What expenses for travel do you charge clients?

wallacebob

General query: Those of you that charge expenses - how much do you charge?

I do work for a client on two basis;
Firstly I do work for a fixed fee, where I have to cover all expenses (travel, hotel, etc) from that fee. Therefore I work as hard and fast as possble to cut down expenses!
Secondly, I do training for their clients employees, or act as tutor when they organise open training days. I this case I have always charged expenses as extra. This was agreed, as I am not in control of time and location.
I usually have to travel the night before to make sure I'm at the venue on time, or travel long distances as there aren't many people able to do the training.
I know that when the training is for a customer's own staff on their premises, my client charges the expenses I have billed as extra to the training day cost. When it's an open day course, they have to cover the cost from the course fees. Therefore if not many sign up for the course, they have a high cost per candidate to recoup from their fee.

So... I have charged 35p per mile plus resonable hotel costs for over 12 months with no complaints. I felt this was resonable, and only covered my costs
BUT... a couple of courses I had to do recently involved over 600 miles travel, and subsequent moans about cost.
They now say they won't pay more than 25p per mile. This is going to hurt me!

What do others charge, or feel is reasonable expenses to recoup in self employment?

Errata

40p a mile if I'm charging mileage. Have a look at the AA site, it has a mileage calculator for business use rated by engine size. HTH

Savvy_Sue

I know some organisations pay 40p per mile for journies up to a certain distance, but less than that (possibly 25p per mile) for longer journies, because they say it is probably cheaper to travel those distances by other means, eg by hire car.

And I also believe that the 40p per mile rate (which is the maximum an employer can pay without getting into complications with HMRC) is only for the first X000 miles per year, and after that it goes down.

So that may be why they're wanting to reduce your travel costs for these events.

but of course these are the rates paid by employers to their employees, and you're not an employee.

So, can you afford to walk away (because you can charge what you need to in order to cover costs)? And if not, what scope is there for negotiation?

Debt_Free_Chick

I just factor expenses into the fee, rather than listing them as additional. Avoids the kind of situation you face, where clients want to barter about mileage rate and/or suggest you stay in a less-expensive hotel/B&B.

Once you know location, could you not adjust the fee accordingly? Even your day rate could include travel - or state that day rate depends on location/travel.

wallacebob

Thanks for replies. I think the problem is two-fold; they want to be able to quote quickly, but the quality of their staff means that most can only give a base price from a list, not work out costs on top! So it usually means I have to give them a rough guide in a hurry, and then the client queries if it is more. I have suggested a postcode pricing band, which should be easy to work out.

I think they are just a bit tight, and to be honest I can do without the training hassle if push comes to shove! BUT it is lucrative for them, so I think they will negotiate.