phone without needing to say 'I'll need to think about that'") are free as long as they don't happen too often.