

Independent Contracting & Estimates - andrewbadera

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm trying to generate an estimate for an app built around Twitter for a regulated industry with compliance considerations. The interfaces and base functionality alone are probably 170 hours or so of work. Reporting, given the nature of the auditing and compliance involved, is probably another 100+ hours. Somehow I have a feeling that 270*$85USD/hour is not what this client is expecting to spend. What kind of money would you find to be "minimally acceptable" for 250+ hours of web-based and service-exposed (API to allow integration with their legacy apps) work around Twitter and several other APIs?
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larrykubin
Your description doesn't reveal very much about the project, but if your time
estimate is anywhere close, I would personally charge in the ballpark of 25k,
and bill 1/3 up front, 1/3 at a midpoint, and 1/3 at the end.

Of course, if they don't want to spend that much money, then it depends on how
badly you need the project and you'll need to decide how much you're willing
to come down.

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andrewbadera
Thanks for the reply! Right, and I don't really want to reveal too much more
at the moment. I guess I really just want outright opinions, out of one's a$$
or otherwise. There's nothing abhorrently difficult about the work, there's
just a fairly significant amount of it to be done. I'm just wondering how low
my peers would go for 250 hours of light-to-moderate difficulty mostly web
form and simple database work, integrating with multiple external APIs.

