[Question] Free Consultation Hour

[vballiances]

For those of you that offer the first hour of consulting free, do you record that hour as income then credit off, or just not record it at all?

In a similar vein, if you donate your services to someone (like giving them an extra hour to help them out) do you charge/credit or not?

[Swannie]

I like to make an invoice with 0$ charges with the service for traceability reason.

[sksva]

thats a good idea to make an invoice with $0 to be able to track

[Swannie]

Glad you like the idea sksva. I really find it useful that way because you can review your customers history and if there's an invoice at no charge then you know they got their 1 hour of free consultation so you won't give another one unless you want too

[vballiances]

Thanks for the posts ladies. When I invoiced my client, I showed the first hour with it's regular charge, then credited it under "Free 1-hour Consultation", then went about charging the other billable hours. When my client got the invoice, they felt like they got a "deal" and liked the way I presented it.

[Wendy-Works]

I like the idea of crediting the charge. It really brings it to the clients attention.