Advice needed on selling an existing Access-based application

[David Anderson]

I need some help on how to charge for an Access application written for free
for Customer #1 if I sell it to Customer #2.

Up to now, I have only ever written in-house Access apps while working as an
IT Manager (recently retired), apps for my own use and my most recent
project, a database for an annual international photographic exhibition for
which I am a committee member. In other words, I have never sold my database
apps to anyone. I have now been approached by another photographic society
with a view to buying a version of my photo exhibition application. It is
still at a very early stage and no deal has been done yet. However, in
preparation for any discussions, I am now faced with the tricky problem of
deciding how much money I should ask them to pay.

My photo exhibition app took me 7 months to write, starting with a blank
sheet of paper. It took me some time to get up to speed on this as my VBA
programming skills had got a bit rusty. There was no prior system in place,
apart from paper-based processes. I did all the analysis work, selected and
purchased the required equipment and currently act as the database
administrator. Further development is planned for next year's exhibition.

It's a reasonably substantial application. According to FMS Total Access
Analyzer, it has nearly 12,000 lines of bespoke VBA code, though I'm
guessing it counts the blank lines as well as the real code lines. There are
also 38 data tables, 180 stored queries (this quantity is inflated by a fair
number of one-off ad hoc queries), 41 forms or subforms and 34 reports.

Any guidance on costing would be much appreciated. I don't want to charge
too much, because they are a non-profit organisation, but I also want to get
some reasonable payment for my past efforts and the conversion work to their
requirements. A useful starting point would be for me to know how much this
would have cost to buy from a professional Access developer in the UK, so if
any of you are reading this then your advice would be particularly useful.

My intention would be to sell the system as an MDE file only, using the
Access 2003 runtime, so that my code is protected. I haven't given it much
thought yet, but I guess that means that all queries and reports would have
to be predefined to some extent (and paid for!). If I'm wrong on that point,
please let me know.

David

 

[Olduke]

As the customer has approached you, it may be a good idea to find out how
much they feel such a system is worth (be subtle).
For example, you could chat amiably about how you used to get thousands of
dollars for your work before you retired, but now you're doing it more as a
hobby so you don't charge nearly as much.
Unless you are asked for some kind of estimate beforehand, charge what you
feel the market will bear.
If this is a large outfit, they can probably pay more than if its just a few
individuals in a club type arrangement.
As this database will not require a great deal of work (you seem to have
already done most of it on your former job), start off with an amount about
halfway between what you think the maximum should be and the minimum you
would accept.
If the customer has a heart attack, you're charging too much.
If the customer breaks out in a big smile, you're charging too little.
Good experience for your next project.

Good luck.