Billing models with Unicat.

Depending on the selected Software House, there may be various types of billing models for the project, however, the two most common are:

In Unicat we distinguish one more model:

Fix Price

In the case of Fix Price, the price before the start of the project is set in advance. This is the billing model that is most often used for simple projects that are characterized by a low level of complexity, e.g. a website or a basic eCommerce store. Typically, this type of project is aimed at presenting your company in the form of a business card, gaining new contacts with potential customers, or creating a simple e-commerce store selling several products. You can find an example of such projects Here.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Times & Materials

When settling on the Times & Materials basis, the cost of the project depends on the number of hours actually worked, which is presented in the form of a report at the end of the settlement period (on average every two weeks). The report provides information on the number of completed tasks, including the time spent on each of them. The Times & Materials settlement model applies primarily to projects focused on creating tailor-made software, e.g. web and mobile applications. Most often, this model is used by companies that do not have a rigidly defined scope of work to create their software.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

The Times & Material model is ideal for projects that require frequent changes to adapt to an evolving business model. However, they are not suitable for projects with a fixed scope of work, which need to know the exact cost and time of the project in advance.

Fix Price + Times & Materials

However, the project does not always fit into the Fix Price or Times & Materials billing model. Therefore, we have distinguished a third, mixed billing model. It occurs primarily in the case of creating advanced websites, e-commerce stores, or clearly defined systems, where the recipient is usually an internal client.

Each of these projects is divided into two stages:

Stage I - Creating a layout with documentation - Times & Materials

Stage II - Implementation, testing, and deployment - Fix Price

During the first stage, settlements are made on a Times & Materials basis. The purpose of this stage is to define the scope of the project by creating full technical documentation of the project along with the layout (graphic version of the website or store), an example of the project. Based on the prepared documentation and layout, we move on to the next stage - implementation. Having the full scope of the project created during Stage I, we are able to determine its total cost (fix price) before starting the implementation.

Usually, after the first conversation with the ordering party, the parties are able to determine the most advantageous model of cooperation.