Billing
Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before any work starts. We never bill by the hour.
Why we never bill by the hour
An adviser who bills by the hour earns more the longer your work takes. Every extra meeting, letter and week goes on the invoice, and you take the hours on trust. Nobody has to act in bad faith for that to cost you: the way they are paid does it quietly, on every job.
A fixed fee turns that round. You know the cost before you commit, and we earn the same however long the work takes, so we have every reason to finish quickly and get it right first time. If it runs longer than we priced for, the cost is ours, not yours.
When the size of the job is not known at the start
Claims and disputes work often depends on records we have not yet seen, or on how your main contractor responds. We still fix the fee, in stages. The first stage reviews the material and sizes the job. Each stage after that has its own fixed fee, agreed in writing before it starts. You decide between stages, knowing what the next one will cost.
How fees are charged
Every service is a fixed fee: a defined scope for an agreed price, however long the work takes. A service page tagged Optional monthly check also offers recurring work for a set fee each month. If the scope changes, we agree the change and its fee with you in writing before we do that work.
How our timescales work
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise. Where the turnaround is stated in working days, the confirmed start day is day zero.
The turnaround ends when we issue the agreed deliverable and its supporting handover documents. We will confirm the target date for your agreed work.
Tell us about any live deadline straight away. Contractual or statutory deadlines continue to run while information is being gathered.