Okay, so, you may have seen that Virtual Assistant’s state that they’ll round up / down to the nearest 15 minutes when invoicing a client.
In case you’re in any doubt as to how the rounding up to 15 minutes, or down, as a Virtual Assistant works allow me to take five minutes of your time to explain a couple of ways you can do it. Plus I’ll give you one of my far fetched analogies at the end, as usual, too.
Why do Virtual Assistants round up or down to 15 minutes?
Rounding up / down is largely done to avoid invoicing the client ridiculous amounts like £65.89, which can be a right ball ache when you’re trying to remember an invoice number and the amount to pay. It also looks a bit unprofessional, I think, to be charging pennies.
It’s definitely not done to make extra money out of the client.
How do you know whether to round up or round down?
If a Virtual Assistant worked, say, 2 hours 44 minutes, she’d most likely round up to 3 hours.
However, some (and I) would, in this example, only round up to 2 hours 45 minutes on the invoice (unless they were an utter git and it was the last invoice I was ever sending them). I’ll explain why I’d only go up by 1 minute and not the whole 15 (or 16 in this instance) in a second.
But first; if you’d worked 2 hours 39 minutes what would you do? Round up to 3 hours again? Many would.
Me? I round down to 2 hours 30 minutes. I know you’re thinking ‘brown nose’ here, but there’s method to my madness!
You likely know I am a huge advocate of us NEVER working for free, but for the sake of a few pence, a few minutes shaved off at month end is a huge positive for our clients and would encourage them to come back. They would see on their time sheet that you worked 2 hours 39 minutes, but the invoice says 2 hours 30 minutes.
It looks fab and shows you’re not just there to make as much money as possible from them. I retained my clients for 5+ years. I only stopped working with them because of the damn brain tumours!
Think about how you’d like to see an invoice from someone you’re working with. How would it make you feel to see they’ve not tried to get an extra 21 minutes out of you but instead knocked off 9 minutes?
We need to build long term relationships but also never sell yourself too short.
Do Virtual Assistants round up every individual task to 15 minutes?
Abso-bloody-lutely NOT!
Virtual Assistants should only round up / down at the end of the month for all the combined tasks, not every individual task.
If you round every individual task up, for example, the client will end up paying for time you’ve not worked.
Imagine how you’d feel if you compared the time sheet with the invoice and saw that every 15 minute task was mysteriously 30 minutes.
Clients work with us because we’re a cheaper, hassle free, alternative to having an employee.
There’s no justification for charging a client extra for every individual task.
How to let clients know you round up / down
It’s good practise to have it on the pricing page on your pricing page. Something like, ‘Please note my invoices will be rounded up / down to the nearest 15 minutes’.
However, I can guarantee about nine out of ten clients won’t even notice that so we also put it on your booking form (Booking forms are supplied with your Terms of Business from KoffeeKlatch). Again, most won’t read it but they have to sign it before you start working together so tough if they later question it.
So on the booking form, under section 11 – Payment Terms and Method, I usually add the above line again: ‘Please note my invoices will be rounded up / down to the nearest 15 minutes’.
Let me leave you with this
Just after lockdown I went to see my hygienist (she’s now retired thank goodness). She was unable to use a certain sucker thing and couldn’t have another person in the room with her due to Covid restrictions. I didn’t know this until after my appointment, I wasn’t told. It meant that during my usual 30 minute appointment she only managed to do half my mouth and at the end said ‘so, you’re going to have to book another appointment so I can do the other half as everything takes me longer’.
I’m like, ‘So you want £150 for something that should, and usually, costs £75. How is that fair?’
It really made it feel like she was trying to make money out of me. It was, as I said, post lockdown and she’d been massively financially affected by the business closures. She clearly needed to recoup money and was using me (and no doubt other patients) to do that.
I never went back to that hygienist. I left having my teeth cleaned until she retired. I was fuming and there was no way I was giving her any more money.
I felt for her, it must’ve been horrific to be in that position. But, it’s not my fault. I am not here to sustain someone else’s life and neither are your clients there to sustain yours so please don’t use the rounding up / down clause to take the mickey.
This question was originally asked in my free Facebook group. It’s a brilliant place to feel safe and supported on your Virtual Assistant journey. If you’re not already in there, come and join us. There’s no cliques, no ‘private’ jokes, no IYKYK’s. You’ll be so welcome.