No, not like that. Do you note that you took 4 hours and then write down the amount to be equal to an hour? Or do your customers see only one hour? Or do they see that 4 hours in this instance cost X where X is equal to your hourly rate?
I'm curious, mainly because of your use of terminology, but it's also a philosophy from what I've observed with where I work. An accounting firm. We show a bill with the full amount of the work that was performed (what we charge) and what the charge is, and then we may write down amounts and provide reasons for that. At the computer company I worked for before (long time ago) they just charged whatever amount including writedowns without detail, because they weren't accounting focused. I now do this for the few garage clients I have. I've noticed a steady uptick in revenue with this change. I'm less inclined to writedown an invoice, and customers are less inclined to argue about it, because they know my rates are X, and they know I spent X hours there. On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 11:07 AM, David Lum <[email protected]> wrote: > I use something obsolete called Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2008 > (MS’s idea to compete with Quickbooks that didn’t pan out, I have it only > because it came packaged with other stuff). I export the invoice to Word > and fire it off to my clients…**** > > ** ** > > Is that what you mean?**** > > ** ** > > Dave**** > > ** ** > > *From:* Jonathan Link [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Wednesday, November 02, 2011 7:56 AM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: Hyper-V VM's and unnecessary heart failure**** > > ** ** > > Totally changing the subject, based on your comment about charging...**** > > **** > > How do you write your bills?**** > > On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:50 AM, David Lum <[email protected]> wrote:**** > > I charged for one hour even though I was there for **four** J. But yes > it’s both preventable or worst case easily remedied in the future.**** > > **** > > Interesting to note that it’s not just Hyper-V!**** > > **** > > Dave**** > > **** > > *From:* John Hornbuckle [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Monday, October 31, 2011 5:56 AM**** > > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues**** > > *Subject:* RE: Hyper-V VM's and unnecessary heart failure**** > > **** > > I’m not sure I’d have felt guilty for charging them for the full hour. > This seems like a rather obscure issue—not the type of thing you’d have > been expected to know (if the latter, then I definitely wouldn’t charge). > Of course, the next time this happens the client (whoever that client may > be) will benefit since you’ll be armed with the extra knowledge. :)**** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > John Hornbuckle, MSMIS, PMP**** > > MIS Department**** > > Taylor County School District**** > > www.taylor.k12.fl.us**** > > **** > > **** > > **** > > *From:* David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:31 AM > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > *Subject:* Hyper-V VM's and unnecessary heart failure**** > > **** > > Remotely working on a %nightjob% client tonight, both a VM and > corresponding host unexpectedly drop my LogMeIn connection. I see from > LogMeIn that other systems in that room are online, so I know it wasn’t the > circuit that dropped. Oh joy, I get to drive in (thankfully a short 20 min > drive).**** > > **** > > I get onsite and the host server is halted at the POST screen for the > eSATA RAID controller, and the eSATA RAID controller reports a degraded > disk on one of the two volumes. Power everything off, pull the drives, > disconnect/reconnect the cables, etc. Power it back up and everything shows > good.**** > > **** > > So the host comes up (YAY ½ way there! Well…) and I log in and watch for > the VM to start…it gets to 50% then stops, and after 15 minutes (and you > know how long 15 minutes is when you’re waiting for a **VERY** critical > server to come up don’tcha?) the VM goes back to “stopped”. **** > > **** > > As I do full volume backups nightly to the eSATA I’m not too worried yet, > but even recovering to that this client would lose a day of work (Internet > backups start at 7pm, servers went offline at 5:13pm). A cursory look at > the event logs shows nothing exciting, so I change the VM “autostart” from > 60 seconds after host OS to 500 seconds and then reboot the host.**** > > **** > > No change. Joy.**** > > **** > > Thinking maybe it’s an issue on the host I pull a two week old DISK2VHD > file that was handier than the backups, I create a new VM on the host and > use this VHD. That VM fires up just fine, but it makes me wonder if I can > just create a new VM and point to the existing disk files for this critical > server. I file that away for plan B.**** > > **** > > I hit the event logs again, I went through both system and app logs for > the timeframe including 30 mins on either side of the start failures (and > you know I tried to start that VM more than just those two times…). Somehow > I stumbled upon one of Windows 2008’s 1 zillion new logs, under Windows > logs\Applicaitons and Services logs\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V Worker and I > found my golden nugget:**** > > **** > > Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker-Admin**** > > Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Worker**** > > Date: 10/28/2011 7:02:45 PM**** > > Event ID: 12140**** > > Task Category: None**** > > Level: Error**** > > Keywords: **** > > User: NETWORK SERVICE**** > > Computer: Host4.thehosed.one.local**** > > Description:**** > > 'thehosed.one': Failed to open attachment > '\\192.168.116.249\Inst-server\Windows 2008 > R2\SW_DVD5_Windows_Svr_DC_EE_SE_Web_2008R2_64-bit_English_X15-59754.ISO'. > Error: 'The specified network name is no longer available.' (0x80070040). > (Virtual machine 97527135-A765-4700-AF66-C6FE2143391D)**** > > Event Xml:**** > > **** > > Google-Fu then returned a thread to me where someone else was having the > same issue because about a VM not starting and it turned out to be a CD-ROM > driver issue. Was the VM was failing to start because I had the CD-ROM > mapped to a network location that was no longer valid? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? > Go into VM settings, remove the CD-ROM from the config and boot the VM. > Presto! Took me just over four hours to find the necessary 2-second config > change…**** > > **** > > I charge 1.5x my normal hourly rate to break my routine and drive onsite, > somehow I think just one hour is fairhere – sometimes the lesson and the > relief that there was zero data loss for the client is reward enough!**** > > *David Lum* > Systems Engineer // NWEATM > Office 503.548.5229 //* *Cell (voice/text) 503.267.9764**** > > **** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin**** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin**** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin**** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin**** > > ** ** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin**** > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
