Should Freelancers Charge for Meetings?


I love how you surprised me with a bill for the 30-minute Zoom call we just did.”

-No freelance client ever

Whether you are an existing freelancer or just entering the market, let’s talk about billing clients for meetings.

Should freelancers charge for meetings? Or is it unprofessional to charge for meetings as a freelancer? 

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In general, it’s not unprofessional to charge clients for project-related meetings so long as billing is discussed and agreed in advance. Clients may get upset when they meet with their freelancer, then receive an unexpected bill for the meeting that they hadn’t previously agreed to be charged for.

Surprise bills scare clients, so you need to stipulate the conditions of the contract before you begin. One of the conditions: how many hours of meeting time are expected in the context of the project. 

When Not To Charge

You may be out and about when a client pops up with a quick question. For some, it waits until the freelancer is at their desk ready to respond with all the relevant information on hand. 

For others, they may store everything on the cloud and are more than happy to take 10 minutes out of whatever they are doing to respond to a client. 

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The preference is individual and does depend on circumstances. In these cases, when at your desk, you start billing the client. It’s not always possible to bill clients when you’re not at the desktop or laptop. 

There are times, however, when you really shouldn’t bill your client:

Don’t Bill For Sales Calls & Quick Intro Meetings

Consider the time spent on sales calls or intro calls an investment into winning that client’s business. A short sales call is not a meeting.

Never Charge For A Damage-Control Call

If you have an unhappy client on your hands, especially if your work is the reason they are unhappy, billing for a meeting to discuss the matter is not a good idea. In these cases, the client gets the time and attention that’s needed to solve whatever problems arose.

When Freelancers Should Charge For Meetings

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There are two main cases where meetings are billable. The first would be the scheduled meetings or conference calls and the second would be for additional support during or after the project.

It’s OK To Charge For Scheduled Updates And Conference Calls

These meetings are scheduled for the freelancer and the client to discuss the project or its progress. Daily, weekly or monthly conference calls are part of the work process and thus clients should be paying for your time. 

If Your Client Needs Additional Support…

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In general, it’s fine to request additional payments for meetings where you’ve already accepted an amount for a project and your client wants to add to the project scope, and that means that you need to spend more time meeting with them.

Ultimately, then, it’s not really a question of whether freelancers should bill their clients, but how. The answer is in the type of projects, contracts, and platform that you are using. 

Charging for Meetings Depends on How You Price

Let’s take Upwork as an example: You get two types of contracts, Fixed-Price or Hourly

There are advantages to each one, but for billing purposes, an Hourly rate contract gives you the added bonus of the Upwork Time Tracker, making billing clients for meetings very easy.

Hourly Contracts

Screenshot of the Upwork Time Tracker from the Upwork desktop app

For newcomers or non-Upwork users, freelancers turn on the Time Tracker when they work, and the software takes screenshots of what they are doing every few minutes. This log allows for transparency with the addition of a memo for extra information, where you can list the points of the meeting, which the client will see when the weekly review period begins. 

The hourly contract needs a desktop or a laptop for the time tracker to work. If you’re out and about, you could still communicate with your clients, but you couldn’t track time until back at your desk. There is, however, a manual entry option, which the client would need to agree to.

Fixed-Price Contracts

Screenshot of an Upwork fixed-price project milestone timeline with funded escrow protection, and an Active & Funded project milestone

Fixed-price contracts operate as the name suggests. Clients pay a flat rate for the project no matter how many hours go into it. In these cases, you can negotiate an amount with a client, and reach a price that includes the product or service and meetings. 

It’s easier to bill for meetings if you’re on an hourly contract with some kind of tracker, but if you normally do fixed-price projects, include meeting time in your overall project price.

How To Charge for Meetings As A Freelancer

It’s not charging for meetings that is unprofessional, it is how you do it that makes it professional or not. Follow these steps to ensure you remain professional:

1. Set Expectations Upfront In a Written Scope Of Work

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In the interview / intro stage, before you start working on a freelance contract, you need to set expectations in a written scope of work. With that in place, both parties know where they stand and there will be no surprises when you may need to bill for extra hours. 

We actually have a full Scope of Work template you can use, that will make all your clients crystal-clear on what you’ll do for them.

2. Identify How Many Project Meetings You’re Expecting

In that same scope of work, it’s vital to identify the number of expected meetings that you will have in the course of the project. Nobody will then be surprised when the extra bill comes for the 11th meeting when 10 are set for the project.

That said, once again, it is how the 11th meeting gets billed that makes it professional or not. 

3. Give A Heads-up BEFORE You Go Into Overtime On Meetings

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When you have agreed on the terms and conditions for the project, and your client needs more meeting time, remember to give your client a heads-up before you schedule the overtime or the extra meeting.

Before your last or even 2nd last meeting, remind your client what was decided on in the scope of work and that you’re heading into the overtime zone. That way, your client can expect to receive that bill or payment request, and once again, nobody is caught off guard.

4. Agree The Amount Of Overtime Before You Bill It

Should freelancers charge for meetings, preparing an estimate for additional meetings required is the first step

Right at the beginning, it’s important to agree on how much overtime may cost or how many hours of overtime you will do. There are times when a client changes their vision for the project, and if it is a flat-rate that is being paid, you may land up unpaid or underpaid.

To avoid that and any unprofessional conduct that may result from it, agree on how much overtime will cost and, even, how many hours you can put in.

5. If It’s Big, Create A New Scope Of Work

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There is a chance that your client chooses to change direction after seeing the results of what they first requested. In this case, consider creating a new scope of work at an additional cost that would incorporate their needs and requests. 

Communicate Early & Often

So then, should freelancers be charging clients for meetings? Yes, absolutely. 

Part of providing any service or product is communication. Every business includes running costs in their pricing, and freelancers should too. Whether you charge per hour or per project, itemize that cost and ensure meeting time is included. 

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What you must avoid, however, is billing your client when they did not expect or plan for it, which would make it unprofessional on your part. 

Using dedicated freelancing platforms, like Upwork, can make billing very easy. Whichever way you run your business, being transparent about your pricing is professional, and avoiding hidden surprises is the way to go.

This article originally appeared on freelancemvp.com, is copyright Freelance MVP LLC and is not authorized to appear anywhere else. If you have found this article anywhere else, it has been stolen.

Evan Fisher

Evan is an entrepreneur, content creator, finance expert and founder of Freelance MVP. At one point, Evan was the highest-earning freelancer worldwide on Upwork by annual earnings, and his collective freelance earnings total over $2,000,000.

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