[AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Dan, thanks for the advice!
Sounds like some experience of life has been through the ringer here...

Nevertheless, you bring up a good point. where you said leave the app in
the hands of their "developers" they don't have any, and seem to think
every problem they encounter is something that should be corrected for
free.

For example, they had a text file they downloaded incorrectly and tried to
import the file into the application and got an error and instead reviewing
text file the quick answer was "well the program is not working correctly"
Only after calling me and I noticed the file format was not the same.

This is what has prompted my question, maintenance fee, however I like how
you placed this, developed and walk away from it.




On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 5:55 PM, Dan Waters <df.waters at comcast.net> wrote:

> 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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-- 
John Serrano