LebGeeks

Joe

Member

Freelancing sample contract

This is a question for freelancers: What contract do you use to seal the deal with your clients? Do you wait for the to suggest something or do you have a document ready to use? Do you have a lawyer vet the whole thing?

For the record, I'm asking about the actual legal document, not how to negotiate payment and the work done etc.

AvoK95

Member

Re: Freelancing sample contract

I don't do legal documents. I let the clients know that I am not registered as an official freelancer or company, and that I am there to help. 99.9% of them don't mind.

rolf

Member

Re: Freelancing sample contract

Me neither. I just figure that I don't have the resources to sue, my situation might not be fully legal (I am not sure) and it's not worth it anyway since most of my projects are under $2000.

I just request a 1/3 down-payment when I start, try to work with trusted customers, and try not to loose time with those that I don't know from reliable sources and who don't seem to be serious. Usually friends of friends and referenced customers are trustworthy.

I try to lay out all what I expect - I know from experience that I have to give myself a margin of extra time, and a margin of extra costs, especially since there is a good chance that a customer might want to argue and bargain.

I then lay out all the things that need to be mentioned, again by experience - such as making sure the customer understands that the design must be fixed before I start, and how important it is to go over all details and avoid underway corrections and changes, stuff like that.

It all goes through email. Even if we agree orally I make sure to send it written by email.

A signed contract is a great thing, and I hope to do these in the future. I've already done this once (as a joint effort with the designer - he wrote most of it). We made the customer sign the contract and sign on the design mockup and it actually saved us, as the customer suddently developed a case of selective amnesia at the end of the project, and we had to pull these out.

But I'm not in the country at the moment, so it won't be practical for me to do such stuff anyway.

Last edited by rolf (July 28 2014)

maroun

Member

Re: Freelancing sample contract

Dear all,
This is my first post in LEBGEEKS I'm in software development since 1988 experienced with mid range computers and main frames.
To start lets first analyze targeted customers.
All the software i wrote (industrial , insurance and banking) during my past years has exceeded initial requirements in other words  the finalized package is three times or more from initial requirements.
Here are the phases i followed where each requires sponsor approval and signoff:
1- Requirement gathering (requires you to have at least a basic understanding of the business)
2- Macro analysis and planning
3- Detailed functional and technical requirements   
4- Pilot project exposing features
5- Final development unit testing, system testing  stress test and integration test if required.
6- Application end user guide 
6- User acceptance test
7- sign-off

Despite the fact that every thing is detailed written and approved,  the sponsor (requester) always forgets mentioning major issues that might cause major re-analysis and changes to your project.

In other words software projects in Lebanon are elastic and as a free lance you will pay for their errors.

Here is my advice with two possible options

1- have an agreement to charge by man days specially for large business non standard software. if you do not have a registered company remember that  they will deduct 7.5 % as tax under article 42 (if i remember well) of income tax .  .
2- Divide your project for multiple milestones and get paid for each otherwise you might not get paid if project was dumped for any reason (many large projects has been dumped before being finished).

My opinion is to go for option one and work at your customer premises. When negotiating for option one remember to have a guarantee minimum number of days per year.

Other than the development contract, if you plan to assure assistance after deployment you will have to prepare a yearly maintenance contract and a servicing level agreement.

quote "As for todays market and due to high competition between companies the prices with minimum guarantee of 100 days per year varies from 200 to 300 for developers with up to 5 years experience".   

The details mentioned above (where applicable) should be mentioned in your contract.
   
I know i have not answered your question concerning the legal contract, I shall look up some samples I have and post later.

Sincerely Yours

maroun

Member

Re: Freelancing sample contract

Hi Again,
A very nice sample i found over the internet: http://fortune500mediasolutions.weebly. … e_use.docx.