Pricing a project without access to the software

["Pippa Cohen" <cohenpippa -at- googlemail -dot- com>]

Hi All

I visited a (hopefully) new client this week, to discuss a project.

I was given a brief run through of a large application that needs to be
documented, just so that I could get an idea of the system as a whole. I
never got to see screens in any detail, and I certainly didn't see every
screen that needs to be documented. However, what I did see seemed very
intuitve to use, and not too technical.

The application is Windows-based and requires a fair amount of effort to
install. The client is not keen to install it on my laptop, for me to
complete a detailed review and then quote for the work (which I can
understand at this early stage), and for various reasons it isn't feasible
for me to do this on site.

Their preference is to generate a list of screens from the database; a
developer will then annotate each entry in this list with a level of
complexity, and it will then be sent to me to quote (a fixed price) for the
work.

I have never worked in this way before and am nervous about quoting for
something where I haven't been able to really go through the system for
myself - but I haven't been freelancing that long, so I suspect this is the
kind of situation I will encounter more and more.

Ultimately, I want the work and so I want to do all that I can to fit in
with the client... but I don't want to set myself up for a fall in the
process!

Any thoughts and advice would be very much appreicated :-)

Thank you!
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