Charging for development

[SteveB_NI]

I've designed and developed websites for several linked schools which I was asked to do as part of my employment at this school - all done & everyone happy (including me as I enjoy doing this type of work).

 

Now... 1 of the schools has asked me if I'd consider doing a similar website for another school (not linked to this school in anyway) - with no mention as yet of possible payment. Now, I am employed by this school, so not as a contractor.

 

I would only be able to work on the new school site outside of my working hours, so it would involve my own time being spent entirely on it. Obviously I'm going to want payment for this, but as I'm not self-employed as it were, how do I stand in charging the new school for my time? I certainly wouldn't be charging a large amount for this site. Do I need to run this past my current employer as I'm going to possibly be benefiting from work I done through this employment?

 

Cheers for any advice.

[soveryapt]

I guess you the option is to sit down with your SLT and talk about it. It might be that actually the school would like to hire you out to this other school, which would mean a bit of cash for them, some extra money for you and all the tax etc is taken care of.

 

The second option is, after going through the actions for the first option, to take it on yourself. Now this should only be done once the first option has been exhausted to keep things sweet with everyone and gets round your worry about benefiting through your current employment. If they don't want to hire you out, make sure you get in writing that you have had the meeting and that you plan to undertake the work for the other school charging in your own time etc.

 

In terms of the charging for your time, you would have to invoice them (obviously) and keep a record of this that you can then submit on a self assessment return sometime next year, it's fairly straight forward on the whole thing.

 

The final option, again with the acceptance of your current SLT, is that the school that have asked you to do the website hire you as an employee for the time it takes to do the task, which would also take care of your tax side of things for you.

[SteveB_NI]

Thanks for your reply - it doesn't matter now anyway - once they realised I was going to be wanting to charge for it, they seem to have ran a mile.

 

Typical!

[soveryapt]

Thanks for your reply - it doesn't matter now anyway - once they realised I was going to be wanting to charge for it, they seem to have ran a mile.

 

Typical!

 

Typical indeed - now if it was being done as a favour from one school to another (in that your school was going to allow you to use your time in school to do the development) then I could understand, but if they were expecting you to do it out of the goodness of your own heart in your own time then it's a little different.

 

I mean, I do charitable work and I will support a couple of charities from time to time by offering a gratis service, but this is subsidised by them having a supporters page where I can place a small advert etc, but I doubt a school would allow you to do this as they wouldn't be able to be seen promoting services etc.

 

Ah well, no money, but at least you found out now instead of doing the work and then them going "oh you wanted paying .. erm"

[SimpleSi]

Just in case it comes up again - if your within same LEA, you should just be able to claim extra hours and have it charged to the other schools cost centre.

 

I do this in Lancs and just tell them I'll be charging 10-15 hours and what my approx cost is /hour (wages+20% for pensions etc)

 

This way all tax issues are sorted

 

regards

Simon

[stevehann]

I think you should claim for the extra ours you will spend

[peterp]

As a general rule, as long as you declare your extra income (self assessment form I'd imagine) then you can do any work you wish in your own time, and charge as you see fit. Some institutions would have it in their contract that you couldnt work in the same line as you do for them, with a competitor, but this wont apply to public sector/schools.