kathleen.anderson
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kathleen.andersonParticipantHi there~ Always feel free to pipe up in class. The beautiful thing about acrual is the P&L works with invoives and bills entered, so entering bills allows us to show expenses in our system before they are actually due. =)
kathleen.andersonParticipantHi ladies~
I’m so sorry to hear you all were waiting for the class last week. I’m sure that was frustrating. I am excited to see everyone this week at our regularly scheduled time!kathleen.andersonParticipantI think we can solve this by making sure income goes to an income account and not as a cost of goods sold account. We will chat about it in class tomorrow! Bring screen shots if you are comfortable sharing.
kathleen.andersonParticipantI think we can solve this by making sure income goes to an income account and not as a cost of goods sold account. We will chat about it in class tomorrow! Bring screen shots if you are comfortable sharing.
kathleen.andersonParticipantHi there~
I’m curious about a couple of things. How are you recording income under COGS? I’m wondering if you might be comfortable sharing one of the journal entries she is making (you can blank out numbers, or just type out in long hand the accounts she is moving to/from).
kathleen.andersonParticipantHi~
I will often use a Bluebeam markup to indicate these last min changes. In residential, the change order request is often a simple email to the constractor with my bluebeam drawing attached. He responds back with the price for the change, and the client can be present with the data to approve from there.
The billing for your time on this would depend on the scope outlined with the client. For me, on a residential project, this would be included in the project managment time I estimate into a full service process.
kathleen.andersonParticipantGreat question =) You know, if you are wondering something, there is always someone else wondering and not asking. When I order product I ship it to a receiver who has a loading dock, process for inspection, and storage facility. The receiver also manages the white glove delivery to the client’s home.
kathleen.andersonParticipantKate, you can take that price as high as makes sense for your projects. In your area of the country and your specialty and with the detailed designs I imagine you providing, I would guess you could move your price up substantially. They key pieces are
-know the exact deliverables you provide (the level of detail, the historic research, the exact drawings and documents, the number of meetings and revisions–for your specialty, perhaps you include some amount of revision during the project management phase as things are uncovered during construction?)
-be really comfortable explaining your process. Think of anything else we sell in this business. A rug for instance. And how we can easily explain to a client why they should spend 10x the average price of a rug for a vintage, hand knotted wool piece from Turkey because we tell the story, talk about the durability, the texture, the process of construction and whatever else. This is the exact same way we would explain our services and what we bring to the table in a way that informs the client of all the value that comes from working with us and makes them happy to invest in an above average service for their home.kathleen.andersonParticipantCorrect!
kathleen.andersonParticipantLove this! I reached out to my contact and they are only doing larger commercial projects. I have found engineers through my network many times. Try asking contractor friends/colleages or architects! People are typically super happy to help!
kathleen.andersonParticipantAs you gain more experience, you will get a better feel for actually how long a project may take and you can build a more accuate estimate based on that instead of the amount of time predicted by the contractor. I find that contractors predict a shorter timeline than I believe the actual project may take 100% of the time. I will have a conversation with the client about that, and base my estimate on contruction managment upon my experienced guess.
kathleen.andersonParticipantThank you, Yahaira! Here is the whole folder link!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HQvA14JpEnlZqAUpnLNQdjDyxyC76yiM?usp=sharingkathleen.andersonParticipantHi~
Great question. The list of deliverables really informs the fair price of an interior design service, so it’s impossible to say a fair price without seeing the full list of deliverables. I’m super happy to comment on anything you put in the forum here, and also happy to coaching packages for more detail on items you’re not comfortable sharing in the group. Shooting from the hip, we know that design for construction nationally averages from 1-$14/ SF. For a high end home with lots of millwork or custom tile patterns, I will go way over this amount. For a more streamlined design for a builder or low-maintance client with basic millwork and basic tile selections I work on the middle to lower end of this range. Based on your location, I might lean towards the higher number. If there is much detail or need for revisions in the process, I think you have room to move the price point up.kathleen.andersonParticipantI do collect upfront, but you could collect however works for you.
By lump sum I’m meaning a defined scope of services for a firm price. For example, this could look like a preconstruction for a master bath including xyz list of deliverables for $7,000. (Making up a number just for conversaion). Two things make this work. 1) the very defined list of deliverables 2) very clear communication with the client about that list of deliverables.
kathleen.andersonParticipantThank you for the additional questions! I’m always happy to go deeper. So I think of the budget in three really specific categories and I have really specific deliverables for each.
To answer #1 from above
Pre-construction Deliverables:
-one project kick off meeting
-one presentation meetings (with mood board, floor plans, and all selections)
-two rounds of revisions (based on complete comments recieved 2 days after presentation)
-two revisions meetings (shorter than initial presentation meeting
-*sometimes* I add managing a bid process with no more than three builders (if I do, additional time for this is included in my lump sum pre-construction design price)
-buildable plans
-all interior selections (I list out selections included when I price the project)
-clear picture of the overall budgetConstruction Management
-jobsite walks
-follow-up communication with builder
-client update meetingsFurnishings
-one furnishings project kick off meeting (set goals and expectations)
-one presentation meetings (with mood board, floor plans, and all selections)
-two rounds of revisions (based on complete comments recieved 2 days after presentation)
-two revisions meetings (shorter than initial presentation meeting
-complete interior furnishings plans and specs
-complete interior furnishings pricing#2
I would still try to break out the distinct phases of design if I was doing an hourly. Keep really really good records so you can move to flat fee on the design parts as soon as possible. It’s such a better experience for the client when they have a very clear idea of what they are getting into from an investment standpoint from the beginning.#3
Design is always a flat fee service for me. I’ve been more profitable since I’ve switched to flat fee and I feel more creative juice. Construction Management is typically some sort of hourly blocks because the scope of what I offer varies quite a bit. The main thing is to make sure to pair the right level of management to the project and to be very very clear with yourself, your team, your client, and the contractors about your role and responsibilities.#4
I think you are doing the right thing to get a little bit of experience using an hourly billing method. You can switch to lump sum as soon as you are feeling comfortable with your ability to predict how many hours a project is going to take. I would go ahead and start setting benchmarks for yourself and see how your actual hours line up with your prejected hours.Let know if this is helpful and what other questions are coming up!
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