What is Billable and What Isn’t?

One of the things I find comes up often in VA conversations is what you should be billing your clients for and what you should absorb as your own expenses.

For me it’s a simple answer (everything you do for a client is billable), but I’ll get into some detail to help you navigate through this issue for your own business.

First of all, it’s important to remember that when you start working with any client, you are an independent contractor. You are not an employee and you should not act like an employee.

Although this gets said very often, it can be difficult to do in everyday practice. It is simply our nature in a support profession to … be supportive. To be helpful. To assist where the client needs help.

And that’s a great attitude to have. It really is. It is this kind of attitude that will help your clients to trust you and build a solid relationship with you very quickly.

However, if you are constantly doing things that go outside the scope of your work with them, you will probably realize too late that you should have set boundaries sooner.

One of those areas is what to charge for and what not to charge for.

For me it’s simple. If your client requires that you learn something to work with them, then that is billable time.

Your policies may differ than what I describe below, but these are my opinions after working with clients for 20+ years. If you are not sure what your policies should be, these suggestions may help!

For instance, the other day a client of mine had me learn how to use a quiz software so she could set up a quiz for her clients. Billable time to learn the software, and then billable to set up the actual quiz.

What the client needs you to do, they have to pay for.

The grey area for me only comes up if you are offering a service to your clients – like email management or whatever the case may be – and something ‘new’ is brought into the mix. Then I file it into the ‘I should know this.’ or ‘I don’t need to know this, but I can learn it.’ or ‘I don’t need to know this.’

1. I should know this.

For instance, I use Infusionsoft with my clients. If a client needs me to set up something that is standard within Infusionsoft that I don’t currently know how to do, i.e. set up a new merchant account, then that is something that I should learn because I am offering the Infusionsoft services to my clients, and because it’s my area of expertise. Not billable to the client.

2. I don’t need to know this, but I can learn it.

However, if my client needs to connect a Leadpage that she has built to Infusionsoft, then that’s possibly outside the scope of what I know how to do. But it’s a good skill and is needed by many of my potential clients, so I should learn it. Not necessarily billable to the client. It could be but it doesn’t have to be.

3. I don’t need to know this.

But then what if the client wants me to learn how to actually set up the Leadpages now that I’ve logged in and know how to connect it to Infusionsoft anyway. This is not something I need to learn, so any necessary learning would then be billable to the client. Or the work can simply be turned down.

As a contractor you have the right to turn down work if it does not fall into your area of expertise.

I see a lot of VAs who say yes to any work from the client, and then decide to ‘learn it as they go’ and not charge the client for it.

It’s sort of an inferiority thing. I know. I’ve been there. We feel like we need to know more than we do (newsflash: we know plenty!)

Because we are supporting professionals, it’s our nature to be helpful. And we never want to say no. But it won’t help your business.

While this sometimes is beneficial, what ends up happening is that you spend more time learning (for no money) than you do actually working (for money).

In my experience, some clients try a lot of things and then don’t stick with them. Especially if you are in the habit of not billing them for your learning time.

Decisions are important as a business owner. Billable time is the only thing that brings revenue into your business.

Without revenue you have no business.

The argument I see from VAs is; “If I can potentially use it for another client then I don’t bill the current client for learning it.”

That is admirable, but it won’t put any money in your bank.

I’ve been there. I’ve done that. For the most part it does not work, unless you are undergoing training to specialize in something (i.e. WordPress or Infusionsoft, etc) and then are going to change your service offerings accordingly.

So consider what your policies are on what the client pays for and what you do for no charge for them.

The simpler your policy is the better it is for everyone. Time is money, and both of those are YOURS in your own business.

For more info on why doing what you love (and do well) is so important, read this blog post!