Freelance Contract Built From Your Deal

Vague scope is how a fixed fee quietly turns into unpaid hours. Name every deliverable with its quantity, length, format and due date, then list what isn't included.

Write down what you need from the client, too: materials, logins, one person who approves the work and a deadline for feedback. Then say that your deadlines move when theirs slip.

Without a definition of a round, five reviewers sending notes one at a time can turn two rounds into ten.

Working with the same client again and again? Sign one service agreement and add a short statement of work for each new job.

Ask a new client for a deposit before you start, such as half the fee on a short project. On a longer one, split the fee into milestones so you're never far ahead of what you've been paid.

Give each invoice a due date counted in days, such as 14 days from the invoice date. Tie the final payment to delivery, not to approval or publication, since the client controls those dates.

When a payment is late, the clause that helps most lets you pause work until it's paid. Add a late fee only if you'll charge it, and check your state's limits on interest.

In the UK, you can charge a business client that pays late statutory interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate². You can't claim it if your contract sets a different rate, so don't write in a lower one.

If an invoice slips anyway, send a polite late payment reminder that quotes these terms back.

Projects get canceled for reasons that have nothing to do with you, like a budget cut or a new manager. Let either side end the project with written notice. The client pays for the work done so far, and you hand over what's finished once that payment arrives.

Add a kill fee for the time you held open and the work you turned away. Make it a share of the unpaid fee that rises as the project goes on, such as 25% before the first draft and 50% after it. Keep it in proportion to what you'd really lose.

One more line handles the client who goes quiet: if they don't reply for 30 days, the project counts as canceled and the kill fee applies.

Under US copyright law, you own the copyright in what you create unless it's "made for hire." The US Copyright Office explains that commissioned work qualifies only if it falls into one of nine categories, such as a contribution to a magazine or a translation³. Both sides must also sign a written agreement calling it a work made for hire.

Anything else stays yours until you transfer it, and a transfer is valid only in writing and signed by the owner⁴, which is you. So write the transfer to take effect once you're paid in full. That gives you a fair lever if the last invoice stalls.

Keep ownership of tools you made before the project, such as templates or code, and license them for use in the deliverables. Keep your portfolio rights too, unless the work is confidential.

Some states now require a written freelance contract and say what it must contain. The items below are worth including wherever you work.

Finish with the standard terms: confidentiality, a line saying you're an independent contractor, a cap on your liability such as the fees paid, and which state's law applies.

Send the contract with your proposal or the day the client says yes, and start work only once it's signed and the deposit has cleared.

A client may send its own contract instead. Check its pay date, revision limit, cancellation terms and ownership clause, and ask for changes where they fall short. Then review the rest clause by clause before you sign.

To skip the blank page, describe the deal in the box at the top of this page. River drafts the contract from your side and marks every open detail for you to confirm.