Daily rate? What is it, really?
 

Hi there,
I'm working on an edit for a company who has me on a daily rate. I'm new to this though, and not entirely sure what a daily rate entails. Is it the same as purchasing 10-hour blocks from me, no matter what day they're used? Or if I pick up the mouse for a moment to work on their project, the whole day counts? There's a lot of back and forth, small edits here and there that don't fill up a whole day's work and it's mostly a lot of waiting to hear back from them.

How should I be counting the days?

It can be anything you want, but it should have been negotiated and spelled out clearly up front before you started work. Sounds like you didn't do this, so you need to do so lickety-split so there are no misunderstandings down the road when they see your bill.

For me, there's a half day minimum, so the moment I power on the PC that's four hours. Anything more than four hours is a full day, and for that rate they get up to 12 hours.

But you need to decide what works for you.

If you're waiting on that day for them to make decisions, that counts as the day. Thinking and decision time is just as much a part of the working day as actually doing the cut.

I would work it as each day you have to work on their project is a day. Typically you should be able to give them a pretty good block of time working on their project. If you can complete your edit in half a day you still get paid for the full day. Think of it as if you had to travel to their office.

I agree that you need to have this spelled out clearly prior to starting the project but if you didn't I would have a talk with your client to have a clear understanding now.

Even if you are waiting for comments, in theory, the reason they are paying you a day rate is because it is cheaper by the hour than you regular hourly rate.

-Garrett

Thanks so much for the information. It's helped me spell out a deal I think is fair and with which they agree. Lots to learn....