Starting your first contract

Congratulations on landing your first contract!

In order to get started, you will need to familiarize yourself with the systems and policies we use at Facet.

Know your contract terms

The Project Assignment you signed contained some key pieces of information you should make note of.

Start Date and End Date
These are the dates your contract begins and ends with your client. Mark them on your calendar! In order to give yourself the most runway to find your next contract, as you approach your End Date, talk to your client about whether or not they plan on extending. We will do the same on our end.

Hourly Rate
This the hourly rate you will be paid by Facet for the work you do.

Committed Weekly Hours
These are the hours you are expected to work/bill each week.

Weekly Hours Limit
Billing more hours in a week than the Weekly Hours Limit requires written approval from the client. A simple email is all you need. For example: "Hey Bob, I'm going to hit 40 hours today, but I still have work I need to do to finish up this sprint. Are you OK if I go over a few hours this week?" Most clients have no problem if you need to go over hours to meet their project goals. You will need to forward Bob's reply approving your request to [email protected] before you submit your hours.

If you lose track of time, you can ask for permission after the fact, but you should try to avoid this. Your client may say no and you will not be able to bill for the extra hours you worked.

If you go over the hours limit, and we don't have a record of client approval, someone from the Facet billing department will contact you.

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Avoid Doing Free Work!

Make sure you keep track of your hours and communicate with your client if you are getting close to going over your limit. If you set proper expectations and communicate, you should never be in a situation where you are doing work that you can't bill for.

Your client doesn't want you to do work for free and neither do you!

Logging your hours

The Facet billing department handles all the heavy lifting of generating invoices, submitting them to the client, ensuring invoices are approved, following up on invoices, etc. All you have to do is log the hours you work in Harvest, our time and expense tracking tool.

You will receive an invite to Harvest soon, if you haven't already. In order to be paid on time you must submit your hours every Monday by 9am PT for the previous weeks work.

Further Reading
How to record your hours

Logging expenses

Sometimes you will need to make purchases that your client will reimburse you for (i.e. travel or special equipment). We use Harvest for expense reimbursement. You should submit any approved expenses for reimbursement as soon as possible.

You must have written approval from your client for any expenses you submit for reimbursement.

Further Reading
How to record your expenses
What expenses should I be reimbursed for?

Pay periods

Weeks begin 12am on Sunday and end 12am on Saturday. Facet invoices our clients every two weeks. Invoices are generated Monday at 12pm PT following the end of each pay period.

Getting Paid

We use Bill.com to pay you. At the end of each pay period, the hours you have submitted in Harvest are used to generate Facet's invoice to the client, and your invoice to Facet. Bill.com allows you to see your invoices to Facet that are awaiting payment. You can also see past invoices that have been paid, so you can track all your Facet earnings.

Since Facet handles invoicing for you, the only thing you have to do to get paid is submit your hours in Harvest.

You will receive an invite to set up your account on Bill.com, where you can setup payments to be deposited directly into your bank account.

Further Reading
How to get paid
Why do my invoices say "Unsent" in Bill.com

Code of Conduct

Facet provides a premium contracting service to our clients, with the world's best software engineers. Our clients have high expectations of the contractors they hire through Facet. As an independent contractor, your manager is your customer. You should always strive to provide the best service possible to your customer.

New contractor checklist

Complete these steps before you start your first contract: New contractor checklist