A quote that comes back within a day should be treated as a warning, software development agency not a service level. Any serious team returns questions first: about integrations. A provider that prices before understanding the scope is simply working from a template, and the gap resurfaces as a change order — and you will pay for it.
Look out for any distance between the people you meet and the developers actually assigned. Ask software development for fintech the names and CVs of the actual team in the statement of work, with wording about substitutions. A provider that will only describe abstract roles and refuses to name individuals is preserving its own flexibility at your cost.
Insist on access to the repository from the first week. A partner that delivers a build only at the end of each phase is asking you to accept a black box. Daily commits show you the actual pace far better than a weekly report. The same holds for the automated test suite: if nothing runs automatically, promises about quality are unverifiable.
Loose phrasing around IP is rarely an accident. The agreement needs to state in plain terms that all outputs produced under it become the property of your business upon settlement of the relevant invoice. Check also the jurisdiction and how payments are structured: heavy prepayment with nothing due in return for weeks takes away the only leverage you have.
Last, examine how they communicate. Confirm how many hours there will be each day, which named person handles your questions and on what response times. A few hours of overlap is usually enough; no overlap stretches a five-minute question into a day of delay. Unclear written communication in the early emails will not improve under delivery pressure.
