Commissioning a website: brief, check, pay

A small business commissions a website by writing a brief before it asks for prices, comparing written offers on the same scope, and checking the delivered work against that scope before releasing the final payment. Ownership of the domain and the source files should be settled in the contract, not after the invoice. The order matters: brief first, offers second, inspection third, payment last.

What should be prepared before asking for a quote?

The brief is the document that makes offers comparable. Without it, every provider prices a different project and the numbers cannot be read side by side.

A usable brief covers six things. The purpose of the site in one sentence, for example taking bookings or showing a menu. The pages needed, listed by name. The content that already exists and the content still missing, because text and photos are usually the slowest part. The features required, such as a contact form, a map, or a small shop. The deadline, if there is a real one. The budget range, which saves everyone a round of emails.

A guide written for small business owners, the website planning guide published in Serbian, treats this preparation as the first of three stages, followed by quality control before publication and by rules on ownership and maintenance. Its structure is a useful checklist even for readers who do not read the language: brief and provider choice, then verification, then domain, access, backups and responsibilities.

Two practical points belong in the brief. First, who writes the text: the owner, or the provider at an extra cost. Second, who supplies the photos and who holds the rights to them. A stock photo licensed to the provider is not automatically licensed to the business.

How is a written offer compared?

Compare offers line by line, not by the total at the bottom. A cheap total often hides items that appear later as extras.

Put the offers in a table with the same rows: pages, design, text writing, photography, domain, hosting, email, maintenance, training, and the payment schedule. Then check three things.

Scope. Does the offer include the pages listed in the brief, or a smaller set? Does it include mobile layout, which is not optional?

Exclusions. Look for what is explicitly not included: later changes, extra pages, plugin updates, content migration from an old site. These are the usual sources of a second invoice.

Terms. Delivery date, number of revision rounds, and what happens if the date slips. A provider who refuses any date in writing is a risk.

Price alone does not rank offers. Two offers at the same price can differ by whether the domain is registered in the client's name, whether the source files are handed over, and whether support continues after launch. Those three items are worth more than a small discount.

What is checked on a delivered site before paying?

Check the site against the brief, on a real phone and a real computer, before the final payment leaves. The final payment is the last moment of leverage.

A short inspection list:

• Every page in the brief exists and opens without errors.
• The text is the approved text, with no placeholder sentences left in.
• Forms arrive at a working email address, tested by sending one.
• The site loads in a few seconds on a mobile connection.
• Text is readable without zooming, and buttons are large enough to tap.
• The site works with a keyboard alone, and images carry alternative text.
• Page titles and descriptions are filled in, which is basic search hygiene rather than a promise of ranking.
• The address is the intended one, with or without the www prefix, and it redirects correctly.
• An encrypted connection is active, shown by the padlock in the browser.

Write the result of each check down, with the date. A list of faults sent by email is easier to resolve than a phone call, and it creates a record if the provider disputes the work.

Payment schedules usually run in stages: a deposit at the start, a part at design approval, and the rest at delivery. Holding a meaningful final share until the checks pass is normal practice, not distrust.

Who owns the files and the domain afterwards?

Ownership is decided at contract stage, not at the end. Two assets matter most, and both should be in the client's name.

The domain. It should be registered in the business's own name, with the business's email address as the contact. If the provider registers it in their own name, moving to another provider later becomes a negotiation. Ask for the registrar name and the account details at delivery.

The source files. These include the design files, the images, and any licence keys for paid components. The contract should say that they are handed over on final payment, in a format that another provider can open.

Access. Ask for the hosting account, the content management login, and the email account, with the passwords changed to ones the owner controls. A site the owner cannot enter is a site the owner does not control.

Backups and maintenance. Decide who updates the software, how often, and who is called if the site breaks on a Saturday. If the answer is the provider, put it in writing with a response time. If the answer is the owner, ask for a short training session and a written note of what to click.

Finally, keep a simple folder with the contract, the brief, the offers, the delivery checklist, and the access details. Small businesses change providers, and the next one will ask for exactly these documents.

The order that avoids most disputes

A website project goes wrong in predictable places: a brief that was never written, offers that were compared by total only, a delivery accepted without a test, and a domain registered in someone else's name. Each of these is cheap to fix at the start and expensive to fix at the end.

The sequence is short. Write the brief. Ask for written offers on that brief. Compare scope, exclusions and terms. Test the delivered site against the brief. Pay the final share when the checks pass. Confirm that the domain, the files and the logins are in the business's name. Nothing in that list requires technical knowledge, only the discipline to do it in order.

Sources

The rules, deadlines and figures on this page follow the published material of ICANN.

The amounts and rates on this page are illustrative arithmetic used to demonstrate a method. They are not forecasts, not offers, and take no account of your income, your obligations or the rules where you live.