What can you charge as a consultant?

Question

I'm new in to consultant...Items such as air fare, office expense, long distance calls, etc...do I charge them separately as direct cost or you estimate how much it and added to the project fee.

Answer 1

I always charge travel expenses ... airfare, hotel, meals, tips, rental cars, and even mileage from my home to the airport. I will also charge for unusually large amounts of office supplies (lots of photocopies, for example). I don't charge office expense, internet costs, or long distance calls ... this is covered in my hourly rate.

Answer 2

From accounting point of view:
these expenses are are direct exp in your financial statements, so they are in the cost of profit.
From client point of view, the whole process is consultation fees, and it can go to any section they choose in their financial statements, depending on how they classified it, plus the importance of your consultations in their product/service strructure.

so, you have to look at their project, estamate the REAL cost, and add some percentage just in case the cost goes higher for some reason, and then ad your profit margin as a number or percentage, and I think its better for you to add it as a number, because some project costs could be very small, or very high which could cause your charges to be unrealistic.

Regards