[Shall work on my actual post a bit later on, just got back from work. But to answer the question Jules being a 3rd level bard would only have 11 rounds per day available to him.  4+charisma mod for first lvl, so 4+3=7 in his case, then +2 for each additional level(of bard) so that would net him another 4 so 4+7=<span style="font-weight: bold"> 11 total </span>.  and yes it takes a standard action to start and a free to maintain. Inspire competence is something that you would use to give a bonus to someone attempting a skill check. It is very situational as you have to know what skill they are going to use, and start the performance before they attempt the check. If you recall I had Xarces use that very same skill back on the ship (on Lion). Also it should be noted that there are skill checks that this simply will not work on, namely being stealth. Luckily this particular skill is not based off any actual perform check on your part as I note your character has 0 ranks in any type of performance.  Distraction and counter song are the earliest ones that are....but you really shouldn't have to worry about those. ]