We’ll always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so we both know what’s what, who does what and when, and what happens if something goes wrong. You won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text here – we’ve no desire to trick you into signing something you might later regret. What we want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.

So in short, you’re hiring us, Click Cartel (“We” or “Us”), to design and develop a website, and/or provide graphic design, photography and/or marketing, for the estimated total price outlined in our previous correspondence. Of course it’s a little more complicated than that, but we’ll get to it below.

You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us the assets and information we need to complete the project, when we ask for it and in the formats we ask for. You’ll review our work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by the dates we set together, and you agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.

We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you, and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavour to meet every deadline that’s set, and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.

We create designs that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We build them iteratively and use predominantly HTML and CSS, so we won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We may use visuals to indicate a creative direction (colour, texture and typography) – we call that ‘atmosphere’.

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll either share a live link or a development site with you, and we’ll have regular, possibly daily, contact by phone or email. If at any stage you change your mind about what you want delivered, or aren’t happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for the time we’ve spent working until that point and may terminate this contract.

Unless agreed separately, we’re not responsible for writing copy or creating content for every page on your website and content management system. We can provide professional copywriting and editing services – if you’d like us to create or edit content for you, we’ll provide a separate estimate.

You should supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format, and photographs in a high-resolution digital format. If you’d like to buy stock photographs, we can suggest stock libraries, or we can search for photographs on your behalf for a separate estimate. If you’ve agreed to photography services, this is included in the project amount – adding it later can be quoted separately.

We deliver pages built from HTML markup, CSS stylesheets for styling, and unobtrusive JavaScript for behaviour.

Browser testing no longer means making a website look identical in every browser or on every size screen. It means making sure a person’s experience of the design is appropriate to the capabilities of the browser or device they’re using. We test our work in current versions of the major desktop browsers – Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, we can provide a separate estimate.

Testing on popular smaller-screen devices is essential to make sure the experience is appropriate to the capabilities of the device. We test our designs on iOS (Safari and Chrome) and Android (Chrome). We won’t test on Opera Mini/Mobile, specific Android devices or other mobile browsers unless agreed separately – we can quote for that if needed.

We offer full technical support during the project timeframe, plus some limited support after the project is complete, usually relating only to the work delivered. Once a project is signed off and handed over, any further support is billed hourly and agreed with you in advance.

We can offer domain registration and a hosting platform, and manage renewals on your behalf. The cost of these services is your responsibility, and we’ll let you know in advance of expiry dates and fees. Renewals usually happen yearly, and we’ll remind you at least a month before expiry. If a first year (or pre-agreed period) is included as part of a package, we’ll let you know the renewal date and cost before the project begins, plus a reminder before that free period ends.

We don’t guarantee improvements to your search engine ranking, but the pages we build are accessible to search engines. Basic SEO is usually included as part of the project – SEM and PPC campaigns are not included, but we’re happy to quote for them.

We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind, but we ask that you’re considerate and fair about what’s a reasonable amount of revisions. The price at the start of this contract is based on the number of weeks we estimate we’ll need to deliver what you’ve told us you want – we’re happy to be flexible, and if you want to change direction or add something new, we’ll quote separately for the extra time.

We’ll carry out our work in line with good industry practice and to the standard expected of a suitably qualified person with relevant experience. That said, we can’t guarantee our work will be error-free, so we can’t be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve told us about them. Likewise, our liability to you is limited to the amount of fees payable under this contract, and you won’t be liable to us or any third party for those same kinds of damages.

Finally, if any part of this contract turns out to be unlawful, void or unenforceable for any reason, that part is treated as removed and the rest of the contract stays in place.

“Intellectual property rights” means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright (including rights in software) and related rights, trademarks, trade names, domain names, rights to goodwill, rights in designs, database rights and rights in confidential information, in each case whether registered or not, anywhere in the world.

You guarantee that all text, images or other material you provide is either owned by you or you have permission to use it, and you agree to protect us from any claim that we’re using someone else’s intellectual property because of material you gave us.

We guarantee that everything we deliver to you is either owned by us or we’ve obtained permission to provide it to you, and we agree to protect you from any third-party claim in the same way. Provided you’ve paid for the work and this contract hasn’t been terminated, once the project is complete we’ll assign the intellectual property rights to you as follows: you’ll own the website we design for you and the visual elements we create for it. We’ll give you the source files and finished files, and you should keep them safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property in the text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns it.

We’ll keep the rights to anything we developed before, or separately from, this project that you haven’t paid for, and to the unique combination of elements that make up the finished design – we license that to you exclusively and permanently for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display all aspects of it – sketches, work-in-progress designs and the finished project – in our portfolio, in articles, on social media, in magazines and in books.

We’re a small business, so it means a lot that you pay invoices promptly – and since we’re sure you’ll want to stay friends, we ask you to stick to the following payment schedule: 50% on approval of the quote, 25% as a progress payment, and the final 25% on completion of the project, due within 7 days.

We issue invoices electronically, with payment terms of 14 days from the invoice date, by direct debit or PayPal if agreed. All quotes are in Australian dollars. You agree to cover any charges associated with transferring funds via PayPal – our bank and PayPal details will be on the invoice. We reserve the right to charge interest on overdue amounts at 10% per month or part thereof.

Just like a parking ticket, neither of us can transfer this contract to someone else without the other’s permission. We both agree to stick to all relevant laws and regulations relating to our work under this contract, and not to cause the other to breach any laws either.

This contract stays in place and doesn’t need renewing. If one part of it turns out to be invalid, the rest remains in place. The language here is casual, but the intentions are serious – this is a legal document under the exclusive jurisdiction of Australian courts of law.

Oh, and don’t forget those men with big dogs.

If you agree to these terms and those in the quotation or contract, please sign and return the document and keep a copy for your records.