How to calculate project timescales and costs

We’ve gone around in circles at The Site Doctor trying to decide the best method to calculate project costs and timings, historically I would look at the project brief, have a think about how much I wanted to work for a client and then I would –in effect- pluck a figure out of the air.

As your company grows however you will need to think about a more scalable, resilient solution that reduces the chance of under quoting and I think we have a fairly nice solution so I thought I would share it :)

Firstly, read up on how to set your base rate (see: Pricing your work). Once you have calculated your base rate, you will need to download this spreadsheet when offering the client various options, each option is given its own row on the summary table which is calculated off a dedicated sheet of times.

The formatting is fairly simple and mainly for your own use but basically the main areas of development (i.e. the front end, my account or admin areas) use a grey background. The sub sections of these (i.e. Product management) use a yellow background and all other items have a white background, the main reason for this was when you have a large project it made it a lot easier to identify where you were. The top columns are not set but they’re just what we most commonly use, you can alter these as needed on the summary sheet.

How to use it

1. Add all your site elements (usually based on your sitemap) into the first column, separating each one out onto its own line.
2. Go through each item, estimating the time required to complete the task. Remember that the spreadsheet is using decimal hours:
   • 0.02 = 1 minute
   • 0.08 = 5 minutes
   • 0.17 = 10 minutes
   • 0.25 = 15 minutes
   • 0.33 = 20 minutes
   • 0.42 = 25 minutes
   • 0.50 = 30 minutes
   • 0.58 = 35 minutes
   • 0.67 = 40 minutes
   • 0.75 = 45 minutes
   • 0.83 = 50 minutes
   • 0.92 = 55 minutes
   • 1.00 = 60 minutes (1 hour)
3. Switch over to the summary page and update the hourly rates to your rates
4. Et voila you have your project’s estimated cost :)

You’ll be surprised how quickly project costs mount up when you use this method but it does ensure that you don’t get caught out, if it is still too costly for the client, why not show them the breakdown as it quantifies your efforts nearly. If that doesn’t work see how tweaking your hourly rate or removing the timings works out but don’t be a busy fool ;)

Project time estimate spreadsheet