Advice on what to charge

boohoo888

Hi fitshase,

if it is as simple as you say. I would go with the contractor hourly rate and then work out all the major areas of coding/deliverables, and place a time estimate, factor in contingency (IT is never that straight forward, too many times i've rebuild my pc into the early mornings, due to an unexpected issue). That would be the estimate.

e.g.
task days contingency day rate cost
Create tables 2 days 0.6 300 780
Build front end GUI 2 days 0.6 300 780
Test Front end GUI 0.5 0.15 300 195

This is for your own record, don't show this to management, they will of course say it won't take you 2 days to build the front end, make it a day etc... and they tell you to cut your day rate too!

BTW with your DB design would it be an idea to get an entity relationship diagram done on paper before building the tables?

Don't forget to build indexes on your tables/columns too, will speed up searches.

Finally you mention there are 2000 records there currently, I think MS Access has a 2GB limit of datasize. Can only store 2GB of information, be it tables and data. be wary of this, since once you hit this you may need a new platform! This may not be a problem if the data is pure text etc...but if they are multimedia objects, or word docs (embedded from within Excel) space could become an issue in the near future.

fitshase

boohoo888 wrote: »

Hi fitshase,

BTW with your DB design would it be an idea to get an entity relationship diagram done on paper before building the tables?

Don't forget to build indexes on your tables/columns too, will speed up searches.

Finally you mention there are 2000 records there currently, I think MS Access has a 2GB limit of datasize. Can only store 2GB of information, be it tables and data. be wary of this, since once you hit this you may need a new platform! This may not be a problem if the data is pure text etc...but if they are multimedia objects, or word docs (embedded from within Excel) space could become an issue in the near future.

The relationship diagram is already done as the only relationships are between a single field and a table showing options for that field (easy way of validation for a field). For example, each job is allocated to a surveyor. On the jobs tracker there is a field for "Surveyor" which gives the user a drop-down box of values taken from the "Surveyors" table. That way, if a new surveyor starts with the company, someone can add their name to the Surveyors table and it will then show up in the jobs tracker. There are no other relationships to map.

Indexes are in hand as there will be a lot of searching and querying.

The filesize shouldn't be a problem as there are no embedded objects. The database will just be used to track dates, etc. I've just tried a sample of 100 jobs onto the tracker and the database file size is only 3MB so we shouldn't run into any problems. However, it may be the case that when the database gets large in size (in a couple of years at the current rate), the management are used to having a database instead of a spreadsheet and will invest in an SQL database.

Thanks for your ideas about the fees though, I'll bear these in mind when discussing it.

magpiecottage

I create systems for clients on occasion. I would charge £66 per hour at the moment (plus VAT but you will not be registered for it).

A few things to bear in mind since you are providing a service and not working as an employee:

What is the limit of your liability? This is VERY important. You do not want them pursuing you if it is not what they want or it goes wrong. You do not have professional indemnity insurance and you do not have the cushion of a limited liability which protects your personal assets - so the contract MUST make clear that the business is solely responsible for satisfying itself that the product is fit for purpose before accepting it.

That way, they might say no and refuse to pay you but at least they cannot sue you for consequential losses.

Who will own the intellectual rights? I know Microsoft own the underlying rights to Access but who will own the rights over its customisation? If it is the client, the cost should be higher.

If they only have a licence, is it exclusive or can you sell it on to others if you are able to? If the latter, the cost should be lower.

Finally, because you are also an employee, who is responsible for sorting out your personal taxation and National Insurance?

fitshase

Magpiecottage,

The payment will be paid on my normal salary and will be a "bonus" payment for doing this on my own time therefore the tax and NI will be sorted out as if it was a performance related bonus. I will still be covered under the terms of my current contract (i.e., it works the same as if I was doing it on work time).

The database will be unique to a specific project within the business and, as mentioned, is an extremely simple database so is not really the kind of thing to be sold on. As mentioned before, if there are any issues with the database, these will be worked out within my normal working hours as per my existing working contract. The out of hours payment is for just creating the database and migrating the data from the existing spreadsheet to the database. Doing this on my own time (i.e., out of hours) ensures that there is no down time of the data (the spreadsheet is accessed daily by the teams and updated daily).

The company will own the rights to the database as it will be paid for by them under my current contract. Besides, to recreate a similar structure would take about 2 hours tops (most of the time I am going to be spending is on normalising the existing data in the spreadsheet to make it work in the database).

As for customisation, the company will hopefully be able to customise the database to suit (that is the long-term aim) as the more they use it, the more familiar they become and the more they can get out of it.

As I will be one of the database users, I am in the unique position that I know what is required more than anyone else. This is an advantage over using an external company as they will make a database to specification but it is relying on their client explaining matters properly. As they won't be using the database, it is harder for them to understand the full requirement.

sweetstudent

It maybe off topic but does your company have any plans to us SAP in the near future as they may want to incorporate the DB into SAP

fitshase

sweetstudent wrote: »

It maybe off topic but does your company have any plans to us SAP in the near future as they may want to incorporate the DB into SAP

No idea but I would hazard a guess at no.

ormus

i charge companies 300 per day. minimum fee.
private punters are charged at 40 for the first hour. any more time, and i vary the rate according to what the problem is.
very rare to spend more than a few hours on domestics.