[glimpsemedia]

Hello all,

This is my first post here - I am glad to be a part of this community. I have read a few threads and their excellent!

Anyway, my question is, is how should I go about receiving a large payment from a customer for a large project.

Normally I use paypal for projects priced quite low. But what about projects that are about £10,000 - £50,000. How would you go about getting this paid.

Also, would you expect 50% before and 50% after the project?

And would you work on the website on his server even though he hasn't paid the full amount?

I am guessing a contract should be used, would faxing a signed contract work and would it need to be written by a lawyer in case something did go wrong?

Thank you all very much for your help!

Dan

[Renaissance-Design]

Hi Dan. For large projects I'd suggest spreading it out a little more than the 50/50 I usually work on with smaller gigs - a good idea is to take a payment at each milestone, so (depending on your workflow) you might take a deposit before starting, an instalment at design signoff, another once the templates have been marked up, another at testing/integration and a last payment before going live.

As to working on the client's server - not something I'd recommend in general. Your project, your process, your tools. Accepting a faxed contract plus payment to start work would be ok, but I'd expect a signed original to follow by post within the week.

Definitely get a solicitor to draw it up. Write it yourself first, explaining in plain language what you want to achieve out of it and the solicitor can reformulate what you've written in legalese - that way you'll get the most out of his/her time. Also remember that the contract is there to protect both parties, and that contract provisions can be legally challenged and ruled as unfair.

I use bank transfers or cheques to receive payment for projects large and small; I don't like or trust Paypal as they have a habit of freezing people's funds for totally spurious reasons. I also resent paying them for a transfer that the banks can make without charging.

This post has been edited by Renaissance-Design: 02 February 2012 - 08:33 PM

[MikeChipshop]

With big jobs like that i normally work on a multi check point contract. With different phases built in. Require a deposit sum to be paid for each phase, 50% in my case, and then the remaining %50 upon phase completion.

So it would be...

Job total £20000
Split in to four phases
Phase one £5000 with %50 (£2500) upfront and remaining %50 (£2500) on completion
Phase two £5000 with %50 (£2500) upfront and remaining %50 (£2500) on completion
Phase three £5000 with %50 (£2500) upfront and remaining %50 (£2500) on completion
Phase four £5000 with %50 (£2500) upfront and remaining %50 (£2500) on completion

Total = £20000

Obviously you'd break down the phases in to what ever made sense for the project and what ever number of phases would fit.

All payments for anything over £100 are made by bank transfer, if the client is desperate to pay by PayPal or Cash then ask yourself why. If it seems legit then put the extra charges on the bill and don't even think about trying to swallow them yourself.

Edit: Chris beat me to it

This post has been edited by MikeChipshop: 02 February 2012 - 08:34 PM

[Renaissance-Design]

MikeChipshop, on 02 February 2012 - 08:33 PM, said:

Edit: Chris beat me to it

As usual.

Except to the big projects.

This post has been edited by Renaissance-Design: 02 February 2012 - 08:57 PM

[Glowbridge]

Bank Transfer is probably the easiest way to take any kind of payment. Large projects are generally split into more than 2 pieces. You set up 4,5 or more goals and get paid accordingly when you hit them. A contract is an absolute must for any job. Even if it's £500. Ideally you want them written by a professional but some kind of basic agreement on paper that covers all the bases is worth it's weight in... aerogel (Or some other really expensive and really light material)

Personally I don't usually fax contracts but there is nothing legally or physically stopping me. Except my lack of a fax machine I guess. It's the one part of my business where I like to have a touch of old school class. I print two contracts, sign and date both and send them off recorded delivery in leather-ette folders. Contains a pre-paid envelope so they can sign/date/return my copy.

Quote

And would you work on the website on his server even though he hasn't paid the full amount?

Absolutely not. Your work is your property until that final bill is paid. Keep in complete and total control of it at all times it is your only real defence against people who don't want to pay you.

[MikeChipshop]

Glowbridge, on 02 February 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

Absolutely not. Your work is your property until that final bill is paid. Keep in complete and total control of it at all times it is your only real defence against people who don't want to pay you.

I can't begin to explain how important this is.
I tend to work on a client area of my domain. That way you have ultimate control over everything and can lock down or restrict any function or drop everything at a moments notice. I had a client once who though he could steal a WordPress site by copying the code from the browsers view source!

If you absolutely have to work on a clients server for some reason, then make sure you build in restriction and fall back methods for if the client pulls a fast one. These can range from hosting the CSS file on your own server to building in a sneaky off switch that checks a variable via your server. This will be enough for non-tech clients.

[Glowbridge]

'Ransoming' a site is something i've not yet had to do but I've thought about how I would go about it. I'd probably place an element on the site who's rules are in a stylesheet on my server. Then just 100% width/height, fixed position, black background.

Initially I thought of doing it in reverse, so the blackout is always there then hidden by a remote stylesheet on my end but that's a really stupid idea if you give it about 1 seconds thought lol.

[glimpsemedia]

Thank you all very much for your help, I love it here already.

My partner was giving me over protective advice like "just expect everything at the beginning" so that's why I thought I'd seek the help of a professional.

Having an 'off switch' is a great idea if they're not technically minded, problem is, my client is. I am going to start a new post in a mo on how I could do this project, however I know that I'll have to mess around with mySQL and all that paraphernalia, is it too difficult to do this on my server and then move it all over to his once it's done?

I now know what to do regarding the payment and the contracts so thank you!!

My client is based in Amsterdam, so not in the UK where I'm based, would this change anything regarding contracts or what happens if I don't get paid?

Thank you for your help.

Dan

[Renaissance-Design]

As long as a project's well-developed, it's fairly trivial to move it between servers. If development isn't your forte though, it's far better to outsourcethat part of the job and just do the design and project management parts yourself - you'll find it takes you far longer to achieve the same result, and you'll make more mistakes. A big-budget project isn't the time to be learning on the job.

As far as legality goes, your solicitor will as standard practice put a clause in stating that the contract will be governed by the laws of England.

[rallport]

glimpsemedia, on 03 February 2012 - 08:01 AM, said:

Having an 'off switch' is a great idea if they're not technically minded, problem is, my client is.

Even more the reason to do all development on your own servers!

It may sound a little bitter, but if the client has some technical ability they could essentially download the whole source for the project and not pay you.

I also assume the worst tbh

This post has been edited by rallport: 03 February 2012 - 02:48 PM