Work Orders

What is a Work Order?

A Work Order is a contract for me to do some specific work for you and be paid for it. Typically, each Work Order represents one well-defined task that is part of a larger project, but that does not have to be the case. If a project is small enough, it may require only one Work Order. For very large projects, one or more Work Orders are often necessary in order to define the project sufficiently to determine what Work Orders will be required to complete it.

When you and I agree on a Work Order, I am promising to deliver the items it describes and you are agreeing to pay for those deliverables according to its terms.

Initiating a Work Order

In most cases, Work Orders will be identified through our discussion of your project requirements. When required tasks can be identified, I will issue a Proposal for one or more Work Orders. Each Work Order described in the Proposal will include a list of deliverables, an estimated price based on estimated hours to complete, and an estimated lead time. If possible, I will also provide a fixed price alternative. The Proposal will spell out these details for each Work Order it contains.

Approving a Work Order

You may approve any or all of the Work Orders in a Proposal. You may want to make some changes to some of them. I will revise any or all Work Orders as per our discussion and issue a new Proposal. We may need to do several rounds of this for some Work Orders.

Once you approve a Work Order, you will pay a small deposit, as defined in the Proposal (typically about 25% of the fixed price or estimate). Upon receipt of the initial deposit, the Work Order will be scheduled.

Requisite Work Orders

Most website projects involve several Work Orders being done simultaneously. Often some Work Orders rely on others. ‘Pre-Requisite’ refers to a Work Order that must be completed before another can begin. ‘Co-Requisites’ refers to two or more Work Orders that must be be worked on at the same time.

Completing a Work Order

Once I’ve developed your website to a point where I want you to see the work in process, I will post a Preview. A Preview is a version of what your website will look like, but on my server where search engines will not index it. Previews will typically contain the results of more than one Work Order. Previews are posted for your approval, which may be an approval to continue to the next phase or to post to the live site.

Upon completion of a Work Order, you will be billed for the unpaid balance. Upon receipt of payment, the work will be posted to the live website if appropriate.

Canceling a Work Order

If you cancel a Work Order before any work on it has begun, you will receive a full refund of your deposit. If you cancel a Work Order after work on it has begun, a Cancelation Charge will be assessed based on the estimated percent of work completed and any expenses incurred.

If the Cancellation Charge is less than your deposit, you will be refunded the amount overpaid. If the Cancellation Charge is greater than your deposit, you will be billed for the balance due.

Changing a Work Order

Changes are a normal part of this process. For minor changes, there is no need to revise the original Proposal. The Work Order will be implemented according to the changes agreed to.

If the changes are significant enough to have an impact on the cost of this Work Order or any other, it may need to be amended. In that case, a revised Proposal will be issued describing the changed Work Order along with price and delivery. This revised Proposal will go through the same approval process as described above, and work on the original Work Order will be stopped.

In the event that changes are not agreed to, the change will be treated as a cancelation, and subject to the policies described above.