General Business Question - How Bill after Estimate ...

They have: 2,390 posts

Joined: Nov 1998

Well I would never give a fixed price estimate, but if I were to I would wait until you have finished the project to bill the whole sum.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
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They have: 5 posts

Joined: May 1999

There was no "perfect" forum for this, so I've posted here: I'm fairly new at this and have a general question about how to deal with billing. I've just been charging by the hour with other clients, but with this new client, I've given her an estimate ($1,200) for her site re-design.
So, how do you folks usually handle a situation like this:

(1) Do you usually take retainers fees up front?
(2) Since I've given an estimate, should I just bill that amount in 2 (?) installments, or do should I still bill hourly, trying to stick to the estimated amount?
(3) Finally, do any of you use retainer agreements? (If so, do you have any reference for where to get boilerplates for same on web?)

Any input appreciated. Thanks.

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