How we work

Three stages, and you can stop after any of them.

You never pay for the next stage before you have seen the last one, and you never see a price for work nobody has scoped yet.

01
Stage one — paid, fixed fee, credited against the build

The discovery sprint.

Most software goes wrong before anyone writes code, because somebody guessed a price for a job nobody had written down. One to two weeks, a fixed fee, and you own everything it produces whether or not you build with us.

You get

A requirements document

What the software must do, in plain language, agreed line by line. This is the thing that makes a fixed price possible.

You get

Wireframes of the main screens

Drawn, not described. Arguments about what a screen should show are much cheaper before it is built.

You get

A fixed price and a plan

A Scope of Work you can hold us to, with milestones, acceptance criteria and dates. Take it to another developer if you would rather.

If you sign a build with us within 60 days, the full sprint fee comes off the first invoice. If you do not, you have still bought something useful.

02
Stage two — fixed scope, fixed price

The build, with a demo every two weeks.

Software is delivered in sprints of one to two weeks, each ending in something that runs. Not a status report, not a percentage — a thing you can click.

Sprint one

Environments, data model, foundations

Nothing you can show a client yet, and everything the rest depends on. We set up the environments, agree the data model against your real records, and build the skeleton the features hang off.

What you do this week Give us a sample of real data and one named person we can ask questions.

Eight weeks is an example, not a promise. A website refresh is two to three. Scope changes are quoted and signed as a Change Request before anyone builds them — including the free ones, so nothing is disputed later.

03
Stage three — optional

Launch, then thirty days at our cost.

Migration, go-live, handover and training. For 30 days after acceptance we fix defects — anything that does not do what the Scope of Work says it does — at our own cost.

Handover means handover

Source code, credentials, documentation and the environments. Copyright in the delivered code transfers to you on final payment, by a signed certificate.

Then it is your choice

Run it yourself, hand it to your IT people, or put it on a care plan. We are not the only people who can work on it, by design.

If we disagree

The acceptance checklist in the Scope of Work is the test — not opinion, not memory. We wrote it together before the build started for exactly this reason.

04
What you pay, and when

Half on signature, half when you sign the work off.

Two invoices, and nothing in between. Move the slider to whatever you had in mind and both figures follow. Nothing arrives that you have not already seen working.

Project value, excluding VAT
R 120 000
R 20 000R 400 000
Invoice one — on signature
R 60 000Payable before we start. Work begins on receipt.
Invoice two — on your sign-off
R 60 000Payable when you have accepted the finished work.

Thirty days to pay, by electronic transfer. We are not registered for VAT yet, so no VAT is charged. If that changes we will tell you before it appears on an invoice.

05
Paperwork

What you will be asked to sign, and why.

All of it is short, and none of it is a surprise. You see every document before you are asked to sign anything.

Master Services Agreement Signed once, ever. The terms everything else hangs off — liability, confidentiality, who owns the code, what happens if either of us walks away.
Scope of Work One per project. Deliverables, acceptance criteria, price, dates, assumptions and exclusions. The document that decides any argument.
POPIA Operator Addendum Before we touch any personal information you hold. Section 21(1) of POPIA requires it in writing, and it protects you more than it protects us.
Change Request Every scope change, including the free ones. It records what changed, what it costs and what moves, so nobody relies on remembering a phone call.
IP Assignment Certificate Issued when the final invoice clears. Under South African copyright law commissioned code stays with the developer unless it is assigned in writing. This is that writing.
Care Plan Agreement Only if you want one. Monthly fee, response times, what is included, and a month’s notice either way.

Start with the sprint. It is the cheapest way to find out what this really costs.

Book a discovery call