On 2012 Dec 29, at 6:02, Emma Glaisher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Aha, I've tracked down the legal page at Filemaker, but it is confusing. If I'm buying a version to install on my client's PC (and they are paying me for it), who is the official owner? Should I buy it in their name or mine? What do commercial developers usually do here? - this is new territory for me.

I keep my finances and my clients' finances scrupulously separate. (Part of that is because I work pro bono, almost entirely for chronically cash-strapped non-profit organizations, and they don't pay me except in attaboys and chocolate-chip cookies, which puts me in a position of some credibility when I say "This new version of FileMaker Pro is something you should be spending your money on.".) I don't buy my clients their copies of FMP; they don't buy mine. I don't buy their computers; they don't buy mine. Thus I remain independent and can write somebody off entirely if I choose. (Likewise they with me, tho that consideration is much further down on my list of concerns.)

I take full advantage of the fact that FileMaker's license lets me use a single copy of my own for my own use on multiple machines, but I do not abuse that privilege by installing my copy on anybody else's machine. I make them buy their own, and insist that they buy multiple copies if they're going to have multiple users. (Exception: They need only buy as many licenses as they will have simultaneous users; no sense going nuts over this.) I believe this is a reflection of simple honesty and integrity. FileMaker Inc. makes a good product, reasonably priced, and I don't want to take unfair advantage of them.

I also have a variety of different arrangments, depending on the various clients' situations, as to whether they need to acquire a copy of FileMaker Pro Advanced. I have my own copy, of course, and it's often a convenience for me if the client also has one installed (usually on the machine hosting their files), so I can have its full array of tools at my disposal while working on their premises. But increasingly, due to the file-sharing abilities of the cloud, that hasn't been necessary. I can have them upload their files to Dropbox (which I like because it's simple and free) at the end of the business day (or business week, in the case of bigger jobs), I do my work on them at home, then return them to Dropbox with a covering e-mail. Sometimes that's not possible, tho, and in those cases I really want them to have their own copy of Advanced.

One of the consequences of this work style is that I have a heavy need for screenshots to embed within the e-mails I send back along with the worked-on files, explaining what I've done. I highly recommend Ambrosia's Snapz Pro X for this. 70 bux well spent, in my book. These screenshots also serve as a major component of the documentation files I put together (using FileMaker, natch) to go along with the actual application-quality database.

Since I've been at this gig for something like 15 years now (after having spent a decade prior to that growing to know and like even the primitive forerunners of today's powerful FMP) and have several dozen regular clients, along with several dozen more who can call on me for spot trouble-shooting, one of the things I've learned is that I have to keep a full panoply of copies of FMP installed on my machine. I'm no longer supporting files in the .FP3 format, but I've still got people using everything higher than that, and they can legitimately expect me to be able to respond to what they're seeing on their screens, so I have to be able to reproduce that on mine. Of course, I'm doing this voluntarily, and I suspect it wouldn't make much sense for a commercial enterprise to try to support all those formats. (Hell, FileMaker itself doesn't even try any more.) You may well decide that you're going to insist that your clients install the version of FMP that you require. If so, be straightforward and up front about it, so there are no surprises later on anybody's part, nor any missing line items in the budget.

Speaking of budgets, I always recommend to every client that they put something in the budget to upgrade all of their copies of FileMaker Pro every year. (Other software, too, but I leave them to figure that out for themselves.) My rationale to them has always been that you don't expect to buy a car and never change the oil; this too is an ongoing maintenance expense, and you need to budget for it. As I said, tho, most of my clients are non-profits, so only maybe a third of them actually do this. If your clients are businesses, they're usually more understanding of the need for maintenance spending.

Become accustomed to your clients thinking you know everything worth knowing about FileMaker Pro. Among us, we know that's not true and will never be true, but it looks that way to them. Be brutally honest about saying "I don't know" if that is in fact the case. Then go and find out. This forum is an excellent place to ask questions, as is FMI's own Developer Forum. FileMakerSphere has archives of cool tips and tricks. Susan Prosser and Stuart Gripman's "Missing Manual" is witty and eminently readable. And, depending on where you live, you may have a local FMP users' group. Lastly, do not discount the ability of your clients' power users to supplement your own knowledge base. Sometimes they can come at things from a different angle and find a solution that's been eluding you or which would be simpler to implement than one you grew accustomed to back in the days of repeating fields.

I also maintain my own database of clients, which includes records of what version of the program they're using, how many copies they have, names and eddresses of key staff people, which of my standard support files they've got installed, etc. If you'd like, I can send you a clone of it.

That's about it for now off the top of my head. I'm sure people with more commercial experience than I can shed more light on the money-making aspect of things, but I'm driven more by the service motive than the profit motive. (The wage-paying career from which I retired was at a state educational agency, and you KNOW nobody does that for the money.)