30th August 2004, 11:16 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle
Archaeology as a Business.
Similarly we could discuss if a hard hat given to a client is a legitimate extra, marketing, or is it a general overhead? (It affects which tax category you put the item in).
It depends - if the hardhat carries your logo and phone number, and you don't get it back, it is marketing.
How do you get away with 33% on computers? Last year it was 100%, but I thought the chancellor moved it back again - I could be wrong.
Other things abour wages - employees can 'cost' up to 70% of their wages, when training etc is taken into account (ie if they are going to be employed professionally). So to offer a 20K wages could cost the business 30K or more. I think the leap from consultant to contractor can be tricky!
I've seen building contractors who divide 10 million annual turnover using a simple 50% labour, 30% materials and 20% overheads and 20% profit.
A chartered surveyor I worked with simply added 15% for profit to his hourly fee, but didn't charge for milage. He was ?50 per hour, ?150 for verbal advice and ?450 for written, because of the PI. He also had a ICS list of recommended prices for different types of work, which he used as a guide. I'm not sure if he had to follow them, but it meant you would select a surveyor on quality as the prices would be similar. Recommended minumums aren't a bad idea.
As you said, income-cost=profit whatever the division.
I don't tender competively much either. If I'm not already working to a sum fixed by the client (off the top of their heads), I first think of a figure off the top of my head according to what I reckon. Then I work it out top-down, breaking the project into phases, labour, materials, travel etc and estimate number of days/miles, calculated against rates. Then I estimate how many units of work I have to complete (eg survey records/ponts), and how long each unit will take. This gives me three different types of figures, which I then compare and mess around with further on the spreadsheet.
Some clients want a breakdown, others a single figure. One had a fixed sum but wouldn't tell me what is was, and I had to play quotation battleships with him by sending 6 different submissions until I sunk him.
It can be hard to get a client to pay for 'extras' (another common builders invoice item), and I also try to give a price menu based on units, if I can - so the client can work out for themselves how many units thet can afford.
Archaeologists often seem to work to fixed prices whatever the circumstances - this is one thing that we need to change. How do the prices of construction projects manage to spiral (Say the Scottish parliament) when they at least have the luxury of defining a finished job. Maybe this is for the curators to work on.
I don't see the IFA being able to handle all this stuff and would like to see an institute of chartered archaeologists, for independant professionals with high entrance qualifications, close accountability and annual review. I think I'm rambling now.
All the best
Pete Muckle