[AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

I love those sort of problems.  I go on site, determine the problem and bill them for my time 
(minimum one hour)  :-)

On 1 Mar 2014 at 18:15, John Serrano wrote:

> 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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> > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
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> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> >
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> John Serrano
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