Client Guidelines
Team Work
Producing high quality software for your web site requires we work together as a team.
Our role in the team:
- Gather project objectives from you.
- Write project specifications.
- Create storyboards.
- Design and write the software.
- Test and fix bugs.
- Perform any other tasks necessary to create a high quality web application
for you and to keep your web site running smoothly.
(See "What We Bill For" below for more items.)
Your role in the team:
- Inform us of your project objectives, deadlines, and budgets.
- Review project specifications and storyboards.
- Test beta versions of the software.
- Provide us access to resources: web site files, servers, etc.
- Provide us access to key staff directly connected to the project.
- Respond promptly to inquires.
- Review and approve purchases of software or services.
- Inform us immediately of business changes affecting the project.
- Pay invoices in a timely manner.
Fees
Hourly Fee
We charge an hourly fee for most of our project services for these reasons:
- We are unable to estimate fixed costs for large complex projects*.
- Clients always request changes and additions to projects.
- Software is complex and can be unpredictable sometimes.
We charge a higher fee for large complex projects, a lower fee for small simple projects.
* For better or worse, we inherit many software projects containing poorly designed
software. Due to the poor software quality in these applications it is impossible to determine the effort
required to fix these applications and in turn it is impossible to determine a
fixed project fee.
Fixed Fee
We offer fixed project fees for small projects, usually under $1,000.
We will bill you hourly for our time for requests
above and beyond the initial project specifications on fixed fee projects.
What We Bill For
Software Development
We bill for all aspects of software development on your project:
- Discussing your project objectives with you.
- Writing project specifications.
- Creating storyboards.
- Designing databases.
- Designing and writing your software.
- Integrating graphic designs into your project.
- Integrating SEO features including Google Analytics, etc.
- Testing your software and fixing bugs.
- Tracking software issues and feature requests.
- Publishing your web application to your web site.
- Working with hosting firms to resolve site issues.
Web Site Management
We bill for all aspects of web site management tasks we perform for you:
- Transferring your web site to a new hosting firm.
- Transfer of domain names.
- Downloading, installing, and configuring software.
- Writing, testing and monitoring scripts.
- Monitoring web site, servers, or software for smooth operation.
- Fixing issues.
- Setting up backups.
- Any other tasks as required.
Software and Services
We bill you for services, software, and hardware you elect to use on your web site:
We will bill you for the cost of the software, service, or hardware and for our expertise to download,
install, and configure the software or services for your web site.
You must approve all purchases in writing.
Project Schedules
We work on multiple client projects.
Please keep in mind our work load may fluctuate daily and your project can be delayed because:
- Unexpected problems may arise on other client's web site's that must be resolved immediately.
- We may need a hosting firm to fix an issue for your project. Hosting firms may have a large back log of technical issues to resolve
and it can take several hours to work on your request.
- A client may request more features than we originally anticipated requiring us
to spend more time on another project.
Our goal is to complete your project in a timely manner. We ask for your patience when we are
experiencing heavy work loads.
If you have an important deadline please let us know so we can do our best to meet
your time frames.
Invoicing
We send most invoices via email at the beginning of the month for the previous month.
Occasionally, we may send invoices weekly, or biweekly.
Payment is due upon receipt.
For new clients we may request an upfront partial payment for services.
Client Testing Instructions
Check these areas:
- Test web site features to ensure they work as you desire.
- Test email sending and receiving.
- Check images.
- Check links.
- Check web site content for spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typos.
Please report problems as follows:
- Send one email per bug. Set email subject to a short description of the problem.
- List the steps leading up to the error.
- Describe what data you entered, buttons or links you clicked, urls you entered to cause the problem.
- Determine whether the problem occurs randomly, or everytime you perform the same steps.
- If appropriate take a screenshot of the page with the error, highlight the problems with an imaging tool, and send us the screenshot.
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