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So I have a customer that I am working with. I'm trying to understand the best practice in terms of what hours can be charged to the customer. In this case the customer had background investigation paper work as well as an hour or so of orientation to their VPN environment. I'm going to have a meeting with them in the next few days where they spent a good hour and a half with me give me a technical overview over their environment. This is long-term work, meaning I'll likely be working with the customer for several months potentially longer. My question is are these chargeable hours? These are essentially all the things that are leading up to the actual work that is within the offer.
I'm simply thinking of just asking the customer. However I'm thinking they may think I'm greedy.
I'm of the opinion that, if the client is utilizing your time, then you should be getting paid for it. In any field there are things that you should already know, but what you're describing is getting up to speed on the client's specific environment. In my mind, those are billable hours, since you would have no reason to have this specific knowledge if not for this client.
