> They want a simple little web-based hours-tracking utility - well,
> simple before they start in with the creepy features... and you KNOW
> there's gonna be feature creep, because it was an agency recruiter
> that called me - and they bill by the hour, rather than the project,
> right?

If you know that there will be feature creep, anticipate on it. Build
the simple thing and present and bill it as a "version 1.0": something
that demonstrates the simple functionality and can be used as the basis
for a more advanced application.

And, off course, guide the customer is his wishes. Otherwise, you end up
with a "candy jar of features" instead of an advanced, mature
application. You can see feature creep as bad behaviour of a customer or
as the maturing of an application.

One tip: have them use the application right away. Wishes that arise
from everyday use are more useful than wishes that arise from thinking
"what would I like?".

Boy, you are so lucky that you are billed by the hour. That means that
the customer will really feel the cost of the application. You can
program a lot, but that will cost you a lot of work and them a lot of
money. If they paid for the project as a whole, the only difference
would be that any feature creep would cost YOU the lot of money.
Also, this situation means that they want to trust you. Don't abuse it.

> So I figure I'll setup something named "DocBilling.int" or somesuch and
> use my current working framework to let them login and log their time,
> and for the doc's bean-counters to be able to view a couple of reports.

Is your current working framework something you built yourself? If so,
this sounds like a freebie. You can charge them for the use of it. In
either hours (that you can spend on something else) or plain money.

Good luck,
--
Willem Bogaerts

Application smith
Kratz B.V.
http://www.kratz.nl/