Reply to: Contract options for consultancy work

[Spoiler]

Contract options for consultancy work

If the OP has a project plan with all these on then yes happy days. I can't see he has that in this thread though.

No project plan to start with is available as it is as and when services are needed. So the supplier sells product & pro services to a new client, and I'm then engaged to deliver the PS work. No idea who's going to be buying stuff in 6 months time.

What is different to the OP's situation and a BoS disguised permie that just moves between clients when he is told?

Maybe because I'll be offered an engagement and I can decide whether to take or leave it, depending on my current workload???

Now if he could bring in a second person to speed the work up or sub it out then happy days!!!

This was something I bought up at the initial discussion, but for now it'll just be me. It depends on how the work ramps up over time as to when more resource is required.
It's possible I could sub some work out though.

[LondonManc]

Hmmmmm, is it fixed price, really?

Most would be charging just a price with contingency time built in.
If you came in under or managed to do it quicker - happy days.

Obviously, difficult to do when you have other parties delivering to you to make your part happen.
The contract has to be watertight for fixed price.

I'm paying for ten days for you to do something. If it takes you 8 good luck. If it takes you 15, tough. Should bill a day or two for analysis for that sort of thing though, so that you don't get stung.

[northernladuk]

I'd agree with the comments about the schedule but something doesn't sound right....

The schedule would have to be upfront and be part of the contract no? I get the impression the OP doesn't know and it's talking about writing up a schedule as and when the work get's agreed. He's not going to know every piece of work when it's a contract with no end date.

All that leads to my assumption he's just moving on to the next bit of work he is asked for. If he then writes up a schedule there and then he's just creating a paper trail that doesn't reflect the overarching contract. If it was as easy as that to document every piece of work the client asks us then D&C would never be a problem.

If the OP has a project plan with all these on then yes happy days. I can't see he has that in this thread though.

What is different to the OP's situation and a BoS disguised permie that just moves between clients when he is told?

Now if he could bring in a second person to speed the work up or sub it out then happy days!!!

[MrMarkyMark]

Yep, that's pretty much fixed price.

Hmmmmm, is it fixed price, really?

Most would be charging just a price with contingency time built in.
If you came in under or managed to do it quicker - happy days.

Obviously, difficult to do when you have other parties delivering to you to make your part happen.
The contract has to be watertight for fixed price.

[Spoiler]

An over-arching contract with a schedule for each piece of work is the right way forward.

Yes, I think I'm coming round to this now! I was probably being lazy and didn't want to create a schedule for each deliverable. I'll get a SOW for each deliverable so can just raise a schedule for each one and send it over.

Just to clarify - I'll be directly engaged by one client only (the supplier), and the deliverable will be for their clients. I'll only have a contract/schedule with the one client though.

The number of days delivered will average out at 2 per week, but it may be higher or lower depending on the current deliverable requirement and also other, unrelated work I have on the go.

Cheers.

[LondonManc]

If he puts the below level of detail in an an overarching contract he should be more than covered, IMO.

Yep, that's pretty much fixed price.

[MrMarkyMark]

+4, but potentially look at fixed price quoting for each deliverable to get you more outside IR35 than D&C would suggest you are.

If he puts the below level of detail in an an overarching contract he should be more than covered, IMO.

So the first piece of work could be "Deliver platform upgrade for client A. 10 days PS".
The next work stream "install new infrastructure and migrate data and services from legacy platform. 30 days PS".

[LondonManc]

+4, but potentially look at fixed price quoting for each deliverable to get you more outside IR35 than D&C would suggest you are.

[jamesbrown]

+3

[MrMarkyMark]

An over-arching contract with a schedule for each piece of work is the right way forward.

+2 Agree

[malvolio]

An over-arching contract with a schedule for each piece of work is the right way forward.

Yep, agree.

[fidot]

An over-arching contract with a schedule for each piece of work is the right way forward.

[northernladuk]

I'd disagree.

I'm sure you do. I am a bit lost on what you are trying to offer but if you have an overarching contract per client with no end date, billing T&M, set work number of days doing any task the client wants you are going to have a hard time convincing HMRC you are not just a disguised permie. They have contracts with no end date and are told what to do. Direction and Control are one of the pillars of your IR35 defense. I don't quite understand how your term 'engagement' works. If you have an overarching contract then that is your engagement, the rest is just work you are told to do. Needs careful wording.

Having multiple clients was good for the now defunct BET's but IR35 is on a contract by contract basis.

If you are wanting to be a supplier on a call off basis I can't help think you don't want a standard PSC contract. You need a different one to differentiate yourself from us. Fixed price/call off or something that doesn't look like you just come in and get told what to do. I'm just a BoS so I can't help but so far there are a couple of gotcha's I think you need to be wary of.

[Spoiler]

Sounds more like D&C bum on seat stuff to me that.

I'd disagree.

[northernladuk]

The deliverables will subtly change for each engagement.

So the first piece of work could be "Deliver platform upgrade for client A. 10 days PS".
The next work stream "install new infrastructure and migrate data and services from legacy platform. 30 days PS".

I'd prefer not to have a different schedule of work for each engagement (instead just a PO), but a generic schedule that is included with the initial contract.

Sounds more like D&C bum on seat stuff to me that.