Payment of your invoice is also indication of your understanding and agreement to my Terms of Service:
Project Specifications
All projects are completed according to the specifications laid out in the invoice, so please be as specific as possible with your requirements. Communication regarding your project is a two-way street and I want to provide you with a final product that you are 100% satisfied with.
Development Schedule
Work will commence at a scheduled, agreed-upon time. The development schedule will be outlined prior to that time, and will depend on the scope of the project and my current schedule. For PSD to WP projects and customization projects, a target turnaround time is two weeks from the agreed start date of the project.
Due to my current schedule, any “Rush” orders will include a 50% markup on the project’s price to make up for the overtime required in order to complete your project within your timeframe.
Payment
Payment is accepted via PayPal or Interac deposit.
Projects under 5 hours in scope will require payment in full prior to the commencement of the project. Projects over 5 hours in scope will require a 50% retainer prior to the commencement of the project. The remaining balance will be due upon completion of the coding, prior to installation of the project on your server. You will be able to see your project in action on my test server before the final invoice is sent.
For subcontractor projects, if the project has not finalized within 90 days due to your client’s decision to stop the process, the full balance will be due at that time.
Invoices more than 30 days past due will be subject to interest of 2.5%/month. Invoices more than 365 days past due will be subject to an additional late penalty of $100.
If you choose to cancel the project after the retainer has been paid and prior to commencement of work, only the outstanding balance will be waived. As soon as work has commenced, any cancellations will result in a final invoice for all work completed to date.
There are no refunds given at any time, due to the nature of my work.
Revisions
Once your project is complete, you will have the opportunity to review it on my test server. You will be given access to the dashboard so that you can see how things will work. If you have additional alterations at that time that either weren’t specified in the initial quote or fall outside of the scope of work listed on the invoice, these additional requests will be billed at $90 per hour. This amount will be added to the final bill.
Additional fees, after the final launch, will be incurred for future requests if:
- Your theme breaks after an upgrade to the software you are using.
- You add new plugins or features to your site that weren’t included in the original project
- A new browser upgrade breaks your theme (i.e. a browser version that didn’t exist during the creation of your theme).
- You’ve made changes or alterations to the code.
- Your site gets hacked, or otherwise compromised and you’ve lost your theme files due to a lack of backups.
Browser Testing
All coding projects will be developed using valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1 markup. CSS 3/HTML 5 features may be used if the project requires it. The customized theme will be tested in the current versions of all major browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Customizations will not be tested in older versions of these browsers, for example Internet Explorer 7 or 6, or browser versions currently in beta, unless otherwise specified. Testing and coding for older or beta-version browsers will require additional charges at the hourly rate.
WordPress Theme Customizations
For projects that include customization of an existing commercial WordPress theme, you agree to either provide a copy of the theme, or that the cost of the license to use this theme will be added to the initial retainer for the project.
A child theme will be created whenever possible to protect your customizations and to allow you to apply any updates provided by the theme developer.
Customizations will be created based on the current version of the theme and will work in the current version of WordPress. Older versions of either the commercial theme or WordPress cannot be supported.
Backups and Access
If your project includes installation of files to your server, I will require your FTP login information as well as access to your CMS’s dashboard. While these passwords will never be shared with anyone outside the project, I strongly recommend changing your passwords after completion of the project.
While I take every precaution necessary to prevent any issues, there is always a risk that data could be lost. It is your responsibility to ensure that your server’s files are backed up. I am not liable for the loss of any data.
Once your project has been provided to you or installed on your server, I am no longer responsible for keeping a backup of any files I’ve created for you.
Copyrights
You guarantee that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide for inclusion in the web site are either owned by you or that you have permission to use them.
Once the project has been completed, copyright of any code created for this project remains with Laurie M. Rauch and licenses it to the client for use on this project. Copyright and the code cannot be transferred to another person or used on another site or in another theme without the explicit consent of Laurie M. Rauch. The rights for all works, templates, photographs, graphics and images that are created for your project by Laurie M. Rauch remains the intellectual property of Laurie M. Rauch.
You may use any images and renderings created for your project on your personal website, blog or home computer as long as proper copyright is noted. You may not alter, transform, or build upon those images in any way.
You are welcome to use any code created for you to learn from and create additional themes on your site only. Use of this code is for use on one domain only. The licensing of your template does not cover use on other domains and it is not available for redistribution or resale in any way, shape, or form. If you decide you’d like to use the theme on another, or several other, domains – please let me know and I will provide a quote on the additional licensing.
My templates are not available for you to reuse, or resell, for profit in any way.
Credits
I love to show off my work and share what I have learned with other people, so I also reserve the right to display and link to the completed project as part of my portfolio and to write about the project on web sites, in magazine articles, or in books about web design.
However, should your project require it, I am happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Legal Stuff
It is not possible to guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates or in a completed web site will always be error-free and so Laurie M. Rauch/Elle Media/Code Diva cannot be liable to the client or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the operation of or inability to operate this web site and any other web pages, even if the client has advised of the possibilities of such damages.
If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place. Just like a parking ticket, the client cannot transfer this contract to anyone else without permission.
Updated January 5, 2016