The following terms and conditions, together with a signed project proposal, form an agreement that is intended to protect both parties, and is no way meant to trick or deceive you. I have tried to keep the wording as plain as possible, but if anything is unclear I will be more than happy to clarify it with you.
In short, [CLIENT NAME]—referred to herein as “you”—is engaging [MY NAME]—referred to herein as “I” & “me”—to undertake the work as specified in the attached proposal, and under the requirements of these terms and conditions.
I will do my best to meet all agreed deadlines. You agree to review my work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. You accept that delays in supplying required information or materials might result in significantly longer delays to the delivery of the finished work.
You agree to pay all invoices promptly by return. Work will not be scheduled, nor start, until the first invoice has been paid. Final work will not be released, nor websites put live, until payment has been received for the final invoice.
If applicable, any interim invoices are issued evenly across the duration of the proposed project timescale and are not associated with any milestones or deliverables.
A final invoice will be issued as I near completion of my involvement of the project. This may not necessarily mean the project is finished, for example, there are other parties involved and they still need to complete their tasks on the project. Fees for any incidental expenses accrued during the project will be agreed as they arise and added to the final invoice.
You will have ample opportunities to review my work and provide feedback throughout the project. Any requests for revisions or alterations will be questioned against your original business goals for the project. All decisions will be made based on evidence of what works and what doesn't, through the testing of user journeys and prototypes. If any person within your organisation wishes to provide feedback, request alterations and/or contribute to the project, they must be involved from the outset and included in all discussions throughout.
You should supply all text copy in a common electronic file format such as email, Word document or text file. A fee may be applied for any printed or hand-written copy that needs to be typed up. I am not responsible for supplying, writing, editing or proof-reading any text content unless otherwise specified in the project proposal.
You should supply graphic files in a suitable digital format (.jpg, .png or .gif) and preferably in an editable vector format (.eps or .ai). You should supply photographs in a high-resolution digital format (.jpg or .tif). Photography, illustrations, stock images and stock library searches will only be provided if specified in the project proposal.
It is assumed that you will obtain all the necessary permissions, licenses and/or usage rights for all text, images, logos, trademarks and any other materials you supply to me.
Due to the varying capabilities of different browsers and devices, I do not attempt to make a website look identical for all. Instead, I work to ensure the website is accessible and works in a similar way across a variety of browsers and devices. I will implement a simplified design for Internet Explorer 7 and below.
CURRENT DEVICES FOR TESTING INCLUDE: PC (Windows), Mac (OSX), iPhone 5 (iOS), iPad Mini (iOS), Google Nexus 7 (Android) & HTC Desire (Android)
CURRENT BROWSERS FOR TESTING (LATEST VERSIONS ON PUBLIC RELEASE AT TIME OF TESTING): Chrome (PC, Mac & Android), Firefox (PC & Mac), Safari (Mac &iOS) & Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10 & 11 (PC)
I can provide a separate quote if you need me to test and fix for devices or browsers not listed above.
For websites that I build, I provide a six month warranty period to websites following the payment of the final invoice, during which I will provide bug-fixes, advice, guidance and support. After this warranty period I can provide support, maintenance and upgrades to the CMS software, as and when required. These will be chargeable and quoted for separately. I do not provide support for websites or features built by any other party, except for those commissioned by me.
Hosting accounts will be reviewed every 12 months. Fees may be adjusted accordingly for any significant usage increases in disk space, bandwidth or server resources.
Websites must not contain any content that is deemed or could be interpreted as obscene, abusive, offensive, threatening, slanderous, libelous or condoning any illegal activity. The definition of unsuitable material is left entirely to the discretion of [MY NAME].
If you choose to use a third party for your hosting services, you must ensure the correct database and software versions are installed, and the correct directory and file permissions are set. You also agree to provide unrestricted access to the server, ftp and control panel. A fee may be applied for any delays arising from failure to provide these requirements.
Due to the potential risk of my servers being black-listed for spam, it is not permitted to send bulk email and/or newsletters via SMTP or script hosted on my servers. You should use third-party services, such as MailChimp or Campaign Monitor, to setup, manage and monitor your email lists and campaigns.
You accept that I cannot guarantee the absence of service interruptions caused by circumstances beyond my control—including, but not limited to, telecommunication failures or Domain Name Server (DNS) problems. I will, however, do my best to minimise disruption to your service as soon as I am made aware of any problems.
I provide a 99% service uptime guarantee for websites that I host on my servers. That means if your website is down, due to server or network related issues, for more than a total 3.65 days in one year, from the time your notify me of the problem, I will provide the following 12 months hosting for free.
I provide monthly backups of websites built and hosted by me. In the event of server failure and/or any loss, corruption or deletion of files, I will recover to the most recent backup available. Any files or data added to the website since that backup was made with be lost and unrecoverable. If you require more regular backups, I can provide a separate quote for that.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and online marketing services will only be provided if specified in the attached project proposal. Whilst I make every effort to achieve the very best for your website, no guarantees are made, implied or otherwise, that your website will obtain a specific placement in the search engine rankings.
Upon payment of the final invoice you will be automatically granted rights to use the finished work as specified in the proposal only. Ownership and Intellectual Property rights remain with me unless otherwise surrendered for an agreed fee and specified as such in the proposal.
All rights to preliminary sketches, design elements, source materials and source code used to produce the finished work are reserved to me and/or their respective owners.
I reserve the right to include a discreet authorship credit on all works where appropriate, and to display and link to your completed project as part of my portfolio.
I may also write about the project in articles for blogs and publications, and talk about it in presentations and workshops, to help others learn about design. I will always be sensitive and considerate to your business if I do so, and I will not publish anything until the project has gone live.
I reserve the right to assign sub-contractors to the project to ensure on-time completion. I will ensure that all sub-contracted work meets the same high standards as my own.
If at any stage you wish to cancel, or place an indefinite hold on the project, I will invoice pro-rata for any completed work up to that point.
Likewise, if at any stage I feel that the completion of the project is at risk of being derailed—for reasons including, but not limited to, persistent requests for alterations and excessive delays in supplying materials and/or feedback—I reserve the right to cancel this project and invoice pro-rata for any completed work up to that point.
Fees for third party products and services—including, but not limited to, domain names, stock images, fonts and specialist software products, purchased for use on your project—are payable in advance and as such cannot be refunded.
I aim to provide a solution that is user-focused and designed to achieve your business goals, however, once the work is put live, there are many factors outside of my control that can greatly affect its performance—including, but not limited to, your brand reputation, marketing efforts and website traffic—as such, I cannot be held responsible for a project not achieving its goals.
Also, due to the constant evolution of devices, browsers and Internet technologies, I cannot guarantee that my work will remain error-free over time, and therefore I cannot be liable to you or any third-party for damages, losses or causes of action.
Although I have aimed to keep the language plain and simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of English & Welsh courts.
The undersigned confirm they have read, understood and agreed to the requirements of this agreement and the attached proposal. By signing this, you are confirming that you have the authority to enter into this agreement on behalf of your company or organisation.
Name: [CLIENT NAME] On behalf of: [CLIENT COMPANY NAME]
Signature: ✘
Date: ✘