Billable Items – Color Prints

[David Himel]

At our Design/Build firm we are currently billing as a reimbursable expense all plots, both color and b/w.  We tend to print on our color laser printer quite a few letter sized sheets that could be various inspirational images or cut sheets and work within a system where those prints are also billable per sheet to our clients.

Do many of you charge for prints coming off of your laser or inkjet printers or is that considered as an overhead item and not an itemized reimbursable.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I’m not going to bill someone for a letter sized print of anything. Sometimes when you are in doubt, ask yourself how you would feel if you got billed for the same item coming from someone else. Some people will not bat an eyelid, but little things like that can damage how you are perceived by a client or two that really does not make it worth it.

 

Getting nickeled and dimed in the design phase is going to scare the hell out of some of your clients before they sign a contract for the build ….. we are talking about toner, paper, and a printer that most of your client’s kids have – a different story if you are talking about large format prints. Even then it makes more sense to me that you’d include a certain amount of prints in the contract. I list how many prints I include and what extras cost in my contract. I often supply more large format prints without billing for them, but I have the option. 

 

A friend of mine used to say “one ‘oh shit’ kills ten ‘at-a-boys’ “. Getting billed for letter sized prints might be an “oh shit” moment for quite a few people.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Andrew. I’ll usually specify the number of print/copies in the contract and I’ll also note that prints for municipal approval will be reimbursable; you never know how many sets of prints will be needed to get something approved.  

[Author]

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