scope-a-freelance-project

name	scope-a-freelance-project
category	money
description	Turn a freelance inquiry into a clear project scope with outcomes, deliverables, responsibilities, assumptions, change rules, payment milestones, and acceptance checks. Use when a client request is vague, someone needs a statement of work, or a freelancer must prevent unpaid scope growth before starting.

scope-a-freelance-project

Create shared expectations before quoting or beginning work. Scope the client outcome and the boundaries needed to deliver it, then make changes visible rather than silently absorbing them.

Inputs

• Capture the client's own description, desired outcome, audience, deadline, budget range, and decision maker.
• Ask who supplies content, access, approvals, legal review, and feedback.
• Confirm the freelancer's capacity, rates or pricing method, dependencies, and non-negotiable boundaries.

Procedure

1. Restate the problem and desired outcome in plain language and ask the client to correct it.
2. Define deliverables as inspectable artifacts or services, including format, quantity, environment, and what each deliverable enables.
3. List exclusions explicitly: content volume, revisions, integrations, support, maintenance, travel, licensing, hosting, source files, or other likely assumptions.
4. Assign responsibilities for inputs, access, decisions, feedback, approvals, publication, and third-party costs.
5. Break work into milestones with dependencies, target dates, review windows, and observable acceptance criteria.
6. Estimate effort from tasks, uncertainty, coordination, and risk. Keep the calculation separate from the client-facing price so it can be revised honestly.
7. Choose payment structure and timing that limit unpaid exposure. State deposit, milestone invoices, late-payment handling, expenses, taxes, and currency as applicable.
8. Write a change process: request, impact on price and schedule, written approval, then work. Define what counts as a revision versus a new deliverable.
9. Address ownership, portfolio permission, confidentiality, cancellation, handoff, warranty, and ongoing support in language appropriate to the jurisdiction and risk.
10. Review the scope aloud using one realistic change and one delayed-client scenario.
11. Obtain written agreement before work or spending begins and store the approved version.

Boundaries

Do not provide jurisdiction-specific legal or tax assurances without a qualified reviewer. Never conceal fees, invent urgency, start billable work without authorization, or promise outcomes controlled by third parties. Keep client credentials out of the scope document.

Done

• An approved scope names outcomes, deliverables, exclusions, responsibilities, milestones, and acceptance checks
• Price inputs and payment milestones are recorded, including currency, expenses, and late or cancellation handling
• A written change process distinguishes included revisions from new work and requires approval
• Ownership, confidentiality, portfolio use, handoff, and support expectations are acknowledged by both sides

Then use price-your-work to choose the pricing model and invoice-and-get-paid to run the payment process.