Normal Hours

Normal business hours for Free Daemon Consulting, LLC, are 8:00am to 6:00pm, (US/Central time) Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. These hours will be billed at $100 US Dollars per hour. See the table below under 'Unplanned Hours' for details on rates outside of normal business hours.

Unplanned Hours

I do not want to be unavailable in general, but I do not want to encourage evening and weekend calls. Therefore, unplanned calls for assistance outside the `normal business hours' will result in a 50% rate increase for 6:00pm through 9:30pm, and a 100% rate increase for hours between 9:30pm and 8:00am. On the weekend, 8am - 6pm is billable at a 50% rate increase. In general, if it is important enough for you to call me outside of normal business hours, it is important enough to pay me extra for this.

I respect that many businesses have planned off-peak hours maintenance, upgrades, etc. I would be happy to discuss the possibility of billing pre-planned off-peak activities at my normal rate. I consider pre-planned hours work discussed at least 48hours prior to the actual start of the work.

Communication

It benefits both myself and my clients to develop an open line of communication, both for mentioning potential 'todo' items and to keep uptodate on activities that may be useful to be aware of the next time I am called for billable time. Therefore, if we are on the phone actually doing work, or I am answering technical questions, I consider it billable time. If we are discussing the weather, the latest space elevator progresses, or other anomalous, I do not consider it billable time. I typically follow up a session with an email (created on my time) for my records and for yours, as one always knows best what happened right after it happens ;-)

Time Clock

How does the time-clock work on calls? I will punch a time-clock when you call/email and punch out when we hang up/I finish responding to your email (when billable time applies). If I need to subtract for non-billable minutes, I will make a fair guesstimate. I do not have minimums, such as `30 minutes minimum'. If you talk to me for 1 minute 39 seconds, that will be exactly what shows up on the invoice.

Billable Time Calculator

When calculating hours, I round to the nearest second when using my computer to record when things start and stop, and round to the nearest minute when glancing at a watch. Invoices do not get sent until at least 1 hour of billable time has accumulated. My intent is to send out weekly invoices, unless a different schedule is requested. Invoices will include total hours, minutes, and seconds worked.

Billing frequency depends on you. I have one client that wants a bill every time I have one or more hours clocked. Another gets a bill monthly. Talk to me and you will find I am very flexible on this.

I also have had occasion to calculate a bill with the formula: ' (hours + 60 / minutes + 3600 / seconds) * 100 ', which some prefer for short individual isolated projects. Please let me know if this is preferred, I will work with you.

Pre Paid Hours

Free Daemon Consulting, LLC, does have reduced rates available as 'Pre Paid Hours'.

Pre Paid Hours can be thought of as reserved hours. Once you purchase a pre paid hour, you will be locked into that rate for hours I would normally bill at the normal business rate. The Pre Paid Hours can be purchased before the 1st day of any month, quarter, or year.

The reduced rate schedule for Pre Paid Hours is as follows:

Pre Paid Hours do not expire. They are not a maintenance contract, for which you might potentially pay for more hours that you actually use. If you wish, you may maintain a balance of prepaid hours, which would be similar to a maintenance contract, but you only have to send me money when you call me into service to replenish the prepaid hour balance.