WAHM Forums

My first month working and my invoice for September was rejected. I went through my notebook and confirmed my tasks etc...what should I do now? I only completed 29 hours because it was my first month and tasks were low. Do I have to put less hours down just to make sure I get paid for September?
Thanks

On the LB Rater portal there is information on who you can contact directly with your question.

Sept was my first month also...I started just after the middle of the month, and I only got 7 hours :(

Mine was rejected to, I sent an email and waiting for response because there's no changes I can make to the times or quantity that I've done.

i also sent them an e-mail on tuesday, but haven't gotten a response. i'm kind of worried because they might close the time sheets and i won't be able to make any changes, but i need some guidance on how to edit my time.

I didn't have any changes to make so went back through and re-saved everything. Which worries me, exactly what was I supposed to change that I didn't put in right the first time? I'd hate to think I wouldn't be paid, being new and relatively slow. :(

Go through the New Rater page and look at the productivity chart and try to edit your time with the allowed tasks per minute if they will let you back in the time sheet to edit.

I really don't like the idea of changing anything. If I didn't do 32 an hour but say, ten, I don't want to cheat and put 32 just to get paid... or am I missing something? LOL

You can't cheat and say 32 if that is not what you did; you would have to take minutes off. I would email them and see what they say to do in order to get approved.

Sounds like I'm never going to get paid. I'm new to the work, slow, but wanting to do a good job. Yet, not about to shortchange myself on time.

Sounds like I'm never going to get paid. I'm new to the work, slow, but wanting to do a good job. Yet, not about to shortchange myself on time. You'll get paid if you abide by the terms of this job, but working as a contractor may be different than what you're used to as a W-2 employee. You can be stubborn about it and lose the job, or adjust your thinking to how this all works, get paid, and keep your job.

Here's the deal: you are paid by the hour for work performed as long as you meet the minimum standards. You are NOT paid for training. Learning the job, equipping yourself with whatever you need, whether it be reading or practice in order to meet the requirements of the job is your responsibility as a contractor, not the company's that hired you.

So when they publish minimum standards, i.e. so many tasks per hour, you will not be paid for taking longer than the minimum. You will just have to eat that until you get faster, and consider it your investment in learning the job. Look at it from the employer's standpoint. If they did not provide some kind of incentive for their workers to work at a certain rate, well we could all do five tasks an hour and get paid for it. I'm sure you can see how ridiculous that would be.

So what you do to adjust your invoice is to take the minimum tasks per hour allowed, figure out the time per task, then take the number of tasks you actually did, times that, and bill for the total allowable time.

Example -- expected productivity is 25 tasks per hour. Divide 60 by 25 tasks, which works out to 2.4 minutes allowed per task. So consider if you worked a full hour but only finished 15 tasks. You would multiply those 15 tasks times 2.4 minutes which equals 36 minutes. THAT is what you can bill for. You will have to chalk up the remaining 24 minutes as training time which you are responsible for as a contractor. Do that for each task type you worked on to figure out what you can actually bill for.

In future, if you want to get paid for that full hour you spent, then work on getting your productivity up to at least the minimum. You, not the employer, are responsible for ensuring that you do.

Hope this helps a little.

Winchy gives an excellent answer. In the future, you may find it helpful to look at the expected tasks per hour of whatever type you plan to be working on and keep that in mind as you do the first few, to ensure that you are on point. If you are taking much longer than expected, you may need to reevaluate how you do that task type.

great post winchy.

You're completely right. I had to clear my thinking. Walk away for a day and come back. I've just been exhausted, worried... etc. I had them re-open my timesheet and reworked the hours according to the productivity guidelines. It sucks to see how little I produced with so much time put in but now realize I'm gonna have to light a fire on the keester and work A LOT faster.