Switched to a time tracker after a messy project in June and saw exactly where my hours go

I had this one project back in June for a local dentist's office where I totally underestimated the work. They wanted a simple inventory system, but between their weird database setup and constant change requests, I ended up working like 60 hours for a flat fee I quoted at 30. After that I started using Toggl, and it was eye-opening. In my first month I found out I was spending about 15 hours a month on stuff like admin emails and looking up old code snippets that had nothing to do with the actual project. It made me realize I need to either build buffer time into my estimates or charge separately for those extras. Has anyone else had a similar wake-up call with time tracking?

3 comments

3 Comments

shane_morgan4h ago

Laughing at "scope creep tax" because that's just a fancy way of saying "I have no idea what I'm doing but here's a random number I pulled out of thin air." Honestly, tracking time felt like getting slapped in the face with a wet fish - useful but not fun.

wesley6397h ago

So did you end up going back to that dentist and telling them you needed to renegotiate, or did you just eat the loss and learn your lesson? I'm curious because I've been in that spot before where you're already deep in the hole and it feels awkward to ask for more money halfway through. Tracking my own time showed me something similar - I was spending way too long on stuff like reformatting spreadsheets that the client could have done themselves. That buffer time thing you mentioned, do you just add a flat percentage on top of your estimate or do you actually track those overhead costs and bill them separately?

jesse_smith107h ago

Saw a blog post about this where the guy called it "scope creep tax" and suggested adding 15-20% upfront as a fudge factor rather than tracking every little thing separately. Makes sense to me since clients tend to get weird about nickel-and-diming on tiny stuff.