>>Indeed. I think it's almost unethical to charge to write something already 'out there.' OTOH, in that case I'd have no problem at all for charging for my time to find, research, possibly install & support a 3rd party solution. Only fair and I'd think the client would appreciate you watching out for their bottom line and I'd bet you'd get future business as a result.
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>Doug,
>This raises a question in my mind, "What constitutes due diligence?". Is it my job as a consultant to go out and do research to find a third-party tool if the client has contracted me to "write a custom piece of software" for them? Shouldn't they have done that already before they came to me? If they wanted me to research something for them, then that would be the contracted task no tthe creation of something.
>
>Any and all view points cheerfully accepted. :-)

In your very narrowly defined scenario, where the contract has already been let, of course it is not your legal obligation to do the research.

I personally feel obliged to ask the question, "Have you researched off-the-shelf packages?" before any such contract is signed, or even contemplated.