Reimbursable Expenses?

[BITINGTHEDUST]

Some draftsman in the project team were transferred to the other group.
in order to finalize CD drawings in time, the rest of the draftsmen had to do some overtime work with a rate higher than regular one.
this is reimbursable expenses and architect can charge to client?

I know Expense of overtime work requiring higher than regular rates, if authorized in advance by the owner (p250 of David), but I would like to know if client has to pay for it even though it's not client's fault.

[pwlcapricorn1]

Isn't that based on the structure of the contract? Time and materials would lend itself to this practice. If the client contracted the architect to submit for permit on a certain date, then the architect would need to understand the time requirements to get this done based on his staff's availability and rate of pay. Most contracts based on time and materials are capped at a dollar amount (not always). Other contracts would be based on a fixed dollar amount based on construction costs. If the staff is slow and can't get the work done on time, then had to resort to over-time and or additional staff, the client would not pay for that as it's not an extra service. The architect could always ask for more money, but not as an extra service or reimbursable. That all being said, if the client requested the deadline date moved up, then the architect could ask for additional fee to cover the cost of the extra staff and overtime.

[prex]

i would agree that that is not a reimbursable expense or an approved client overtime because the decision to move project team members to another project leaving your initial team understaffed would be on the architect not the owner. in terms of the original scope and schedule, the client has not made any alterations and as such should not be penalized for the architects management of the firm as a whole.

[jocaribbean]

It does not matter if the client approved it or not, that would not be a reimbursable expense. reimbursables are generated when the Architect is generating an expense with a third party entity, or the expense is not related to consulting services. In e.g. travel expenses such as milage, airfare, hotel, meals, printing and modeling, mail services,etc. Basically, you went outside your office to spend money for the project, and now you need that money to be paid by the client.

If your staff needed to change, and now you;re stuck with the new people 12 hours a day to make up for the time you lost, that's not the client's problem, so you shouldn;t charge them for that...not even via additional services.