Thanks to reader Lisa Rodriguez for suggesting this post! Lisa (correctly) points out that “even with well-oiled procedures, it is *normal* to spend hours” on tasks like record-keeping, cleaning up bills and outstanding invoices, etc. As Lisa comments, “It’s part of the job…no point in getting bent out of shape about it.”
Yes. Amen. I feel as if many translators have the goal of having zero non-billable time: they just want to translate and get paid for it every minute of every working day. And there’s one way to do that; it’s called a salaried job. As someone who doesn’t have a salaried job, your situation is going to be different. What I mean by non-billable work is what Jonathan Hine would call overhead: work that you cannot bill to any one project or client. Things like:
- Invoicing
- Recording payments
- Professional development
- Computer maintenance
- Cleaning the office
- Following up with late-paying clients
- Issuing quotes for projects that don’t pan out
- Marketing
- Managing your online presence
As a freelancer, your non-billable time is going to vary by the types of clients you work with. If you work only for agencies, especially agencies that do everything through an online management system (so that you don’t even really issue invoices), your non-billable time may be fairly low. If you work with direct clients, or have other lines of revenue like writing books, teaching, or consulting, your non-billable time might be closer to 50% of your working hours. But I completely agree with Lisa’s point: this stuff takes time.
An additional factor: without non-billable time, your business is going to wither. On a very tangible level, you can’t work efficiently in a cluttered office that you never make the time to clean or organize. On a big-picture level, you can’t keep your skills current without doing professional development. One major area that lots of freelancers neglect is consistent marketing, which leads to peaks and valleys in your business (“I can’t do any marketing because I’m already translating 70 hours a week…Oh #*$%, that project is over and now I have no work, so I’ll market like crazy…Here comes another 70 hour a week project.”) The way to smooth those peaks and valleys out is by embracing the idea that you can’t, and indeed shouldn’t be doing billable work every minute of every day. Non-billable work is the undercurrent of a stable, successful business, so embrace it! Or at least clean the coffee rings off your desk…
Readers, any thoughts on non-billable time, or how much of your time is not billable?
Amen x 2. Overhead work is part of any job. I do try to streamline things if I can (the canned responses feature in Gmail saves me lots of time for repetitive emails like quotes, end of month billing, referrals, etc), but I find that if I don’t take time to deal with overhead tasks regularly (small tasks on the day they appear if they take 5 min or less, and maybe two half days a month) I find myself losing track of things, particularly payments… which is just unprofessional. Unbillable tasks are like changing the oil in the car– no fun, but it keeps the machine rolling.
Thanks, Tracy! I love the oil change comparison.
I do not feel those tasks as non-billable. It is part of your hourly fee/translation rates. Every self-employed person runs a business, and running a business takes time and money. Personally, non-billable to me means extra work you do for a client that does not get paid, whether you accept that work willingly or not. I have found that agencies, over the years that I have been working, push more and more extra work to the translation team. Be that excessive instructions, specific QA programs (even if your own does a fine job), making glossaries, etc.
Interesting, thanks Ria!!
I agree with Maria. Both my translation per word and hourly rates take such tasks into account. I also have a minimum rate for small jobs. Not only do my rates take into consideration the time spent on such tasks, but it also takes into account fees incurred with wire transfers, PayPal rates etc.
Agreed! One of the reasons I chose to be on a payroll when I started my career is that I didn’t want to do accounting, marketing and admin work. Once I decided to run my own business though, I expected to spend time doing these very things (not to mention training!). I try and delegate stuff that someone else can do more effectively than I would and take overheads into account when I fix my rates. One thing: people always say you should spend, say 10 minutes a day on marketing or admin. I find it more effective to devote a whole day every month or a half day every other week to invoicing/sending documents to my accountant/calling prospects… It feels less like an interruption.
Hello Corinne,
we, as a translation agency, encounter the same problem – time and efforts spent on administration, marketing etc. What can help is a good management system (we use XTRF) and procedures (f.i. we have introduced ISO 17100:2015 which is of great help).
Have a wonderful day!
Kind regards from Poland,
Michael
Hi Corinne, thanks for your great posts. I actually just came back from posting a 45 pound job and it took me 1 hour to go to the post office, queue, and come back. I obviously charge my clients for the posting fees, but I feel I should charge for this time which at the moment is really precious to me!
