Freelancers: do you charge for 'admin' time?

[pixeltierra]

More and more of my time seems to be spent doing 'admin', billing, invoicing, proposals, emails etc.

What percent of 'admin' time do you tend to charge for?

[Marcia]

Admin time is something like "overhead" and part of the cost of doing business. It has to be figured into the accounting equation when figuring out the number of work hours, the actual billable hours, the profit margin, and then used in deciding on fees.

[Fortune Hunter]

The original consultant's consultant Howard Shenson discussed the pricing issue for consultants as such...

You charge a high hourly rate to compensate you both for the time you put into a project, but also to cover admin expenses, sales costs, vacations, health care benefits etc. After you figure out the number hours it takes to complete a project then you add a set percentage of the total cost back onto the project, i.e. 5-20% that is your profit margin. He said this profit margin was yours because of the actual risk you take for being in business for yourself and working the free enterprise market.

I really liked his discussion and have used both this methods as well as Alan Weiss's value based pricing methodology. Both methods have served me well in the right situations.