Requirements, a fixed price, a date, then the work.

The six steps

Nothing is priced before it is written down, and nothing is built before it is priced. Each step produces a document you keep.

1. 1

   Requirements

   You describe it in the project room — what the thing has to do, who uses it, what it connects to — and our assistant writes a requirements document as you talk. Rather talk to a person? Book a free 30-minute call with the team from the same screen. You read it, correct it, and freeze it. This step costs nothing and you can stop here with the document.

   You getA requirements documentYou payNothing
2. 2

   Proposal

   The frozen document is broken into modules. Each module gets a scope, acceptance criteria and a fixed price, and the modules are grouped into milestones with a date for each, counted on the published working calendar. The proposal is checked against the published price list, and a person from the team walks you through it on a free 30-minute call before it is issued.

   You getA fixed-price proposalYou payNothing
3. 3

   Acceptance

   You accept in writing in the project room, and a deposit of 50% is invoiced. Work starts when it is paid — not before, so nobody is ever building on an assumption.

   You getA written acceptanceYou pay50% deposit
4. 4

   Build

   Modules are built in the order you chose. Progress is posted in the project room; you are asked questions there rather than by email, so the answers stay attached to the work.

   You getProgress in the project roomYou payNothing
5. 5

   Submission and sign-off

   Each module is submitted against its acceptance criteria. You approve it, or you list what does not meet them; each milestone includes two rounds of revisions. A gap against the criteria is a defect and is our cost; something the criteria never mentioned is a change order (see below).

   You getModules signed offYou payEach milestone, on approval
6. 6

   Handover

   Released to your own hosting and store accounts, with documentation and the source. Code and IP transfer on final payment, module by module. Defects are fixed free for 30 days after final delivery.

   You getCode, accounts and IPYou payThe last milestone

What you pay, and when

Payment follows milestones, never hours. Half is paid as a deposit when you accept the proposal; the other half is split across milestones, each invoiced when you approve it — not when we submit it.

Work starts when the deposit is paid, and the code becomes yours when the last milestone is.

Where the dates come from

A delivery date is a date, not a range. It is counted in working days on the calendar published at services.sketchxflow.com/holidays — Sundays, the 2nd and 4th Saturdays and the listed public holidays are skipped, and so is the time we have allowed for your review. We work 10:00–19:00 IST on the days it marks as working.

If we planned it wrong, the price does not move. The fixed price and the fixed date are the two things we carry the risk on; that is the whole point of buying a module rather than an hour.

What you need to bring

Less than most people expect, but the two that matter cannot be done by us.

• Decisions: Somebody on your side who can say yes. A project stalls on an unanswered question far more often than on a hard technical problem.
• Accounts in your name: Payment gateway, hosting, domain and app-store accounts are opened in your name from day one and billed to you by those providers. We set them up and look after them; we do not resell them, so you are never locked to us by an account you cannot move.
• Review time: A submitted module waits for you. Your review time is already built into the delivery date, so using it costs nothing — but leaving a module unreviewed moves everything after it. If a milestone gets neither an approval nor a request for changes within 10 working days of submission, we remind you, and may then treat it as approved and invoice it.

What happens if something goes wrong

Two failures are worth naming, because the answer is different for each.

If a module does not do what its acceptance criteria say, that is a defect: we fix it, at our cost, including for 30 days after final delivery. If the module does exactly what the criteria say and that turns out not to be what you needed, that is a change — priced as a change order, which you accept in writing before anyone starts.

If we miss a date we set, the price does not change and you are told before the date, not after it. We take two to four projects at a time precisely so that a date means something.

Questions