http://www.krupo.ca/archive/2008/12/06/profit-margins-how-they-work-for-accountants-and-others.aspx

Easier said than done, perhaps. But you should have a protocol in place for situations like that – identifying the “extra time”. Your timesheet should always reflect the work you did, otherwise you’re dealing with unethical employers. And you’re also screwing over whoever is expected to hit an insane target next year.

I have more to say on this topic – I’ll write up a post.

Before I run off and do that, also remember that while “chargeable” and “billable” is used interchangeably by some firms, the former is generally used to describe time by staff, and the latter is used to describe time billed to clients.

You may charge time which won’t be billed. That’s a business decision.

You won’t decide which time will be billed until you’re in a higher ranked position though.

Profitability wins and you’re pretty much judged based on it…regardless of whether partners are open about it or not.

It’s a fine line b/c partners at my firm tell us to charge everything, but if you’re over budget often then you’re done for.

It kills me because if lots of people eat their time, then this snowballs and budgets become unreasonable.

I freaked out about hours and budgets all the time during my co-op semesters. We used to bitch and moan about our chargeability during lunch for 4 months and it felt amazing going back to school because I didn’t have to worry about how long it was taking to finish tasks.