Between Rubber Duckers Ltd and our client.
A typical website design project takes about 12 to 16 weeks, not including holidays. This is a rough estimate, on the terms set out under Time frames in the general agreement.
If you are not on a payment plan, we invoice a website project against these milestones:
If an invoice goes unpaid for more than fourteen (14) days after it was sent, we reserve the right to suspend your website from public view until all outstanding bills are current.
If you elect to terminate the project at any point after the build phase has begun, we will create an estimate of the percentage of the scope of work that has been completed. You will be liable for payment of that percentage of the total project cost, less any amounts already paid. Any amounts paid in excess of the percentage completed will be refunded to you within fourteen (14) days of termination.
Assets for a terminated project, such as the website design and any custom graphics, will be delivered to you when your account reaches a zero balance.
Your new website will be built using the WordPress content management system. WordPress and its associated software are "open source," distributed under the GNU General Public License. We use WordPress to power your website, but neither of us "own" WordPress or the third-party plugins used to add features to your website. When you hire us to build your website, you are not purchasing WordPress, you are retaining our services to create a customised website using the WordPress system.
You own the website and visual elements we create for you and you may do whatever you want with them. Upon request, we will provide the source files for any custom artwork that was created for your project.
During the process of creating your website, we may create design, code, functionality, and processes. While this work is used on your website, we retain ownership of these as our intellectual property and reserve the right to use them in future projects. This re-use helps us serve our future clients better, just as your website will benefit from what we have learned and developed in previous projects.
We will place an attribution link in the footer of your website that links back to our home page, subject to the consent described under Testimonials, marketing and attribution links in the general agreement.
Our typical website creation process is as described below. This process may change based on the requirements of your project. If changes to this process are required, they will be outlined in the Proposal of Services.
At the beginning of your project, we will provide a client portal to assist you in the process of onboarding and for sharing the content we will need to create your new website.
Within the onboarding phase you will have the opportunity to provide us with design examples and requests for your new website which will be used in the Design phase.
Onboarding is complete once the onboarding form is complete and we have received in full the assembled content for the website such as logos, photos, videos, etc.
Based on the information you provide in the discovery session, onboarding process and any assets you supply, we will produce a design concept.
We will work with you to adjust the design concept until you are satisfied.
The Design phase concludes when you approve the design concepts provided.
The design concept layout approved in the design phase is converted into a customised WordPress website. Pages are built and functionality is added.
Development concludes when we complete the website and submit it to you for revisions.
Revisions are minor updates (as determined at our discretion) and changes to existing content.
The Change Budget is used for change requests such as but not limited to:
The revision phase concludes when you provide approval in writing and the final payment is received.
When a website project is complete, you have 3 options:
1. Instruct us where to deploy the website. You must prepare the server appropriately
2. Host with us. This includes hosting for your website but not ongoing maintenance or support
3. Choose a care plan with us. This is subject to our Care Plan Agreement
Training will be provided for handover and management of your website if needed.
Your new website will be designed for viewing on modern screens for desktops, laptops and mobile devices. We test for compatibility in the following desktop web browsers: Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. We test for compatibility on the following mobile web browsers: Apple Safari (iOS) and Google Chrome (iOS and Android).
Unless specifically included in the scope of work, we do not code for web browsers or operating systems older than the current release or for those in pre-release or beta at the time the project is begun. There will normally be additional charges for this work.
As we determine the architecture of your website, we may choose to utilise premium WordPress themes and plugins that require an annual licensing fee for ongoing updates and support.
Premium themes and plugins used on your website are provided at their current software version. Payment for and implementation of any future updates are your responsibility alone if you do not participate in our Care Plan Services as outlined below.
Future updates and security patches for premium themes and plugins are covered as part of our Care Plan service.
We cannot guarantee updates or security patches for any premium themes and plugins used on your site if you opt not to participate in our Care Plan Services.
Premium themes and plugins require a recurring licence fee to access ongoing software updates.
If we hold the appropriate licences for the themes or plugins used on your website, the costs for these licences are included in your Website Management Services. We will maintain these licences for as long as you remain an active subscriber to our services. Plugins will be regularly reviewed for price changes and may be discontinued, in consultation with you, if their cost becomes unreasonably high.
If your website uses premium themes or plugins for which we do not hold the necessary licences, it is your responsibility to maintain the appropriate licensing to ensure updates are available.
We will inform you about any themes or plugins requiring licensing that you must secure, and assist you in obtaining them if needed.
You are responsible for maintaining current licences for these themes and plugins. Failure to do so may result in compatibility and security problems, for which we cannot be held liable.
The project described by the Scope of Work in the Proposal of Services concludes when your website is launched. Though we are happy to help you with changes to your website after launch, any changes or modifications that were not included in the original scope of work, other than fixing existing bugs (see below), are billable at our current hourly rate at the time of the request.
An "existing bug" is an error in the programming we provided that existed prior to launch and affects the operation or appearance of your website.
Additional costs at our current hourly rate will be incurred for future support requests such as but not limited to:
At your request, and at our sole discretion, we may agree to deploy and/or manage websites hosted on other services.
