Terms
These are the working terms behind every estimate, proposal and invoice I send. They cover how reviews work, what a round of revisions means, and when payments are due. If your signed agreement says something different, the agreement is what counts.
Reviews and approvals
One person approves
Before work starts, you name one person who approves the work. They collect feedback from everyone else on your side and send it to me as one list.
I will also ask who else will see the work before it launches. The most expensive moment in any project is when someone sees it for the first time at the end and wants it changed. If there is an owner, a board or a CEO who will have an opinion, the cheapest time to hear it is at the first review.
Five business days
When I send something for review, you have five business days to approve it or send changes. If I haven't heard back by then, it counts as approved and the work moves on.
This keeps a project from stalling in someone's inbox. If you need longer for a particular review, tell me before the five days are up and we'll set a new date.
Two rounds of revisions
Each piece of work I send for review includes two rounds of revisions. A round is one list of changes from you and my updated version in response. Changes that arrive in pieces over several days count as one round as long as they come before I start on them.
After two rounds, further changes are quoted like any other change.
Approved means approved
Once you approve something, later work builds on it. Going back to change it is a change, and I quote it in writing before doing any of it. You approve the quote or you don't. Nothing goes on an invoice that you haven't agreed to first.
How a website gets approved
A website starts with one page, almost always the home page. That first review settles the design for the whole site: colours, fonts, the header and footer, the overall layout, and how buttons, links and headings look.
Every page after that is built from what you approved. Each new kind of page, such as a service page, a team page or a blog post, gets its own review, and that review covers what is new about it. The design decisions you already made carry forward and don't get reopened page by page.
Changing those decisions later is still possible. A new colour or font late in a project means revisiting every page already built, so it is quoted as a change.
Payment for websites
- A deposit of 50% before work starts. The deposit reserves the schedule, so the timeline runs from the day it clears.
- The balance when the site goes live at your domain.
The site goes live when you approve it. Your proposal and agreement give the exact amounts.
Payment for software and app development
- 50% when the work is approved to start.
- 50% when you confirm the work is complete, before it is released. You try the finished work yourself first: on a test site for a web app, or on your own phone for a mobile app, through TestFlight on iPhone (Apple's app for testing pre-release versions) or a test build on Android. Once you confirm it's complete, the final 50% is due, and the release goes out as soon as it's received.
- App Store and Google Play approval is included, however many tries it takes. If Apple or Google rejects a release, the fixes and resubmissions are part of the price. There are no extra charges for back-and-forth with app review.
The review rules above apply here too. Designs and test builds I send you have the same five business days and the same two rounds of revisions.
Who owns the work
Once a project is paid in full, you own what I built for it: the code, the design and everything else that was made for you. Until then, it stays with me. You keep everything you already owned, such as your content, photos and brand.
If you have a separate agreement about ownership, such as one for buying an existing codebase, that agreement decides when ownership transfers.
Liability
My liability on a project is limited to the amount you paid for it. Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect losses, such as lost profits or lost business.
Third-party costs
Hosting, domain names, app store developer accounts and paid services are not included unless your estimate or proposal says they are.
Invoices and who you're working with
Invoices are due on receipt.
If an invoice is more than 14 days overdue, work on the project pauses until it's paid. That applies to deposits, final payments and work billed by the hour. The schedule moves by the length of the pause.
Invoices more than 30 days overdue carry a late fee of 1% a month on the unpaid amount.
Half up front and half at the end is the default for every project. A larger project may split payments into more stages, tied to milestones. When it does, your agreement or estimate sets out the schedule, and that schedule replaces the one on this page.
Projects are contracted with 1123IT, LLC, doing business as 1123Interactive, and governed by the laws of the State of Washington.
Questions about any of this before you start are welcome. Email [email protected].