Terms of service

These terms cover work done by Shah Wali Khan, working as an independent contractor, for a client. Below, “I” means me and “you” means the person or company paying for the work.

Every project starts with a call and then a written scope: what is included, what is not, what it costs and when it is done. Nothing starts until you have approved it.

The price is fixed. I do not bill open-ended hourly rates. Small changes during a build are normal and I absorb them. If a request is big enough to move the date or the price, I will tell you at the time, and you decide.

I am flexible about how you pay. Bank transfer works, including ACH to my USD account, and so do Payoneer and Wise. If none of those suit you, tell me what does, and I can usually work with it. You get a proper invoice either way.

The usual split is half to start and half on launch. Larger projects are normally broken into milestones instead, so you are never paying far ahead of what you have seen. Whatever we agree goes in the scope.

Invoices are due within 14 days unless the scope says otherwise. If you need longer, ask. I only pause work over an invoice that is well overdue with no conversation, and I will tell you before I do.

Third-party costs the project needs, such as hosting, an app store account or API usage, are yours, and I will name them in the scope before you commit to anything.

Either of us can stop a project, at any point, for any reason. You see working software every week, so if it is not going well that becomes obvious early rather than at the end.

If we stop, you pay for the work delivered up to that point and you keep it. There is no cancellation fee and no notice period. If I am the one who has to stop, I will help you hand the work to someone else.

You do, completely. On launch you get the repository, the accounts, the documentation and a handover call. Nothing is hosted on my accounts or tied to my licences.

Ownership transfers once the project has been paid for in full. Until then I keep it. That is standard, and it is the only real protection a one-person business has.

Two things stay mine: general knowledge, techniques and reusable tooling I bring to a project or build alongside it, none of which is specific to you; and third-party components, which stay under their own licences. I will list those in the handover documentation.

I may describe the work publicly, on this site for example. I will not use your name, your logo or your screenshots without your written permission, and I will not publish anything covered by an NDA. If you would rather I never mention the project at all, say so.

Anything you tell me about your business that is not already public, I keep to myself, during the project and after it. If you need a separate NDA, send it over and I will sign it.

Every project includes 30 days of support after launch. I fix anything that breaks, answer questions from your team and help you act on the first round of real user feedback, at no extra cost.

A defect is something not working the way the scope said it would, and it is free within those 30 days. A new request is something the scope did not cover, and it is quoted, though if it is a ten-minute change, I will usually just do it.

After 30 days, support is optional and separate. You can leave the project running, hand it to your own team or arrange ongoing maintenance with me.

I will build what the scope describes, to a professional standard, and fix defects as set out above. I cannot promise software free of every bug, or a particular commercial result. No developer honestly can.

I also do not control the third parties a modern product depends on. App store review decisions, API changes, pricing changes and provider outages are outside what I can guarantee. I will tell you which ones a project depends on before you commit, and help you deal with it if one of them breaks your product.

Where a project uses AI models, output is probabilistic: it will not be right every time. I build in the checks a given use case needs, and I will be explicit about what the system can and cannot be relied on for.

Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profits or lost data, however it arises.

My total liability for a project is capped at what you have paid me for it. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

Talk to me first. Most disagreements about software are really disagreements about what was agreed, and the scope document usually settles them in a phone call.

Which country’s law applies, and where a formal dispute would be heard, is set in your scope document. I work with clients across the US, the UK, Europe and Australia, so fixing one jurisdiction here would be wrong for most of them. If your scope does not name one, we agree it before either of us escalates anything.

I may update this page. The version that applies to your project is the one in force when you approved its scope. I will not change the terms of work you have already started without telling you.

Questions go by Email.