[consulting] Contract > Developer liable for bugs?

[Mike Smullin]

Another way you can protect yourself is to charge by the hour instead of 
a flat-rate. I've always found the latter to be inappropriate for 
services when building something new. If I am selling a ready-made 
product, then it's easier because *I* define what it WILL and WILL NOT 
do, and if they don't like it they can go somewhere else.  But when it's 
the client defining all that, and it has to pass their final inspection, 
then you are just leaving yourself completely at the mercy of the client 
by charging a flat rate. It's even worse when your client is indecisive, 
or doesn't understand anything about art or programming but insists upon 
participating in and approving of the fundamentals of what you do.

That's because more often than not, they forget something and need a way 
to be able to slip those things in at the end without you going bankrupt 
and disappearing mid-way through the project.

Suddenly, when they have to pay extra for those things, they start doing 
weird things like actually reading your proposals, prioritizing and 
postponing bug fixes, and *gasp* raising capital [which is their job, 
not yours.]

Mike Smullin
http://www.smullindesign.com