Writing a successful web design and development contract and agreement will give a peace of mind to both the client (one who hires a website development company) and developer (the website company) and will pave the way to a trusting business relationship. Some important terms and conditions in the contract are as follows.

1. Scope of Services: Start off with the most important aspect of the entire project. What exactly are you as the developer going to do for the client? Present a general 3-5 sentence summary of the scope of service. Will you be responsible for the design and programming? How will the website be updated? Who will be responsible for the marketing at the end of the project? Who will host the website when the project is done?

2. Price and Payments: This area contains the developer’s statement about exact price payment and terms. Is the project quoted at a fixed rate? Is it an hourly rate and how is this documented and tracked? Will the payments be made with a certain percentage up front as a down payment and then a monthly billing cycle, or is it a milestone related payment system?             

3.Term and Termination: How long will this agreement contract be enforceable? If the client does not want to peruse the project ¾ of the way through the project how can he get out? What are the penalties and timeframe they can exit the contract? Many factors can go in this area, but it protects both the client and the developer in the case a developer never is able to complete a project or continues to be late on deliverables and the client wishes to terminate the relationship.

4. Ownership of Intellectual Property: Usually the client retains all intellectual property. This area highlights all of the intellectual property covered such as the source code, all digital files, documentation, etc

5. Confidential Information: Many clients wish to keep all information that is exchanged within a project to the developer as highly confidential and cannot be disclosed whatsoever. This must be addressed in any agreement as to the extent that information can be disclosed. This area must represent exactly what is disclosed and for how long. What period of time is the information kept confidential and so on.

6. Warranty and Disclaimer: Having a warranty on the work that is developed is standard in most web projects. Now this is the area that small details such as the client having access to the server and by mistake entering the files and making changes on mistake that affect the functionality within the terms. You will provide warranty on certain terms and conditions with specific disclaimers as well.

7. Limitation of Liability: This is the area in which the developer discloses that they are not liable for any losses of money for the developer or other economic losses directly or indirectly associated with the development of the website. Also, during the project, if for any reason there is a financial loss, it protects you as a developer.

8. Relation of Parties: Make sure that the client and developer understand what their relationship is. Is the relationship a development partnership? Is it strictly a work-for-hire type relationship? Is it a client and vendor relationship?

9. Employee Solicitation / Hiring:  The client can not solicit the developer’s employees in any way when it comes to potential hiring or additional perks. Specify a certain amount of time for this as well.

10. Entire Agreement: This is the ending of the document that basically should say that the entire document and its attributes fall under the entire contract and that nothing will supersede it. Also, this is the area that will have the client and developer’s key representative who will sign it, date it, and post their roles within the company. Make sure that any and all modifications after signature are signed with initials of both parties next to the change.