Policies & Rates

Our Philosophy

Integrity and quality work are the mainstay of our reputation

We deal with our clients honestly and ethically and foster professional relationships that promote the same in return

Our Rates

Billing rates vary depending on the nature and duration of the project and client relationship. Rates are lower for technical support services, and higher for troubleshooting, programming, system design and consulting. 

We provide discounts for fixed volumes of ongoing work and will fix price bids for well-specified larger projects. Your first hour of consultation is free. Support agreements are required for ongoing work. We bill a daily onsite fee for out of town clients plus expenses. The daily onsite fee is based on our daily rate multiplied by ten (10) hours multiplied by a twenty percent (20%) onsite premium.

Emergencies

Emergency support rates are charged at a $125 per hour premium over standard hourly rates for clients who are not on monthly support agreements, and $75 per hour premium over the rate in effect for clients who are on monthly support agreements. An “emergency” is defined as any support issue where a client REQUIRES same day service, service at night, during the weekends or holidays. If emergency support is not REQUIRED, but at APG’s discretion its personnel elect to schedule support for same day, night, weekend or holiday, then this is not considered an emergency and standard support rates will apply. Our standard monthly support agreement does NOT include emergency support provisions – please inquire if you need that provision. This means we do not necessarily guarantee we can respond to all emergencies. Typically, and at our discretion, if an emergency support call can be handled over the phone or by remote support in 15 minutes or less we do not bill emergency rates. Our minimum emergency billing interval is one hour.

Emergency requests need to be emailed for documentation purposes (we constantly check our email).

Hardware & Software

It is our policy to sell standard hardware and software at cost as a convenience for our clients. Because of this we require payment for the hardware and software at the time of delivery. We do charge for all time related to review, procurement, delivery, installation, etc. We do not require you to obtain your hardware and software through us.

Billing Practices

Your first hour of consultation is free. A retainer is required before beginning work if a business relationship has not yet been established. The first billing will reflect the retainer credit. Billing cycles are monthly with net ten days unless otherwise agreed. Expenses such as long distance phone calls and information service connect and usage fees are all billable, as are all typical expenses related to out of town travel (gas, hotel rooms, meals, incidentals). Our minimum billing unit is one quarter of an hour.

Travel time over one quarter hour is billed at full rate as well as all expenses involved with business trips for each consultant traveling. Travel time is not billed on days where the daily onsite fee applies. Travel time starts when we leave our office and ends when we arrive at yours.

We provide a detailed accounting of the work performed and the billable rate for each day of work. Support agreement billing is due on the 1st of each month. We prefer EFT/ACH/wire transfers but do accept corporate checks.

Invoices unpaid after 30 days from invoice date will begin accruing a finance charge of 1.5% per month.

We do not provide refunds though we will provide a credit to your account for future services.

We appreciate your referral. The majority of our business is generated by referrals from our satisfied clients.

To learn how we can assist you