Revised date: 01/22/2013
Between us McGintech and you [customer name]
We’ll always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
So in short;
You ([customer name]), located at [customer address] are hiring us (McGintech) located at 649 San Gabriel Ave. Albany, CA to [develop a web site], as specified in the Scope section of this document, for the estimated price outlined in the Payment section of this document.
You: You have the authority and available funds to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organization. You’ll give us everything we need to complete the project as specified and in the format we need it. You’ll review our work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavor to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we'll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.
We do not provide customized visual design services. We will provide you with a minimal visual design that incorporates your logo. If you have a visual design you would like us to implement, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
You’ll have two weekly opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for everything we’ve produced until that point and cancel this contract.
We’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy. If you’d like us to write new content or input text for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
You should supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format. You should supply photographs in a high resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries. If you’d like us to search for photographs for you, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
We deliver websites and mobile apps developed in ruby, ruby on rails, HTML5 markup, CSS2.1 + 3 stylesheets for styling and unobtrusive Javascript.
We use Pivotal Tracker for managing projects and expect all feature related communication to be captured there. All features will be created as stories and given an estimated number of "points". Points do not correlate to time and should only be used as an estimate of the amount of work to be done. We expect that you review and "accept" stories as we deliver them. Clicking accept on a story is your way of signing off on that work.
It is your responsibility to accurately define features with as much detail as possible and create those stories in tracker. Any additions or changes to the features outlined in the Scope section of this contract, or in tracker stories, will incur additional cost and be quoted separately.
If you need assistance creating stories and defining requirements, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
Bugs are not changes or updates to the expected functionality of a feature. They are errors in execution and will be differentiated from features in tracker. Bugs and features are assigned at our discretion and there is no extra cost associated with fixing bugs prior to feature acceptance. We are not responsible for bugs discovered after acceptance of a feature or after the end of the project but we can provide a separate estimate for that. Please test features thoroughly to ensure compliance with the stated requirements.
We do not provide automated testing unless it is outlined in the Scope section of this contract.
We create websites and mobile apps with layouts that try to adapt the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes, but we do not guarantee support for all browsers or devices. Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device.
We test our work in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Google (Chrome) and Mozilla Firefox and on the latest android and ios operating systems for mobile apps (using the platform provider's emulator or simulator). If you need compatability for other browsers or devices, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
Unless otherwise noted, we will not host your website or provide support for email or other services relating to hosting. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred hosting providers. We can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics and we can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of that server will be up to you or we can provide a separate estimate for that.
We will use external service providers of your choice or choose them based on our experience. We do not provide any guarantee related to these services and are not responsible for errors, outages, additional charges or any other issues related to these services. Deadlines and time estimates will be extended due to service provider outages. We do not assume any responsibility for monitoring or troubleshooting service provider issues.
When building mobile apps, we will provide you with the appropriate code files for submitting to app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store. We are not responsible for creating assets such as icons, screeshots or marketing copy for app store submission. We do not guarantee app store acceptance or any deadlines related to acceptance. You are responsible for providing all required materials to build your app such as distribution keys and certificates. If you would like us to manage the submission process, we can provide a separate estimate for that.
We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the beginning of this contract is based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.
We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by you or that you’ve permission to use them.
Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:
You’ll own the visual elements that we create for this project. We’ll give you source files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
We’ll own the source code and unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license that you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only.
Owning the source code and using open source software allows us to re-use code among clients and results in time and cost savings for all. Websites and mobile apps all have similar features like forms, validations, images, uploading, downloading, searching, filtering, social network integration, sending emails, geolocation, authentication, background jobs, analytics, tracking, etc... If we gave you exclusive rights to those features, we would be out of business.
We reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.
We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule and terms.
Work begins only after a 50% initial payment of the agreed amount is received. Upon acceptance of the last story in a sprint, the final 50% should be paid immediately.
Because we set aside blocks of time dedicated to your project, the initial payment is non-refundable. If you decide to cancel the sprint at any time, only the work already paid for will be delivered. To recieve all work in the sprint, it must be paid in full.
Full payment must be received for the previous sprint before work on the next sprint begins.
During a sprint, all code and assets will be stored on a staging server of our choice. You will use this server to test features for acceptance. When the final payment is received, all code and assets will be delivered via emailed zip files or git repository updates and then pushed to the production server.
You can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of The State of California courts.
Scope will be defined on a weekly basis in the form of sprints which are composed of stories in the tracker system. All stories in a sprint must be accepted before work on the next sprint starts.
[scope]
Signed by and on behalf of McGintech
Signed by and on behalf of [customer name]
Date [date]
Everyone should sign above and keep a copy for their records.