@TechnikEmpire No, this is called lying. It's fine to charge whatever mark-up you want, but if you're billing for time then you'd double your prices, you don't halve your actual output.

@TechnikEmpire that would be OK if customer paid fixed rates to have the job done. In the situation I described, customer pays per hour, and believes that he gets what he paid for. I mentioned that we even had a training on how not to disclose the fact that we are working less than customer is charged — that is, the company management truly realizes and avows that what they do is cheating.

@TechnikEmpire Capitalism does not involve fraud.

@TechnikEmpire. What part of billing for hours not worked is not fraud in your book?

right a question, is every estimate doubled as well? If you came to me saying every task in your estimate was a factor of 2 out, I'd soon stop using the company. Otherwise you just have half as long as you estimated to do it, which probably just comes under the notion of contingency. Also is it time and materials or fixed bid, if fixed bid then that's called profit.

@TechnikEmpire, no you've made sweeping and incorrect statements. I ask you again: How is billing customers for time spent on someone else's project not fraud in your book? Simple question.

@TechnikEmpire The question is very clear on that. "I have a standard 8-hour day, working 4 hours for each project. However, the customers I work for are not aware of this. The company charges them as if I worked 8 hours for each of them."

OP is very naïve. Consulting companies may sell a task as N man-days at some billable rate. Whether they give it to an expert who can do it in N/2 days, or a newbie who might take 2N days, is irrelevant.

Definitely fraud in the US, but the management may have a plausible legal defense or something (at least in their heads). If you had the money, time, and energy then you should expose them, but the safest bet is just to get a new job. Also acknowledging you know what's happening in this post could be used against you. Since you willingly continued to participate even knowing it was wrong.

The worst bit of that is that, even though the company is billing 2 customers for the same hour that you've worked, you won't be getting paid twice for that hour of work.

How are the budgets for these projects agreed? There's a big difference between A) "Two of our guys will work full-time on this until it's complete, and you pay us whatever it takes. // Okay guys, work only half days on this, it'll take twice as long but we'll double our money!" [fraud] and B) "We estimate this is a 40-hour project, are you happy to sign and pay for the value of 40 hours? // Okay guys, let's work hard and productively - if we can complete this in 20 hours, we're doing well!" [not fraud]

@TechnikEmpire Right, but that's not the extent of what's going on. A closer analogy would be if you spent those 25 hours working 5 hours a day over a week, but at the end of each day, told your client you'd worked 8 hours that day. That's fraud. Not lying about your hours spent isn't the same as volunteering a refund

@TechnikEmpire sorry, I missed your question, and then you deleted it. So, you are asking about the billing, right? The projects we are working on are long-term, including both development and support. Customers I work for pay based on time and material, these are not the fix-price projects. My name appears on the timesheets for both customers as if I was working 8 hours for each of them.

When you report your hours, do you put the correct ones and let management change them, or do you change them?

The way I see it, they get what they pay for and deserve. If they want senior developers they can pay $15 an hour they can't expect and demand the same level of control and same results they would get by hiring a US based senior developer in a full-time position which would cost them in excess of $40 an hour. They are just greedy, looking to increase their profits by outsourcing instead of hiring so they are no better than the company you work for and get exactly what they deserve.

Are you sure the company you work for is charging based on on hours? or on projects? You might have the idea that the company works on an hours basis but that might just be a verbal understanding and the actual work is done on an on project basis.

I'm wondering how you are privy to the kind of information you're describing in your question. If I'm working for a software company that charges out my time, the manner in which they do that is none of my business, and that ignorance is part of what protects me from liability. My only responsibility is to provide acceptable work for acceptable pay, not to audit my company's books. It doesn't excuse the company if actual fraud is being committed, of course.

@RobertHarvey, at a guess, he knows because he has been tasked with filling in the timesheets fraudulently.

@HLGEM: Ah, I see. I've bolded the relevant portion of the question.

Wouldn't make more sense for the company to ignore how much you work and just make up the numbers completely? After all, if you are committing fraud, there no reason to be half-honest about it. (Sarcasm/Cynicism)

Honestly, this is just a numbers game that every company plays in some way. The goal is to present the best rates to your customer, while still providing work that they are content with. In the end, customers are given a total bill, say $1000, and they see what they've gotten out of it. If they like it and think it was worth it, does the itemization of that bill really matter? This numbers game they play let's them complete work satisfactorily while keeping advertised rates low. Fraud is a matter of perspective more than anything else. If customers don't feel cheated then don't worry about it.

Just an opinion from another programmer: I think you have an obligation to quit merely from the business model that perpetuates this kind of crap software development model.

@fredsbend, fraud is "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain". Could this company have obtained the same payments and had customers be happy at the same price if they had not used deception in their billing: perhaps. It does not matter. They are intending to deceive. They have been given work based on a per hour price for their developers. If they had quoted the actual rate they are charging, 2x, then some other company may have gotten the job. What they are doing is illegal in almost? all jurisdictions.

@Makyen Perspective. The op has described ongoing work, which means the weekly bill varies very little. Customers see the work and bill very clearly and decide if they are content with it. Calling senior developer hours double value holds some merit and isn't necessarily fraud if you itemize them as regular hours. What would be smart is to begin selling senior worker hours at 180%, then hire a few more developers to pick up the increase in short term projects.

@fredsbend, It's fraud if you are billing for 8 hours when only 4 hours were spent. Now, you could have a note on your invoice that says "We bill 2 hours for every hour spent by a senior developer." That would make it at least legal. Even if you have someone that is 10x as efficient, you still have to bill for what actually happens. You could bill that person out at 10x the price, but you can not legitimately bill for 10x the number of hours (unless you say, on the invoice, that is what you are doing). Intentionally billing for something deceptive, in order to get more money, is fraud.

Which country? Some local nuances may not be captured in the general description of the situation.