All the best,
Eva
Thanks, Eva! I agree that that’s one issue with jobs where you have to mail a hard copy…definitely something to build into the price.
“[if you work mainly with] agencies that do everything through an online management system (so that you don’t even really issue invoices), your non-billable time may be fairly low”
I find the opposite to be true: Unless a translator works mainly for just a very few agencies, and all of them use the same online management system (and all have set it up the same way), the use of XTRF, Plunet and the like actually increases the translator’s overhead:
– You have to invoice some of your clients using your “regular” system (whatever it may be
– For others, the invoice is created automatically in their online management system (but you still have to record it in your system, to keep track of it independently)
– others use an online management system, but you have to create your invoice in there yourself
– a few use an online management system, but you have to create your invoice in there yourself AND you have to then download the invoice, add a digital signature to it and upload it again in their system
– a few use an online management system and require that you input your data into the system, create a record of the project there, and then upload your invoice in the system.
All of this with systems that do not talk to each other (no doubt by design) and that have other quirks: system A works well with Firefox but doesn’t play nice with Chrome, system B works only in IE, and system C works in any browser, but seems to lose your access credentials on a regular basis.
Online management systems are created to reduce the agency’s overhead–by shifting tasks that used to be done by agency employees to the translators, who have to do clerical work for their customers for free.
Thanks, Riccardo!
I one of the ATA Annual Conferences I learned through one of the presentations that although you can’t really charge non-billable hours, you can however track these ‘costs’ to help you calculate your rates and this should help you cover those costs. Just remember, time is money. Setting a price depends on all aspects of the business whether you make that phone call, file some documents, change that light bulb, it’s all part of the equation.
Funny – I was just thinking of this exact thing the other day! “Non-billable” (or however you want to think about them) are just part of freelance life. Good to streamline as it works for you (or outsource like I do for my accounting which I hate), but one way or the other, someone has to do it! 🙂
This is such an important topic! I think many freelancers don’t realise they need to factor non-billable time into their work day and rates. I keep a very close eye on how I spend my time and if I realise a certain type of project or client is requiring me to spend too many hours on non-paid tasks I change my rates or focus on othe projects.
Thanks, Julie! Good point about using unpaid time as a rate calculation tool as well!
Excellent article here.
One thing I would add is lots of freelancers also have what I would simply call “dead time.” Dead time is non-billable time, but is distinguished by not belonging to “work” time or “free” time.
As you mention, the freelancer has several non-billable tasks to do in addition to her work, which itself consists of several separate projects. I think the result of switching between tasks, constantly shifting gears, and working from home is this third type of time, “dead time,” which is not “free time” because it doesn’t “feel” free, and may or may not be productive time.
Will check your blog for posts about suggested changes to freelancer labor laws. It’s an issue we are interested in at Zingword.
Just a follow-up quick on my “dead time” post.
My partner in Zing, for example, is a freelance designer when she isn’t Zinging, and I think she struggles to put up 40 hours per week even though she has nearly zero non-billable work tasks. I think in my freelancing experience in several fields is the same; a 40 hour work week is difficult to achieve even when you have a carte-blanche job and an hourly rate.
I think “dead time” is a huge culprit. Like eating a pomegranate for twenty minutes and writing blog comments, or taking a coffee break with an impossibly slow Chemex coffee maker, even though your mind might be on the subject nevertheless. Personally, I think corporate staffers suffer the same issues except in different forms, yet get paid for it.
I have several freelancer friends in different fields who bill by the day. I personally think that this is probably the most humane way for freelancers to earn their fare, though it’s a poor fit in translation.
Thanks, Robert!
Thanks, Robert! I do think that especially for beginning translators, “time when you would like to be working but don’t have enough work to fill it,” is a big issue in terms of over all income. Interesting to hear about your new project
Oh yeah totally, that too, just not having enough work. Though I meant more like time when you “should be working” but are actually not doing anything useful while somehow not being in “time-off” mode either.
We’ll be launching soon. We keep pushing the date back mostly due to time considerations, but what we have done is great and hopefully we’ll make things in translation make more sense.