[AccessD] Project Official Start

Remember the good old days of 1999 when you could just walk away from a
client like this?

BTW - I'm a newbie, just signed on the list.  (NYC-based independent
contractor: Access, VB, SQL, MS-Office training, and when I can't get
out of it, a little networking)

Short answer is, when both sides have signed, that's your begin date.  

As for the penalty, YES - get their responsibilities in writing ... I
have a client who pays me to keep re-importing their old system's data
because by the time they check the import, it's a month out of date and
they want all the new entries from the old system in the new system ...
This is going on like this for six months,  It's boring as hell and
keeping me from getting started on their .net based intranet, but ... As
long as they are paying, it doesn't matter.  In your case, though, since
they are making noise about not paying, make sure that the "clock stops"
when you are waiting for them to test or review or deploy or whatever.
Try to get the wording to be a count of days from execution, since you
could lose a month just getting the lawyers from both sides to accept
the document ("project will be completed 77 days from execution of this
contract", for example).  

Hth,
Steve



-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hadyn Morgan
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 10:22 PM
To: AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Project Official Start


When do you say a project has started?  I have a client that has said
'Yes' to a project, but has not signed off the spec, or the quote, and
now wants to negotiate penalty clauses before they sign (if we don't
deliver on time to the proposed end date (11 weeks from start of
project) they reduce total payment by 8% for each full week we are
late).  I have managed to get them to exclude Acts of God etc, and have
suggested that if they are to blame for the delay we should be allowed
to charge them for the extra time.

Any thoughts?

Kind regards
Hadyn

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