Project Contract

Overview
Project Contract is a mutual agreement between buyer and service provider on scope, deliverables, payment and schedule of a project. This offers an increased transparency, mutual trust, and sustained monitoring of the project at every stage. Project Contract allows you to determine in advance how the project will progress from stage to stage or milestone to milestone.

Each project has a Project Contract as accepted by both the parties to the project.

About Project Contract
Project Contract may consist of Milestones, Work Hours, Tasks, Project Duration and Bid Amount, depending upon the type of the project - Hourly, Pay Per Task or Fixed Price. You should make sure that the Project Contract clearly defines your understanding of the deliverables, hours available and the payment terms. The milestones section is applicable for Fixed Price projects only. It outlines when and how much the provider will be paid after the completion of each milestone.

A Statement of Work (SOW) may be uploaded to the Project Contract attachment section. In this document, the provider can specify system requirements, additional services or materials not included in the original quote, how changes to scope will be handled, and any further information that will impact the project.

About Milestones
Milestones are important points in the lifecycle of the project. Project Contract allows providers to create separate milestones that specify what will be delivered, when, and how much the provider will be paid after the successful completion of each milestone. Service providers can specify as many milestones as needed.

Milestones outline a delivery schedule and corresponding payments for progressive stages of the project. This is a great way for both the buyer and the service provider to ensure that the project is on track and proceeding as scheduled.

Multiple future project contracts
You can create multiple future project contracts for different billing cycles of “Pay Per Task” and “Hourly” projects. This means that different terms and conditions can govern the different billing cycles of these projects. Each billing cycle is of one week and starts every Monday and ends the following Sunday. Fixed Price projects currently do not support multiple future project contracts.

For any of your ongoing project, you can edit and create a new project contract. Click the 'Edit' link on the project contract page, fill the rate, estimated workload, duration and the start date and submit it for Buyer's acceptance. If Buyer agrees to your project contract, it will become effective from the date you specified in the contract.

Please note: start date for new project contracts will be Monday only. 



Project Contract
At the time of bidding, a service provider creates a Project Contract and submits it to the Buyer for acceptance. For 'Fixed Price' projects, a service provider may create a new project contract by adding milestones and attachments. 

• Creating a Project Contract 
• You can search for projects through LimeExchange search bar and place a bid by clicking the "Bid for free" link appearing below each search result. You can also click the Project Name on the search results page, view the full project details, and then click the "Bid on this Project" link from the left side menu to place your bid.
  
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  In the Bid Proposal section, you can explain your understanding of the project. This may encourage the Buyer to award you the project.
  
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  The next step is to create a Project Contract. If you are bidding on a Fixed Price project you may choose to create single-amount bid for the entire project or create a schedule-based bid. A scheduled-based bid means multiple milestones and corresponding project amounts for each part delivery of project. You can also send an attachment with your bid. The attachment could be a brief profile or a formal proposal.
  
  
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• If it is an Hourly project then make sure you create a project contract mentioning your rate, work hours and duration by which you will complete the project. It is recommended to provide exact details to help buyer understand your bid clearly while increasing your chances of winning the project.

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• If it is a Pay Per Task then it is important to indicate your rate per task, number of tasks you can complete each week, and the total number of weeks you will take to complete the project. The project contract should be filled realistically after understanding the project requirement, timelines and most importantly the buyer’s budget.
  
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• Having created a project contract, you can submit your bid.
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• Templates 
  
• While creating Project Contract, a service provider can attach documents that help in clarifying the scope of the work and other terms and conditions. Depending upon the need and suitability, users can attach the following types of documents with Project Contract:
  • Statement of Work (SOW) – This document defines the exact scope of the work to be completed, often known as deliverables.
  • Master Service Agreement (MSA) – This document contains the terms and conditions and modalities for the completion of a project.
  • Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) – This document is used to restrict the users from disclosing any confidential or business information to which they get access during the completion of the project.
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• LimeExchange users can refer to these documents, download them, and use them as per their requirement.

• Different states of your Project Contract
  

• Once a bid is submitted, your Project Contract can go into agreed or disagreed state depending on its approval/rejection by the buyer.
  
•           o If the project is in the bidding stage and you edit and resend a Project Contract received from the buyer, you automatically disagree with the previous Project Contract.
            o If the project is in the bidding stage and you edit and resend a Project Contract received from the buyer, the previous Project Contract will be automatically withdrawn.
            o If the project is in progress and you submit a new Project Contract, the existing Project Contract will continue to hold in principle till the new Project Contract is agreed by the buyer.
  
  
• Agree to Project Contract
  
• If you are satisfied with the Project Contract received from a buyer, you can choose the Agree option and the Project Contract will move to Agreed state. A buyer can only select a bid for which the Project Contract is in "Agreed" state. However, it is important to note that if Buyer agrees to your Project Contract, it does not mean that your bid has been selected.
  
  
• Disagree to Project Contract
• If you are not satisfied with the Project Contract received from a buyer, you can click the Disagree option. Once a Project Contract has been disagreed, it does not mean that negotiations have come to a standstill. You can edit or make a new Project Contract and submit it to the buyer. Thus, the negotiations can go on further.
  
  

View the Status of your Project Payment
There is a Payment Status associated with the milestone details. There can be three different states with respect to each milestone in the Project Contract.

• Escrow Pending
• This status shows that the buyer has not escrowed the payment. Work cannot be started on any milestone till the payment for that milestone has not been escrowed.
  
• Escrow Deposited
• This means that the buyer has escrowed the payment for the milestone.
  
• Escrow Released
• This means that milestone deliverables have been accepted by the buyer and payment with respect to that milestone has been released to the service provider.