Terms may be modified on a case-by-case basis for individual projects.
Between RedLotus Austin (presented as “RedLotus” or “we”) and CLIENT’S NAME (presented as “you” or “client”).
Summary
We will always do our utmost to fulfill your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it is best to have a few simple things written down so that we’re both on the same page as far as goals, who is responsible for what and what happens if things go wrong. In this contract you won’t find complicated legal terms or large passages of unreadable text. We have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret; we want what’s best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.
In short
You, CLIENT’S NAME, are hiring RedLotus Austin located in Austin, Texas to design and develop a web site for the quoted total price outlined in our previous correspondence, as well as in the attached Scope of Work. The agreed payment plan is at the end of the document in the Payment & Fees section.
What do both parties agree to do?
As our client, you verify that you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of you or your company or organization. You agree to provide RedLotus with everything that we need to complete the project including text, images and other information as and when we need it, or as outlined by project milestones, and in the format that we ask for. You agree to review our work, and to provide feedback and sign-off on approval or request changes in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways and you will 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.
In order to complete the work that we’ve agreed upon, it may be necessary for RedLotus to access your hosting or domain account, server or any other related device or account. As such, you agree to provide us with the necessary access to any such items names in this Scope of Work, or that may be identified once the project is started. At RedLotus we value security and privacy and will always maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.
RedLotus has the experience and ability to perform the services you need and 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 on our work on-time at any stage.
Details of the works
We will create or customize designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your web site if requested and outlined as part of the scope of the project. This contract includes one main design plus the opportunity for you to make up to two rounds of revisions, unless otherwise specified. 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, continue to commission us to make further design revisions at the hourly rate detailed in the Payment & Fees section below or provide a finished design from another source.
HTML/CSS layout templates
If the project includes XHTML or HTML markup and CSS templates, we will develop these using valid HTML5 markup and CSS3 for styling. We will test all our markup and CSS in current versions of all major browsers including those made by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Opera. We will also test to ensure that pages will display visually in a similar, albeit not necessarily an identical way, in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 for Windows as this browser is now past its support date.
We will not test these templates in old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, 5.5 or 6 for Windows or Mac, previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified.
Unless a mobile or responsive version of the site has been requested, mobile browsers will display the pages in as close to an approximation of the full site as possible
Text content
We are not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless we specified it in the original estimate.
Photographs
If needed, you will supply us with photographs in digital format. Any time we spend searching for or taking appropriate photographs will be charged at an hourly rate, after a free initial consultation to determine if this is the best route to take.
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.
The quotation prices at the beginning of this document are an estimate based on the amount of time and complexity of solutions required 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. For any additions that come up, we ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes. Depending on what new things you want to add, we may suggest going with an hourly rate in addendum to this project or creating a new project with those specific goals.
Technical support
Unfortunately, there is no way to guaranty that any given site will work on any given web host. We do make sure that everything works on our servers, which means that they will usually work with other hosting providers but, there are times when restrictions on your account, outdated software or other things prevent your site from working when we move it anywhere else. We do our best to identify any possible issues and test them before creating a Scope of Work, let alone actually launching but, it’s not always 100% possible to check everything.
You may already have professional web site hosting, you might even manage that hosting in-house; if that’s the case, great! If you don’t manage your own web site hosting, we would love to have you as a hosting client at RedLotus or we can suggest several other hosting companies who we recommend. The cost of installing your site on your web server is included in the quotation price of this project.
For 30 days after your site is live and accessible online to the public, we will provide technical support and troubleshooting free of cost. After the 30-day period, the updates to, and management of your site and server are your responsibility. If you need help beyond that period, we would love to discuss that with you.
Legal stuff
We can’t guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates or in a completed web site will always 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 arising out of the operation of or inability to operate this web site and any other web pages, even if you have advised me of the possibilities of such damages.
If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Copyrights
You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide for inclusion in the web site are either owned by your good self, 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 will give you a copy of all files and you should store them somewhere safe, as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files that we used in making them.
You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them. We own the XHTML 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 always ask you for the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to discuss or write about the project on web sites, in magazine articles and in books about web design, as well as any other media.
Payment & Fees
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 also hope that you’ll want to continue your business with us, you agree to stick to the following payment schedule, which will be as follows, but may be revised based on further conversations between us.
We prefer that payments be handled through our online system, both for simplicity and because it uses less paper, fuel and human resources. We accept all major credit/debit cards, PayPal and bank transfers. If you need to pay by check, please let us know beforehand and be aware that we are unable to begin work until the first payment has been received so, this may delay starting on your project.
Deposit: 50% of total estimated fee upon execution of this agreement.
Remainder of fee payable not more than 14 days after receipt of finished product.
Interest accrued if payment is more than 14 days late is 5% of outstanding amount to be added every 7 days, starting from 15th day after receipt of finished product.
A $75 hourly rate shall govern additional work beyond the maximums and scopes specified above and in the project quotation for such services as general Internet orientation education, server or Content Management System maintenance, marketing consulting, design, editing, and art, photo, or graphics services.
But where is all the horrible small print?
Just like a parking ticket, you cannot 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 Texas state.