Originally Posted by
Endus
I just read the first page, so maybe you mentioned what business you're in, but to use a comparison, we had reno work done last year on our house. We got an estimate from the contractor, and some things came in under, some over. That's to be expected.
However, the bill is itemized. And that's where the problem with what you're describing comes in.
If you tell the client that your worker's time is $50/hour for labor, but then you double the hours he actually works so you can make more money, that's fraud. Like, actual crime. If they'd said the worker's time was $100 and charged the same final tally, it wouldn't be fraudulent.
Like, consider if we were talking material costs. You give the client a price for flooring, and then double how much square footage they actually need, and then you take all the extra material so you can use the "extra" the client paid for to redo your own house. Theft, obviously, right? Yeah. Same difference, really.
In your case, you say you need 5-15% of time on top of the original estimation. And your boss is putting 30% in. So, it comes down to this; is this just what he's putting in the estimate? Or is he charging 30% regardless of your actual time investment? Being generous on the estimate to avoid any chance of price shock with overruns is kinda fine. The latter is charging the client for work that wasn't actually done, which is fraud.
This is assuming the quote prices it out as a labor price, though, and not a surcharge for the labor output. If he's pricing the value of your product at 30% of the price charged to the client, but only valuing your time and effort at 5-15%, you're the one being hosed by your boss, not the client.