Support contracts: monthly vs hourly
Summary
The article explores the pros and cons of monthly support contracts versus hourly billing, highlighting how fixed monthly subscriptions offer benefits like stable budgeting, less administrative overhead, and quicker issue resolution. It addresses challenges Salesforce professionals may face when switching project management approaches and shows why predictable monthly contracts can lead to better client relationships. Understanding this can help Salesforce consultants and teams negotiate more efficient support agreements and reduce friction around billing and issue tracking.
Takeaways
- Monthly contracts provide budget stability with no unexpected fluctuations.
- Fixed monthly fees reduce administrative overhead and simplify support.
- Clients can reach out anytime without financial hesitation under monthly plans.
- Monthly subscriptions foster faster resolution of issues regardless of time spent.
- Tracking precise issue metrics is harder with monthly contracts versus hourly billing.
I’ve been working with one client for a couple of years. The CEO is kind and he always had a specific vision on how he wanted the organization to grow. The projects were always fixed price, with a client business outcome. Our commercial agreements were simple and straightforward. Recently however, someone else has taken over as the main contact. This director has a very different approach to projects. He’s fixated on hourly billing, trying to squeeze every dollar to its max potential. Neither approach is technically wrong, but working with the director is proving challenging. For example, he recently requested a list of all issues they experienced in the last 12 months, what the issues were, and how long it took to fix them. As we had a monthly support contract, none of these metrics were ever tracked. That’s one of the advantages of a monthly subscription – there’s less administrative work.