[Katya]

Hello,

I'm new to freelancing and have drawn up a quote, breaking the project up into tasks and giving an estimate of how long I think each task will take. It's a bit of guesswork at this stage as no content has been written - but what do you do if a job takes less time than you quote? Do you then inform the client and charge less?

[Coops]

No. Charge more, if anything.

Seriously though, quote the job with estimated times. If the client agrees that cost, then that's what they will expect to be invoiced. No need to reduce the final cost if it took one hour less than anticipated. You will soon find that it works both ways - sometimes you may take longer than originally quoted. Swings and roundabouts and all that.

[venturewise]

Hmm... actually I really do charge less if it took only 45 hours and not 55. I do this to (hopefully) make the client feel I am trustworthy and 'on their side' and as a result, get more work from them and anyone they refer me to :-)

It helps that I always over-estimate, because I am also covered if there are more "tweaks" than planned by the client and it does stretch the hours.

[d*d]

I make sure my quotes are very specific, that way when there are changes later on; they want some flash animation or they are adding pages I can charge more accordingly