I appologize, this may have already been said, but I've been quite busy and have fallen behind in the threads.

My thoughts on Flat Rate vs Contract Price vs Fixed Bid:

A contract price is created by looking at the materials and labour needed to complete a project and then adding for overhead and profit to develop a fixed bid for a given project.

Flat rate is having contract pricing information broken down ahead of time in the form of unit prices (based on historical costs adjusted for the current costs of materials and labour)including overhead and profit to quickly develop a fixed bid for a given project.

A fixed bid (upfront pricing) is a price given to a customer in written or verbal form before work commences to indicate the cost to the customer so that they may make a value judgement as to the affordability of the project. As opposed to Time and Materials pricing where the customer doesn't know the actual final costs until after the project is completed.

Sorry, if I am repeating what has been said by someone else!

Just my opinion.

[This message has been edited by ExpressQuote (edited 09-25-2006).]