If you choose not to use our hosting services, we make no guarantees or representations regarding any third-party hosting services, including their performance, support, reliability, or security.
We are not liable for any issues, damages, or losses arising from third-party hosting providers, including server downtime, data loss, or security breaches. The chosen hosting provider is solely responsible for resolving any hosting-related issues, and all claims or disputes must be directed to them.
Any work required to address problems that we deem to be related to third-party web hosting will be billed at our current hourly rate.
We implement advanced security measures to enhance your website's resilience against unauthorised access and hacking attempts. Our security protocols include the use of leading security software.
While we strive to provide reliable website security, we cannot guarantee that your site will be immune to hacking. Our practices aim to reduce risks and mitigate the impact of security incidents. Should a breach occur, we will endeavour to restore your site to its pre-breach state as part of our service commitment, at no additional recovery cost. Beyond restoration, we do not assume further liability.
We incorporate industry standard WordPress security techniques when building your website. Since one prevalent method hackers use to breach a website is through compromised user devices, you agree to uphold robust security measures when accessing your website, and this includes:
Protect any computer or device you control that has access to the website by:
You further commit that any employees, contractors, or other parties you grant (or ask us to provide) website access to will adhere to the above security measures.
We cannot be responsible for changes made to the website by third-party providers that you have authorised to access the website. These providers include but are not limited to those doing work related to website development, search engine optimization, social media, or content creation.
If we build your website, we guarantee that your site will be able to be indexed by search engines like Google and others at the time of launch. Additional SEO services are not included in your project unless specifically itemised in the proposal of services. Your website's ranking and placement on search engines depend on a myriad of factors and we cannot guarantee ranking or placement on any search engine.
We strive to employ best practices for website accessibility in our designs, including considerate colour choices and the selection of accessible interactive elements. However, full compliance with all accessibility standards may vary depending on the specific project and client requirements. If the Client has any specific legal, regulatory, or accessibility requirements that apply to the website, including but not limited to compliance with disability accessibility standards or other regulations related to HIPAA, FERPA, etc., it is the Client's responsibility to inform us of these requirements.
Unless expressly stipulated in the Scope of Work, we make no representations or warranties regarding the website's compliance with any such specific requirements. Any guarantees to meet compliance for accessibility or other regulations must be explicitly detailed and agreed upon as part of the Scope of Work and accepted by you to be a part of the contract between the parties.
Depending on the nature of your site and your location, legal pages such as Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Return Policy, etc., may be mandated by government entities, vendors, or licensing agencies.
The client acknowledges and agrees that it is the client's sole responsibility to determine whether such pages are required.
We have informed you that applicable (local, national, or international) law may require your website to have a Privacy Policy with specific disclosures. We are not lawyers, we do not provide Privacy Policies as a service, and we are not responsible for your business complying with any applicable privacy laws.
It is strongly advised that you consult an attorney to determine your responsibilities in this matter. If you need assistance in linking legal pages, we have a relationship with a third-party Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions generator service called Termageddon, and we can assist you with linking those policies to your website. You are under no obligation to utilise Termageddon, but it is the service that we use on our own website, have a relationship with (we receive a commission fee or can resell their licence to you if you decide to purchase), and recommend. Please note, should you choose to use Termageddon's services, your relationship will be directly with them, governed solely by their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
If we provide any standardised privacy policies and terms of use, we expressly do not guarantee that this language complies with any governing body's requirements.
You acknowledge and agree that any standardised language provided by us should be reviewed by a qualified lawyer. The client further acknowledges and agrees that it is the client's sole responsibility to inform us if your website must be compliant with any regulatory body, such as but not limited to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Compliance with these, or any other regulations or laws, must be explicitly detailed and agreed upon as part of the Scope of Work and accepted by you to be part of the contract between the parties.
Your website will automatically send emails in response to specific events, such as the completion of a contact form, product sales, or user password updates/resets. These emails could be flagged as spam or not delivered by email providers.
As part of our website management service, we can include use of an SMTP server to more reliably send emails from your website. However, this does not guarantee the receipt of emails landing in inboxes outside of our control.
Since we cannot control the delivery of these emails, we are not responsible for any emails that are not delivered to the client for any reason.
You are responsible for regularly checking spam folders, and website form and order interfaces for any notifications that were not delivered to your inbox.
We do not provide or support email service to clients. We recommend email services to clients through Office 365 or Google Workspace. If you want to use another provider we recommend consulting with an IT professional about implementing professional email service from a reliable vendor.
Registering a domain name for your website and paying the accompanying annual registration fee is your responsibility. We can assist in the process of registration and connecting your domain name to the website if you desire. You can purchase your domain name for multiple years, or renew it annually at your discretion.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the credit card the domain registrar has on file for your domain registration is current for rebilling.
We are not responsible for suspension or loss of domain names because your card could not be billed or for any other reason. If you lose access to your domain name through non-payment, suspension or any other reason, your website will no longer be accessible or viewable by the public. Work needed as a result of domain expiration is billable at our current hourly rate.
