Hot take: I stopped tracking billable hours for my team last quarter

For years, I ran my web design agency with a strict 40-hour billable week target for each developer... it created so much stress and weird time logging. I switched to a flat project fee model in January after reading a case study from an agency in Boulder. Now, my team focuses on finishing the work, not the clock, and our project margins actually went up by about 18%. I know everyone says time tracking is key, but it just made us feel like factory workers. Has anyone else moved away from hourly billing and seen better results?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_jones396d ago

Saw a whole thread about this on a freelancer forum last week. The general vibe was that hourly billing punishes you for getting good and fast at your job. Flat fees make way more sense for creative work. Your numbers back that up. Seems like the old way just measures the wrong thing.

noraj796d ago

Yeah, that's the common take. The real trick is quoting the flat fee right so you don't end up working for free on endless revisions.