A Bitrix24 implementation contract is, legally speaking, a work contract: it needs a defined deliverable, a start and finish date, a price or a way to calculate it, and an acceptance procedure. Leave any of those vague ("CRM setup to suit the client's needs") and there is nothing to argue from later, because each side reads the deliverable differently.
What to put in a Bitrix24 implementation contract
The Russian Civil Code sets the frame. Article 708 says a work contract states the start and end dates, Article 709 says it states the price or how it is determined. For a CRM project that is not enough, so the contract gets annexes:
- Technical specification: pipelines and stages, card fields, roles and permissions, automation rules, integrations (1C, telephony, messengers), data migration and its scope.
- Implementation stages with dates: discovery, configuration, migration, training, pilot run.
- Estimate broken down by stage. Article 709 distinguishes an approximate price from a fixed one, and unless the contract says otherwise the price is treated as fixed. Spell out which one you have and what happens if the scope grows.
- Acceptance criteria for every stage: what gets checked and on which data.
Acceptance: where the money leaks
Under Article 720 the client must inspect and accept the work within the terms and procedure set in the contract, and a client who signs off without checking loses the right to cite defects that an ordinary inspection would have caught. For a CRM, that means signing the certificate without running a single deal through the pipeline, then paying extra for every fix afterwards.
Rule of thumb: accept every stage on a live scenario. A sales rep creates a deal, moves it through all stages, an automation rule assigns a task, the invoice lands in 1C. If it works, sign the stage certificate.
Two more clauses people forget. First, ownership of custom code. Under Article 1296 the exclusive right to software created to order belongs to the client unless the contract provides otherwise, so check that your contract does not quietly provide otherwise for your apps and scripts. Second, access. The portal, the license and admin rights should sit with your company, not with one of the contractor's staff.
Common contract mistakes
- The subject is just "CRM implementation" with no specification, so every dispute goes to whoever argues harder.
- One completion certificate for the whole project instead of one per stage.
- No change procedure: new requests get agreed verbally and then show up on the invoice.
- Nothing about life after launch: who fixes issues, who trains new hires, and at what cost.
What it means for your budget
A tight contract does not make the work cheaper, it makes the price predictable. Our standard Bitrix24 setup costs 97,500 RUB with a launch from 14 days, anything more complex is billed at 3,900 RUB per hour, and the estimate is fixed before work starts. Integration with 1C is a separate line from 150,000 RUB, see Bitrix24 and 1C integration. Once stages and acceptance are written down, rework after sign-off does not turn into a new project, and post-launch support comes in clear hourly packages, listed on the Bitrix24 support page. All prices are on the pricing page.