How Can I Give a Bill to Clients as a Freelancer When they Ask for One?

How can I give a bill to clients as a freelancer when they ask for one?

The best billing model (for both parties) really depends on the project. The client deserves to have an idea of what a project will cost up front so t can make an informed decision, but the consultant's role is not to absorb risk for cost and scope overruns (especially if the client gets all the benefits of the extra work). Nearly every project goes over schedule and overbudget - often due to scope creep and planning that assumes everything will go perfectly the first time. I have used both hourly and fixed price billing depending on the situation - and I have had some project work, and some recurring work. If the deliverables can be well defined, the scope will not change (or can be set by the consultant), the project is small, and costs can be very accurately estimated, (and often you have done similar projects), then a fixed price might be appropriate. You need to be very certain to define the scope very well up front. For example, a one-month consulting engagement where the end deliverable is a report about how the business could improve its operations is a situation where you are in much more control of the scope than a situation where you're tasked with developing a website for a client "until t decide that t like it." For example, replacing the brakes on your car would be a fixed-price project for an auto repair shop because the scope is well defined (replace front brake pads), the job has been done a million times before on other cars (so t know how long it takes), and t know exactly what the parts cost. There is no argument over whether or not the job is complete. The new pads are either on your car or t aren't. And if something else needs to be done, like new rotors, that's charged as additional. If, however, there is a lot of opportunity for scope creep, the client is indecisive, there is no clear end point or deliverable, there is a high amount of development and/or project risk, and things cannot be estimated precisely, time and materials/hourly billing is more appropriate for both parties. Note that hourly billing gives the client the opportunity to change their mind as the project progresses, which is not necessarily a bad thing as on some projects you're not sure what you want until you get started. If a project that is originally fixed price starts to have scope creep, you need to tell your client right away that what t want is outside the scope of what you've agreed to and it will be billed extra. If the client wants to work out a hybrid billing proposal with you, that is another thing you can offer. This would be something like a fixed upfront payment for the project in exchange for a discounted hourly rate for the remainder of the project, transferring some of the risk of project overages away from the client if it takes you longer than you originally estimated, but is much less risky for you than a fixed price deal. Depending on the project you can also do value-based billing, which is to estimate the benefit to the client, and then bill them a percentage of that. If you save them $10,000 for example it might be appropriate to bill them 30%, or $3000. That is a little harder to do with IT/software projects because these projects are often compared on an hourly rate, and on some projects the value to the customer is harder to quantify.