Should a freelancer take a deposit?

Many do, and the paper is where it gets recorded: how much, when it is due, and whether it is set against the final invoice or kept if the client walks away. What is right for a given job is a commercial decision, not a legal rule.

When does the client own the work?

Papers of this kind commonly hold ownership until the final invoice is paid, then pass it. Saying so plainly avoids the situation where work is in use and the invoice is not.

Can a freelancer put the work in a portfolio?

Only if the paper allows it. Where the client wants the work kept quiet, agreements of this kind usually name a date after which it may be shown, or ask for approval first.

Services and consulting

Freelance agreement

The short paper a freelancer sends when the job is small enough that a full services agreement and a separate statement of work would be heavier than the work itself. It names the job, the fee, the number of rounds, the dates, and the moment ownership passes — usually on final payment. It is often the first contract somebody sends in their working life, and the sections people leave out are almost always revisions, kill fees and late payment.

In the catalogue: Services and consulting
Where it can live: Any of the 184 governing laws

Who uses one

Designers, writers, editors, developers and video people working project to project.
Small businesses hiring one person for one defined job.
Anyone who has just said yes on a call and needs paper before the work starts.

What you are deciding

What is being made, and what counts as finished
The fee, and whether a deposit is paid up front
How many rounds of revisions are included, and what an extra one costs
What happens if the client cancels part way
When ownership passes, and whether it waits for payment
Whether the freelancer may show the work publicly
What happens when an invoice is late

Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.

The sections a draft usually has

1The parties
2The work
3Timetable
4Fee and deposit
5Revisions
6Cancellation
7Ownership and transfer
8Portfolio use
9Late payment

A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.

What people call it

The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.

freelance agreement
freelancer contract
freelance contract
creative services agreement
commission agreement
short form services agreement

Questions people ask

Should a freelancer take a deposit?: Many do, and the paper is where it gets recorded: how much, when it is due, and whether it is set against the final invoice or kept if the client walks away. What is right for a given job is a commercial decision, not a legal rule.
When does the client own the work?: Papers of this kind commonly hold ownership until the final invoice is paid, then pass it. Saying so plainly avoids the situation where work is in use and the invoice is not.
Can a freelancer put the work in a portfolio?: Only if the paper allows it. Where the client wants the work kept quiet, agreements of this kind usually name a date after which it may be shown, or ask for approval first.

General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.

Where it lives

A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.

You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.

Start it at the door →

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