Template
A scope of work that holds up when it is tested
Most scopes are a list of what you will deliver. That is the half that never gets argued about. Here is the whole thing, including the parts that decide the argument.
The one rule
A scope is tested by what it excludes, not by what it includes. Nobody has ever disagreed about whether the five pages you listed were in the five pages you listed. Every real argument happens in the space you did not write down, and the only way to shrink that space is to name its edges.
Write the exclusions and you convert a vague disagreement into a checkable one. That is the whole trick, and the rest of this page is just the wording.
The template
Short on purpose. A scope nobody rereads is worth nothing, and a twelve-page one guarantees nobody rereads it.
1. What is being made
The deliverable is a five page marketing website: Home, About, Services, Blog and Contact. Design and build, responsive to mobile, tablet and desktop widths, delivered as a live site on the client's own hosting.
2. What is not included
Any page beyond the five named in clause 1. Copywriting. Photography and illustration. Logo or brand identity work. SEO beyond page titles and descriptions. Ongoing maintenance, hosting or support after handover. Integration with any third party system not named in clause 1. Content entry beyond one populated example per page template.
Work of these kinds can be added by written agreement under clause 5.
3. What the client provides, and by when
Final copy for all five pages, and any logos or images to be used, by [date]. Work pauses if these are more than ten working days late, and the delivery date in clause 4 moves by the same number of days.
4. Revisions and delivery
Two rounds of revisions are included at the design stage and one after build. A round means one consolidated set of comments returned within five working days. Further rounds are billed under clause 5. Delivery is [date], subject to clause 3.
5. Changes
Anything not described in clause 1 is a change. A change is quoted in writing before it starts, and neither party is committed to it until both have agreed the price and the effect on the delivery date in writing. Email is writing.
6. Fee and schedule
[Amount], payable [50% on signature, 50% on delivery]. Invoices are due within [14] days. Work on a later stage does not begin until the previous stage's invoice is paid.
Why each awkward clause is there
Clause 2 names things nobody asked about
It feels defensive to write copywriting is not included when nobody has mentioned copywriting. Write it anyway. The clause is not there for today's conversation, it is there for the one in six weeks where somebody says oh, I assumed you would tidy the words up and is being completely sincere.
Clause 3 puts a cost on the client's delay
Missing client assets are the single most common reason a fixed-price project runs long, and without a clause the entire cost of that delay lands on you. This is not punitive, it just stops the schedule being a promise only one party has to keep.
Clause 4 defines what a round is
“Two rounds of revisions” means nothing if a round can be six emails over three weeks. One consolidated set of comments within five working days is a round. The definition is the part that has teeth.
Clause 5 is the one that saves you
It does two jobs. It makes this is a change a fact about the document rather than an opinion you are expressing, and it stops work starting on a vague yes. The sentence that matters is neither party is committed until both have agreed in writing, because that is what protects you from having half built something nobody is going to pay for.
Wording to avoid
- “And any other work reasonably required.” This hands the other side a blank cheque written in your time.
- “Minor revisions as needed.” Neither word means anything and you will not be the one defining them.
- “Until the client is satisfied.” There is no end condition here. Do not sign it.
- A deliverable with no number in it. “A website” is not a scope. “Five pages, named” is.
After it is signed
The scope only works if it is consulted, and the moment it needs consulting is when a one-line message arrives, not at invoicing. Scope creep wins by being small enough that you answer from memory.
Paste the signed version into Beady once, and every later ask gets checked against it with the clause quoted back at you. When the answer is that something is out of scope, there is a way to say so that keeps the client.
One caveat worth stating plainly: this is a starting point written from practice, not legal advice, and it is not drafted for any particular jurisdiction. For anything large, have a lawyer read it.
Beady is free. Paste your signed scope in once and it checks every request against it.
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