I just went to a finance and billing training for my "day job" and they were talking about how they bill their clients -- its a consulting firm. All these years I didn't realize that they charge a "communication fee" of from 1% to 1.6% to cover printing and phone usage. I thought it was an interesting concept. Not sure what I'm going to do with that information yet, but I thought it was interesting.

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

I have to disagree somewhat with your answers.

You should charge a flat rate per packet or you should break it down per piece. The best solution is to charge a flat rate per packet.

When it comes to printing the job. The rule of thumb is purchase a color laser printer (recommend HP avg $500) and do the job in house. If the project is run is 500 or less per month, you do it inhouse (at home). This includes B&W white copies.

Now if you do decided to go to Kinkos, Staples or extra and you are going to run them in bulk. Go to stapes or office depot and sign up for staples reward program. Your pricing will be better and you will get a rewards check to use at staples quarterly. My average is $50 dollars a month.

Kinkos is suppose to charge a set up fee average $25 per project if there is any collating or etc. Lot of times the collating is done by the machine and they will charge you manual labor.

I used to be manager for Kinkos for 6 years and I have manage facilities sites for law firms, gov't and private offices.

Not at my personal computer, but let me see if I still have some of the links to use to help with the cost.


Julian

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Julian Johns
Administrative Data Services

I recently had to do this with a new client. I'm printing their monthly letter on my home printer and mailing it out for them. They sent me envelopes and stamps; I charge them $0.10 per page for printing. I figured out the cost per page (cost of paper and ink) and then rounded up to $0.10. I have a small printer and the ink carts don't last very long. It works for me, though, as I don't do a lot of it.

I have done it both ways. Charged for number of copies and paper with the added charge of toner, plus my labor costs. Also, if I actually designed the product as well, I would have a fee for creating the design of the project for the business. But after the initial costs, if they come back for reprinting of same documents, then I would just do a basic hourly fee.

Wow, thanks for posting this thread. As a newbie I found it interesting, I guess because I hadn't considered a large print job. I will definately be charging clients for printing in these circumstances.

For things like welcome packets and such, I charge by the piece. I use the cost breakdown that came with my printers. I have this language in my contracts so my clients aren't surprised when they get the bill. I also quote them ahead of time what the charge could be.

This is a VERY old thread, but I wanted to follow up and clarify on my answer as I ran across this conversation again today [love that about forums!], in reply to Mary - what I was trying to say is: for a large run I'd use a print shop and all costs would go to the client. For a small job [just a few pieces] I would do it in-house and not add incidental charges.

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Hi All,

I was searching for a specific opinion, and this thread was the closest I found.

I have a large customer who pays a flat hourly rate for all activates I do for them, regardless of if the task is to label envelopes or create a sales forecast spreadsheet.

I am currently doing a mail merge project that prints out 70 high quality certificates on my printer, and because they are high quality, it is taking about 2 minutes for each to print.

I don't feel it is fair to charge for the printer's time It is taking a long time to print out the certificates, and I'm multi-tasking and working on other projects. Am I being too generous by not charging the time? I don't think I am, but I'd be interested in your thoughts...

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Warmest Regards,
Stephanie - Essential Pursuit, Inc.