How do you bill for your assets?

[Jeff Mottle]

Was a bit curious how everyone handled this. Let's say you have a project to do and it requires a plugin, textures, software etc that you must purchase especially for the project. Do you guys bill the client for this or consider it a cost of business? Does it depend upon if you will use it again or how much it costs?

 

 

Jeff

[Sawyer]

This has come up for me a few times, I usually just figure it to be an operating expence, and keep the reciept for tax time. A few times I up my prices for the next job. Haven't been able to convince a client that they need to shell out some more money for a new toy for me but I honeslty haven't tried,

[ingo]

Me too. When i need a special plugin or software to get a job its just a part of the business plan, same is with updates. I work now with a renderer that is 18 month old (means two updates from the actual version) and when i need some of the new features for a job i update my software. A part of your business plan should be for special costs like that. But of course it depends on what that plugin costs especially in regard to what you get for the job.

 

regards

 

ingo

[mzagorski]

How do you bill for your assets --> (_o_)(_o_)

 

LOL... maybe we can ask Britney or Christina eh...

[quizzy]

I think it depends on how many times you CAN use it for other projects. I am going to buy Virtools prob. its 5000 EUR. And I have two options then:

If I only use it once, i'll have to make some kind of deal with the virtools guys to rent the software. If that isn't an option, i'll buy it anyway and make the VR thing one of my business services. The software will be written of in one or two years. so: 5000 / 1200 hours (600 hours per year) = 4.20 EUR an hour. So I have to raise my hourly rate when I use VIRtools.

For the rental option, i'll just add the costs to my hourly rate. You can never bill the whole 5000 euro onto the client.

I think with plugins this is a whole different deal: If you think that you are only using the plugin once for a certain project. (This would be a plugin that has nothing to do with your services. Let's say you're in the architectural visualisation business then a plugin like Digimations Ventriloquist could be charged directly onto the client. Also the prices of plugins are often less then full software.

 

No matter if you're buying software or plugins, you should allways bill some or the whole thing to the client, because there are also some hours needed to learn the plugin or software (wich you can not bill!!)

[jucaro]

Same here. The company I work for just adds the cost of the software to the OPEX and then adds a 5% markup to the projects that uses the plugin until ROI. Its been fair so far.