Flat rate burned me on a database cleanup, went back to hourly

Took on a job in Austin last month for what I thought was a simple database mess. Quoted flat at $900, figured two days max. Turned out the client's backups were garbage and I had to rebuild three tables from scratch. Took me five full days. Made about $22 an hour after it was all said and done. I get the appeal of flat rate for predictable work, but any job where you can't see the data first is a trap. Has anyone else had a flat rate quote explode on them because the scope was hidden?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_laura4d ago

Buddy of mine quoted flat on what looked like a quick CRM fix. Turned out their sales team had been typing phone numbers into the notes field for years. He ate three weeks of evenings on that one. Hourly feels safer when the dirt is hiding under the rug.

perry.jesse4d ago

Ever had one of those jobs where the customer swears it's just a tweak, then you find out their whole system is held together with chewing gum and prayers? I once did a "small" invoice fix and ended up tracing a bug back to a guy who'd been using the notes field to store his grocery list. That spreadsheet had more hidden junk than my garage after a decade. Now I always ask for a peek at the raw data first, because the dirt is always deeper than the first layer of carpet.