Time is money, or arguments for and against hourly pay.

I recently told a friend that I was going to hire a freelancer for a one-time job. A friend who left for the United States 15 years ago asked me - “How much do you plan to pay him an hour?”.

-At one o'clock? - I was surprised. - We have no one pays for the time, only for the work done.
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A friend began to argue with me, convincing that time-based payment is the best. And I thought. And I decided to make a list of the pros and cons (and also concerns) of the introduction of hourly wages for both the employee and the employer.

I must say that the picture was not very clear. So…

Suppose you have a task and you are looking for an artist. What does a typical scenario look like when paying for work done?

1. The customer must write the Technical Assignment as completely and thoroughly as possible. Forget nothing and prevent double interpretation.
2. The contractor reads the TOR and, based on his experience, determines how much time is needed to create the product and how much he wants to get for it.
3. The customer and performer bargain for a long time at a price. It is very likely that several options will be compared (which means several performers will study TK for free).
4. The estimated time to complete the project is determined. Often the customer likes to establish penalties for delay.
5. The project is divided into stages. The performer also wants to eat regularly, so after the completion of each stage he is paid money.

And then comes the hour of Hy, the performer shows the first version of the product ... and the customer clutches his head. No, he did not see this in his pink dreams, he did not dream about it, his clients are not ready to pay for it.
- Paaaazvolte! - says the performer and pokes a finger in the TK - here it is written.


Then begins a long and uncomfortable dialogue about who wrote how and who understood what. As a result, both sides make concessions. The customer pacifies his expectations and steps on the throat of his dream, and the contractor agrees to further refine the product. As a result, one side breaks up with the first batch of money, and the second one acquires it, but both have the feeling that they ... (deceived a little).

Then comes the second act of Marlezonsky ballet and everything is repeated in a new way. Again, the cries of “oh, I really didn’t want at all” and the cries of “give money, give money”.


Most likely, by the middle of the project, the customer and the performer (as if a young family) will prihtrutsya to each other, learn to understand at a glance and to compromise. Then the project has a good chance to complete successfully.

If the performer relies too much on the TZ, and the customer doesn’t express his unspoken dreams, the couple may speak foul things and run away. It is clear that the history of the product will end there.


Now we will consider another scenario, when the customer is ready to pay the contractor during the work on the project.

1. The customer does not write TK. Or he writes, but with the degree of detail he wants. The contractor in the course of work on the project will clarify his vision of the finished product.
2. The customer and the contractor agree on the cost per hour (or day) and the estimated duration of the project. And also about how often the money will be paid (for example, once a week).
3. The contractor periodically presents intermediate versions of the product. The customer says what he likes and what doesn't. The performer meekly reworking everything - because his time is paid.
4. At the end of the week, the performer sends a report on how many hours were spent on the project. The customer pays.
5. In the end, through long iterations, the performer creates the product that the customer dreamed of.

Hooray hooray everyone is happy. Right heaven ...



Figushki! Most likely it will be so ...

• The customer does not believe that the contractor really spent XX hours on the project. Because he is sure / the experts told him that in fact there was two times less work here.
• The customer believes that the performer is a poor specialist and therefore works too slowly. Where others have time for an hour, it takes three. And who pays all this ??!
• The customer was counting on a different budget. He multiplied the cost of an hour by the estimated duration of the project. And all this pleasure is already twice as expensive!
• Corollary from the previous paragraph. Customer has run out of money ...

What is the first conclusion you can do? If you have a limited budget in conjunction with a well-written TK, then choose the option of payment for the project . Take off a bunch of risks. Although the ideal product, most likely, do not get.

We continue to think. What do customers fear?

1. Falsifications in reports on the number of hours spent.
2. Low qualifications of performers, and as a result, a long work on the project and errors.

The problem of falsification is solved in two ways:

1. Technical control over the process of the contractor.
2. Control of his reputation.

Unfortunately, the situation with reputation control is not very good. Not all deceived customers will write a negative review. Not all customers know that they were deceived. Not all customers read reviews about artists. And many performers receive orders from several sites.

There are a lot of systems for technical control. They are offered by both independent developers and freelancer exchanges (the same Upwork). They work independently or are embedded in the IDE. They are divided into three main groups:

1. The contractor marks the start of work on the project and the time of its completion. The system at the end of the reporting period generates a report how long the contractor spent on the project. Minus for the customer - you have to believe the word performer.
2. The system periodically takes screenshots of the developer’s computer screen. The customer receives a report complete with screenshots and, in theory, must make sure that the performer was really busy with the work. In fact, at that moment, he could have done another project on another PC.
3. The monitoring system allows you to record the video screen of the developer or view it in real time

The best result is obtained by combining the first and third methods. In this case, the developer will be sure that his every working minute will be paid, and there will be no conflicts with the customer. If earlier a vicious customer could say - “But I don’t believe that you worked so much,” but now he can show a video recording.



But the qualification of the performer is very difficult to measure. One developer writes quickly, but puts a lot of mistakes. Another quality, but slowly. The third is good for everyone, but does not know the necessary API / frameworks for the project, which are studied right on the go, often for the customer’s money.



How to be here?

Discuss in advance all the technologies that will be used in the project and require from the performer knowledge of these technologies at a sufficient level.

Yes, it is difficult, but it requires an understanding of the process and some knowledge from the customer himself, but the Internet is filled with stories of enthusiastic giggling freelancers about how they joyfully took on the development of AngularJS, having first heard about it from the customer.

And then follows advice to beginners - always do it! They say that the author himself used to be a complete zero in programming, and in the process of development he learned (with hourly rates, of course).

Set penalties for exceeding the number of errors . Of course to write a completely clean code is impossible. But the professional is precisely the one different from the amateur who is ready to answer for the quality. And absolutely frank bloopers he always catches.

Do not be greedy . Good specialists are expensive, but they work quickly and usually without any problems. Unlike novice coders, who will take a little, but they will pull money “before the carrot”.



The only thing - they are in demand and, perhaps, will be engaged not only in your project. Therefore, it makes sense to specify either the deadlines for completion, or the% of time that the contractor will spend on your project.

In general, the conclusion can be drawn as follows.

Hourly pay is more profitable for both the contractor and the customer, but if the performer’s qualifications are in line with the customer’s expectations, as well as with proper time control.