If you need more than 20 minutes of work to perform a task, then it's not free, and you need to get approval for it.
Follow this template to reply:
If it was a quick 5 mins I would do it straight away. However I need to do a little investigation - maybe a couple of hours.
If that is OK, I will spend that time on this and let you know how I go.
Denise
✅ Figure: Good Example - Ask for billable hours approval if a support request demands more than 20 minutes