Jim Dettman
jimdettman at verizon.net
Sun Mar 2 13:54:31 CST 2014
John, I would suggest avoiding maintenance fees. Many years ago, I went the route of charging by the hour for anything and everything and it's worked well. I know of other developers that have charged maintenance fees, and while it gives you a steady stream of revenue, if usually means you need to come out with a steady stream of enhancements as well. Otherwise the customer starts to feel like their spending their money for nothing (and if your bug free, they are). You also can get bit pretty well; customer argues that something is a bug and should be covered by the maintenance fee, but in your eyes it's not (i.e. something not explained or accounted for when the software was done). Then there are the "small changes"; what exactly is a "small change"? Might seem small to them, but it may not be. But usually in the spirit of good customer relations, you generally let them win. That can really set you back. I like the $/hr approach because it gives the customer exactly what they want and they know their not paying more then they have to. The only thing that needs to be in place is that they trust you to do your best when working by the hour and are being productive. Makes life a lot simpler. Jim. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Serrano Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 01:36 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 -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com