Video Client Billing and Exporting/Uploading

So how does everyone go about charging clients for export time/uploading? I've got a reoccurring project that involves an edit, review then upload to third party. Then I export it again with a few specific minor changes two more times and upload to two other locations. Export can take 20 minutes or so, Uploads can take anywhere from 1-3 hours. Curious about how/if others would charge for this.

We never include encoding or uploading time when we charge clients. Simply because while that is happening, we're usually doing work for a different client, or in-house work. Or taking lunch and flying drones or training dogs. If you sit there and twiddle your thumbs while an upload or encode takes place, well, you're the one wasting time, not the client's work. Just my two cents. I'm sure others have a variety of perspectives on this issue.

Thank you for your input! I am curious about a certain aspect of what you said though "usually doing work for a different client". I understand that while uploading files and working on another clients items is trivial exporting is sometimes different. It can take enough resources away to impact working on other projects. Would you not charge for that time even though you are unable to complete other tasks at the same time?

nlbailey wrote: … It can take enough resources away to impact working on other projects. …

uploading data does? hmmm....

In my ad-agency days, some hundred years ago, the offer mentioned vague 'handling fees', which sums up from nightshift pizza delivery to printer paper. If no such position - no money.

and:
when your client tells you "you get another tape tomorrow morning by parcel services" - you invoice 24 'working hours'???

As a client I would never accept 'upload' in your bill..

I solved this problem by making sure my rate was inclusive (and at a decent price point) from the beginning of the project. That way, the client doesn't feel "nickel and dimed" for everything and I feel I'm being compensated, too. Its worked well for me with big agencies and single project clients.

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

nlbailey wrote: … It can take enough resources away to impact working on other projects. …

uploading data does? hmmm....

If you re-read that statement it was in regards to exporting not the uploading. I understand that uploading can be done while working on other clients projects or just started and checked on later most of the time but I was referring to exporting/rendering that uses system resources. If I'm doing say a resource heavy export in After Effects I'm not going to be jumping over and working in FCPX in the meantime so would you not charge for that time? I appreciate all input!

For our business, any work subsequent to the original project (re-edits, mastering for other formats, text changes, etc.) are billed at our hourly post production rate. Original projects are based on a contracted price (with or without change-orders) but any modifications to that project after signoff and approval is always billed at an hourly rate. We factor in our time to complete the change and in most cases we do charge some time for re-encoding and re-producing a new deliverable, while not taking advantage of the client in overpricing that. We have always been fair with clients and they in turn have never balked at our pricing.

No, exporting and uploading have never stopped me from working on the next client's project. We work on things back to back. We don't have time to wait for an export or upload to finish before starting the next job. We turn a successful profit.

If you're hardware and/or situation won't allow for that, you have to make the call yourself. Can you justify charging the client for time you sit doing nothing but waiting? You're not doing work, you're waiting, and doing something else, be it eat lunch, make coffee, chat with coworkers, or fly a toy drone around the office. You're doing something that is not the client's work while that export or upload is taking place. Yes, the work is being done, but not by you, by the machine.

My printer doesn't charge me the time it takes for my fliers to be printed. Only for the paper, ink, and time to set it up to run, and bundle it when done.

Ben, we never charge for uploading anything. Hardware is not an issue, and we have 3 edit bays including some offsite support, so there is rarely a conflict there. BUT - we do have a minimum charge for anything that goes thru our studio. We don't bill by the minute like lawyers, and we are not charging for machine computation time. But even the simplest and shortest re-encoding entails some work, such as setup (which is minimal) and then screening of the finished encode to make sure it is good (which could take minutes or an hour or two depending on the project). That is real time being spent by someone. Followed in some cases, if not uploaded, by copying that file to some type of media (usually thumb drive). Then there is data entry to update the client file, generate an invoice and update the ledger, ,etc. which we DO NOT charge for. So it would seem to me that a minimum rate charge is justified for providing clients with short new deliverables, and a bit higher charge for longer new deliverables. Obviously there are always exceptions.

When you're testing a new encode, only do about 1 or 2 minutes (easily done in both FCPX and Compressor), save time.

Be sure all manual labor time is covered for sure, or you loose money. I was address if you charge for time "waiting" for encoding or uploading to happen, as I interpreted the OP.

We do a mix of per hour and per job, depending on what needs to be done. Which ever covers our expenses and makes the accounting easier for that job. Each one can be tricky that way, as you said.

I don't think we've delivered on physical media in over a year. Usually using Dropbox or Google Drive. But I know lots of folks still do it that way. Not all clients are up to date with their technology. HA!