What should software support for a small business include?

Whether the system is up, whether the backups ran and can be restored, when certificates are due, and which errors people are hitting. Security updates should be part of it, not an extra.

A bug in the supplier's own work should be fixed as part of the agreement. It isn't an improvement, and it shouldn't be charged as one.

A change is different: a new screen, a rule, a report. The agreement should say how changes are suggested, how their size is agreed, and who decides.

You should see what a change does before it's built, and nothing should reach your live system until you've said yes. Some things should never be left to software on its own: changing your live data, passwords and permissions, deleting anything, and emailing your clients.

The code should be yours once it's paid for. Your data was always yours. The manual should be kept current, because a system nobody can explain belongs, in practice, to whoever can.

Your data comes with you, the system and its manual are yours, and the supplier helps hand it over. If an agreement is vague about leaving, ask about it before you sign, not after.

A monthly fee, agreed before anything starts, and any new build quoted separately, in writing. Ask what's in the monthly fee and what isn't, and get the answer written down.

That list is Binary Keep. We look after the system your business runs on, fix our own bugs as part of the plan, and suggest improvements in plain English that you approve before anything is built.

We talk about cost face to face, in your first session, before anything is agreed.