Summary
TIC Digital Marketing will always do our best to fulfil our clients' needs and meet their goals, but sometimes it's best to have a few things written down so that everyone involved knows what's to expect, who should do what and what happens if stuff goes wrong.
In this contract you won't find complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We prefer simple language and clear terms that outline what's in the best interests of both parties, now and in the future.
Applicability
These terms apply to website development projects. Some of the terms in this document (such as payment arrangements) may be superseded by other agreements that we will provide to you.
What Do Both Parties Agree To Do?
As our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organization. You agree to provide us with everything that we'll need to complete the project – including text, images and other information (such as user names and passwords) - as and when we need it and in the format we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways and you'll also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need from us and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavor to meet all the deadlines set but we can't be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in supplying materials or have not approved or signed off our work on-time at any stage. On top of this we'll also maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.
Getting Down to the "Nitty Gritty"
DESIGN
If we are designing your website we will create designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your website. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly HTML and CSS so we won't waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We may use static visuals to indicate a look-and-feel direction (color, texture and typography). This contract includes one main design plus the opportunity for you to make up to two rounds of revisions. If you're not happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at our standard design rates.
HTML AND CSS LAYOUT TEMPLATES
If the project includes HTML markup and CSS templates, we'll develop these using valid HTML and CSS code. The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. With that in mind we will test all our markup and CSS in current versions of all major desktop browsers to ensure that we make the most from them. Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software.
We do not cater for people using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 or earlier and cannot predict the behavior of that browser.
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 will also test that these templates perform well on Apple's iPad. We will not test old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 5.5 for Windows or Mac, previous versions of Apple's Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified. If you need us to consider these older browsers, we will charge you at our standard old browser rate for any necessary additional design work, development and testing.
WORDPRESS INTEGRATION
WordPress is a third-party tool and therefore we can't be responsible for any bugs associated with WordPress or its plugins. If any bugs are found during the development phase or 30 days after launch we'll fix it (if possible) or update WordPress or the faulty plugin if it's available, but after the 30 days we'll charge for fixes at our current hourly rate.
OTHER PROGRAMMING AND DEVELOPMENT
Your project may include specialized functionality development for integration into your website. This can take a variety of forms that may include code snippets, scripts, or custom plugins that either create new functionality or modify the function of existing 3rd party programs. While we do our best to “future proof” anything we create for you, we do not guarantee that our programming will have no conflicts caused by adding or updating other components of your website. We warranty customized code that we create for 30 days and will correct any bugs with our programs during that period. However, functionality problems caused by updates to other website components are not covered by this warranty.
SOFTWARE LICENSES
We may secure software licenses for this project on your behalf. Some software licenses may eventually require renewal. You are responsible for costs associated with any needed renewals.
TEXT CONTENT
We are not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless we specified it in the project proposal. We'll be happy to help though; if you need this help, we will charge you at our standard copy writing or content input rate.
PHOTOGRAPHS
You will supply us photographs in digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we can suggest vendors of stock photography. We can also search for and purchase stock photographs on your behalf. Any time we spend searching for appropriate photographs will be charged at our standard discovery rate. Costs for the stock photographs will be added to the final invoice.
CHANGES AND REVISIONS
We know from plenty of experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your first idea about how something should look, or how it might work. We don't want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind. Revisions are generally minor touch-ups and not major changes like a completely new concept. We will always do our best to please every client, but please try to keep revisions reasonable. We consider any individual request that takes over 3 hours to do a major revision.
The estimate/quotation prices at the beginning of this document are based on the amount of work we estimate we'll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or templates or even add new functionality, that won't be a problem. However, you will be charged accordingly, and these additional costs will need to be agreed to before the extra work commences. This additional work will affect deadlines and they will be moved accordingly. We'll be up front about all of this if and when it happens to make sure we're all on the same page before proceeding. We may also ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes. If the nature or functions of the project change significantly throughout the process, we reserve the right to deem the current project cancelled. At this point you will pay us in full for all the work we have done and may commission us to complete the new project based on the new requirements. This will require a new quote and contract.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
You may already have professional website hosting, you might even manage that hosting in-house; if that's the case, great. If you don't manage your own website hosting, or your current hosting environment does not support the solution we are providing, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred, third-party hosting providers. We will install your site on this server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics. After that, the updates to, and management of that server, plus any support issues will be up to you. You may choose to engage us for ongoing support services.
ERRORS
We can't guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates, plugins, customizations or in a completed website will always be error-free. We also can’t guarantee that there will never be any “down time” or site outages to your website or related services during our development processes. 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 arising out of the operation of or inability to operate your website or any other web pages, loss or corruption of data or other situations that interfere with the operation of your business, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages.
WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)
We believe in the importance of website accessibility. However, we do not design and develop to meet accessibility standards by default. So, unless specifically stated within our project agreement, we are not responsible for ensuring that the work that the websites and code we produce are accessible or meet any accessibility standard.
If our project agreement does specifically include accessibility services, we will perform those services following the guidelines provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). However, currently no official website accessibility standards have been set by any authorized authority, so we cannot guarantee that accessibility-related work we perform will meet all visitors’ needs. We won’t be liable for any damages or losses that may arise from accessibility-related claims or litigation.
COPYRIGHTS
You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the website are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them.
You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the website are either owned by your good selves, or that you have permission to use them.
When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:
- You own the graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project.
- We'll give you a copy of all files and you should store them really safely as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files we used to make them.
- You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
- We own the markup, CSS and other code and we license it to you for use on only this project.
We love to show off our work and share what we have learned with other people, so we reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on websites, in magazine articles and in other publications.
PAYMENTS
We are 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.
- 50% project initiation payment
- 30% installment once functionality and design have been agreed upon
- 20% balance once the application has been tested it is ready to go live.
Note: If you are unable to supply all of the proper content at this stage, it does not mean we have not done our job. Once the site has been tested and is ready to go live, either with your content or placeholder images and dummy text, we will issue the final invoice. Once the final invoice is paid we will hand over the keys and show you how to put your own content in once it's ready. If the final invoice is not paid within the credit terms we have given you, we are under no obligation to keep the site on our testing server or continue with the project in any way.
THE "SMALL PRINT"
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 courts of California.
