The scope, deliverables, dates and fees for one job, written down before the work starts.
A statement of work turns a client's yes into a list both sides can point at later: what gets built, how you'll know each piece is finished, when, and for how much. The one on this page is complete, for a made-up software job. It is not a contract. Liability, ownership of the work and how either side can walk away belong in an agreement a lawyer writes, and the sample says so near the top.
Who it's for
Consultancies, development shops and agencies, in the days after a proposal is accepted and before anyone starts work. You send it to the person who will approve each deliverable and to whoever pays the invoices.
A link can't take a signature. The sample asks for approval by email reply, quoting the document number and version. If the client's legal team wants their own format, give them that as well, and keep the page as the copy people open on kick-off day.
What a good one contains
- Four facts before anything else. Fee, start, finish and the date to approve by. Some readers stop there.
- Out of scope, written as carefully as in scope. The sample rules out eight things, down to "Tablets, printers or any other hardware". Arguments in month two are about what nobody wrote down in month zero.
- Acceptance criteria someone can test. "Pages open in under 2 seconds on a 4G connection" can be checked in an afternoon. "A fast, modern portal" can't.
- Fees tied to acceptance. In the sample, 20% is invoiced on approval and the rest in four payments, each released on acceptance.
- Numbered assumptions. A1 to A6 cover who answers questions and how fast, and what the client must send by which Friday. When one turns out false, you have a line to point to.
- How changes work. Four steps, a rate of $150 an hour, and a log of every change so far.
Where these go wrong
The usual failure is a deliverable with no test. Go down your list and ask of each one whether the client's approver could tick it off alone, without calling you. If not, rewrite it with a number or something to compare against. The sample's migration line reads "All 64 accounts and standing orders match your current spreadsheet".
Give acceptance a clock too. The sample allows five working days to accept a deliverable or list what fails, and silence counts as a yes. Without that, an invoice can wait on an email nobody opened.
When scope moves, edit the page and raise the version number. Everyone holding the link then reads v1.2, and the copy from two weeks ago stops existing.
How to send it
To named people. It carries a fee and a client's plans, and only the people who approve or deliver the work need it. Name them, and a forwarded link opens for nobody else.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
