Integral bills on an hourly basis for all services provided to our clients, with a three hour minimum for client site visits. We also charge $200 an hour for all work after 6 p.m. and on weekends, with a 5 hour minimum for these after hours visits.

Integral estimates the time required to perform various tasks as closely as possible using our experience and actual historical information for similar tasks. We do not believe in grossly overestimating the amount of work it takes to complete a task, and yet, we do not want to underestimate the actual amount of work required.

Our estimates are based on the average amount of time required to perform any given task; sometimes it takes more time, sometimes less. We always stress that our quotes are estimates, not flat quotes. Each configuration, while similar, is unique. Sometimes problems arise during the performance of our work that require more attention. These problems, though no fault of our own, simply require more time to correct.

We bill for actual time for the following reason: It is the fairest way to bill our customers. The problem with flat quotes is that it is very rare that the quote is accurate. A flat quote is almost always estimated high, so that a vendor will not lose money. So the customer loses. If the flat quote is estimated low, the vendor loses. Enough of those, and the vendor goes out of business. Very rarely is the estimate exactly right. So, usually, the customer loses out and pays much more for a service than it is actually worth. That’s why we bill on an hourly basis. You are billed for only the time we spend.

The three hour site minimum evolved because of the time required to get to customer sites. There are few businesses that can afford to have people traveling for two hours to work for 5 minutes at a customer site unless they charge exorbitant rates. I believe in delivering value to our customers. Rather than charge our customers for travel time and travel expenses, we created the three hour minimum so that we could encourage our customers to use our time efficiently so that we can deliver maximum value for your money, rather than charge you for driving around. The easiest way to avoid the minimum is to have 3 hours of work for us.

Here's a view from another standpoint. Given a choice between driving for 2 hours through heavy traffic to perform an hours worth of work and getting paid for only that hour and then being unable to focus on other intensive work that day, or sitting in the office in a relaxed atmosphere and being able to get paid for a full 3 hours of work, which would you choose? Naturally, we love to help our customers whenever we can whatever it takes, but we have to make a living too. In spite of the minimum, on average, we can only bill about 42% of the time that we spend working for our clients.

The nature of our business often requires us to work very long hours. Many tasks require that we work after regular business hours so that we do not interrupt our client’s business operations. This requires Integral's employees to make personal sacrifices in order to most effectively service our customers. We do so gladly, but it is unreasonable to expect us to do so without adequate compensation. Hence, the higher rates in the evenings and weekends.