[AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Hi John,

Maintenance fees are for stuff you do to make minor (or sometimes major)
stuff to keep it running as expected.  Generally, if you are not charging
for maintenance then you sold it and you walked away leaving it in the hands
of their developers.  Maintenance would typically be about 15% of what the
selling price was, per year.  If you add more to the app later then the
maintenance fee goes up.  If the app becomes mature at some point and needs
little work then it might make sense to drop the rate down.

If you are doing improvements that they request then charge by the hour.
Except for the most trivial changes, give them a fixed price quote (be sure
you get this right or you could get hurt).  Don't do 'estimate' or 'not to
exceed' quotes - they'll be making a decision based on the wrong
information, and you could work lots of hours for no pay.  And - every
charge has a minimum time just for you to install the updated files.

I got a suggestion once to negotiate a retainer over a period of a year or
so for improvement work.  They would pay you an upfront amount for X hours
of work at a reduced rate.  If they don't use it all within a year it's
yours - no refunds (but call them at the beginning of the last quarter to
let them know what's left).  You get some money, and they don't have to get
authorization every time they want some small improvement.  I've never done
this but it could be a win-win.

Also, take a hard look at the job.  If the scope of the job could increase,
then provide a quote only for what you do know you'll be doing.  If they
want to go beyond that then you can give a subsequent quote.  Be sure to not
get into a situation where you don't know where they are going but they want
an estimate to cover everything.

I have a basic spreadsheet template I made up to help me list what I'm doing
to each object and how long it will take.  This helps me to be more
accurate.  If I end up within 20% - 30% then I figure I did pretty well.

Good Luck!
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Serrano
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 12:36 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Hello,

I have recently written an app in MS Access 2010.
Application went pretty easy, however I am getting calls about "tweaking"
the application or making enhancements. So I was discussing with them maybe
a maintenance fee?

Does anyone charge past clients a monthly maintenance fee? or is it a
straight bill rate time number of hours you work on "whatever"?
If you do, can you give me a ball park range for the east coast of the US of
A.
PA to be exact...

any help would be appreciated, thanks!
--
John Serrano
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