Scope and terms
What is included, what is not, and how we work.
Your written scope is the document that governs your project. This page is the general version of it, so you can read the boundaries before you ever speak to us.
What each package does not include
None of this is a hidden charge. It is work we would quote separately, so that the package price stays the package price.
Blog, booking engine, payments, customer accounts, searchable data, custom database, multiple forms, copywriting or photography.
Custom API development, user accounts, approvals, complex calculations, payment processing, data migration, custom reporting or bespoke workflow.
Advanced inventory, accounting, ERP, POS, carrier-rate, multi-location, marketplace, loyalty or unusual tax integrations.
Catalogue, inventory, shipping, recurring billing unless stated, invoice-system integration, custom reconciliation, customer accounts or custom reporting.
Starting prices assume a tightly defined simple portal. Integrations, migration, complex permissions and advanced reporting increase the build price.
What the monthly service covers
dotbm manages the hosting environment, the deployment process, SSL certificates, core configuration and the service credentials.
We check availability and selected critical functions. These checks find many failures. They do not find every defect or third-party outage immediately.
We make automatic off-site backups. The written scope gives the retention period.
We install operating-system, application and dependency updates. These updates lower the risk. They cannot make a service fully safe from attack.
We administer DNS and send renewal reminders. Your domains stay registered in your legal name. You pay registration and premium-domain charges separately.
We check the contact forms, the payment notices and the transactional email.
A small change is an edit to content or to a setting. It does not need a redesign, a new component, a new data structure or custom code.
The team that operates your service gives you support. The written scope gives the business hours.
Examples of a small change
We replace text or an image. We update contact details. We change a listed price. We add a staff member to a layout. We adjust a form label.
Not a small change
A new page layout, new form workflow, new integration, data cleanup, copywriting, redesign, new report, new user role or custom development. We quote this work in writing before we start it.
Commercial terms
Website and payment packages include a 12-month monthly-service commitment. The commitment starts at launch, unless the written scope gives a different term. After that, monthly billing continues until you cancel it with 30 days notice.
You pay 50% at the start, 25% when you approve the design or prototype, and 25% before launch. Large projects use milestone billing.
The written scope gives the revision rounds, the integrations, the content limits and the monthly change allowance before work starts.
We quote work that is not in the written scope before we start it. If you prefer, we charge our hourly rate. Emergency and after-hours work costs more.
After you pay in full, you own your content, your data and the project deliverables. dotbm keeps its reusable frameworks and generic components.
Those providers bill you for banking, gateway, card-processing, premium-domain, licence and specialist services. dotbm does not bill you for them.
A casual mention does not add a feature.
The build price covers only the requirements in the written scope, in an accepted change request or in a milestone specification. We quote all other work before we build it.
All prices are in Bermuda dollars. We confirm the price in writing before work starts.
Refunds, cancellation and delivery dates
Projects end early and dates slip. This is what happens to the money and the work when they do.
Each stage payment pays for the work in that stage. If we have not started a stage, we refund its payment in full. Once a stage has started, its payment covers the work done in it and is not refunded. We never keep a payment for work we did not deliver.
You can cancel a project in writing at any time. You pay for the stages we have completed, we invoice nothing further, and we refund any payment for a stage we have not started. Once the account is settled we hand over everything built so far, as it stands. A project cancelled before launch never starts the 12-month service commitment.
If we cannot deliver the written scope, we tell you in writing and refund every payment for work not delivered. You keep the work completed to that point.
Our dates assume your content, approvals and access arrive on the dates in the written scope. If we wait 60 days for any of them, we tell you in writing, and if it stays stalled we close the project as a cancellation by you.
A delay on your side moves our dates by the same number of days. A delay on our side we tell you about before the date passes, with a new date. If the new date does not suit you, you can cancel on the terms above. A missed date on its own is not a reason to withhold a stage payment for work already delivered.
If we disagree on whether a date was met or a stage was delivered, the written scope, the accepted change requests and the dated email trail decide it. These terms are governed by Bermuda law.
Still have a question about scope?
Ask before you commit to anything. We would rather answer it now than write it into a change request later.
Ask us ↗