Do you book a minimum of 1 day's work at a time?

It takes as much effort to book 1 hour as to book 1 day, therefore your efficiency of sales work to billable work goes down when you book in multiple small appointments instead of 1 big one.

When booking in client work, always make sure you ask the client to gather enough work for 8 hours of work. The minimum amount of time per booking is 8 hours.

There are always exceptions, such as emergencies or small fixes, but do your best to limit them.

If a dev is asked to do a few hours' work on a day that he is not already booked, a good response is something like “I’m available tomorrow if you’d like to book a day. Let me know if that's ok and I'll work on this then.”

Checking for Exceptions

You should always bill an 8-hour day, unless the developer feels that some time should be written off and you agree with their assessment. Speak to the developer if you see any discrepancies.

Some developers may take it upon themselves to only timesheet for 6 or 7 hours, and book the rest internally. This should only be allowed if they have explicit permission from their manager ahead of time.

For example: