The contract

The agreement, in plain English

This is the contract you'd sign — not a summary of it. Print it, read it at your kitchen table, show it to your accountant. No email address required.

Print / save as PDF [FILL: attorney review before launch — see FILL-LIST]

Software Build Agreement

Between Addison Nute, Hudson, New Hampshire ("I", "me") and ______________________________ ("you", the client), dated ____________.

1. The work and the price

• The work is described in the attached written scope: what's included, and what isn't, in plain English.
• The price is fixed in writing on the quote attached to this agreement. Once it's in writing, it doesn't move. If you ask for something outside the written scope, I'll quote it separately in writing before any extra work starts — no surprise invoices.
• The schedule is written into the scope. I work on a contract basis and take a limited number of builds at a time, which is why the schedule is realistic instead of optimistic.
• Payment: [FILL: payment schedule — e.g. one-third to start, balance on delivery].

2. You own everything, from day one

• The code lives in an account that belongs to you from the first day of work. I work in your account; you can revoke my access at any time.
• Hosting, domain, and every related account are registered to you and inventoried in the handover folder's ACCOUNTS page. Nothing of yours is registered under my name — no exceptions.
• On delivery you receive the handover folder: README, a plain-English manual, the account inventory, the why-it's-built-this-way page, and the source code.
• On full payment, all rights in the delivered work belong to you. I may keep general know-how and may describe the project publicly only with your written OK — your numbers are never demo material.

3. When something breaks

• 60-day warranty: if something I built doesn't work as the written scope says it should, I fix it free for 60 days after delivery.
• Response time: you hear back from me within one business day, warranty or not.
• After 60 days: fixes and changes happen under the optional support plan (its price is on the website and in your quote), or by any developer you choose — the handover folder is written so that's a real option, not a theoretical one.

4. Your data

• I see only the data you choose to share, and I use it only to do the work.
• Your data never appears in my demos, my marketing, or anyone else's hands.
• Anything sensitive gets handled the way the written scope says it does, and we agree on that part before work starts.

5. If either of us wants out

• Either of us can end this with written notice. You pay for work completed to that date; I hand over everything in whatever state it's in, with notes — the ownership terms in section 2 apply no matter how we part.

6. The boring legal part

[FILL: limitation of liability, governing law (New Hampshire), dispute resolution — to be reviewed with an attorney before launch]