9 Terms and Conditions to Include in Your Freelance Contract

Before you get started on any client project, you should have a signed freelance contract in place to protect yourself and your business. 

As a freelancer, you make the rules. You’re in control of how you operate your business, which gives you a lot of freedom for creating contract terms and criteria that work best for you. 

The contract you create should protect your work, your time, and your money when taking on client projects. As long as you have the right terms in your contract, you’ll be ready to kick off every client project with ease knowing that you and your freelance business are protected. 

Below, let’s go over the benefits of having a freelance contract and break down some common contract terms to use in your proposal contracts. 

Why Do You Need a Freelance Project Contract?

A freelancer contract keeps you and your business protected. Freelance contracts are legal agreements that outline responsibilities, processes, and terms that both you and your client sign off on. In the worst-case scenario, your contract can legally protect you in the event that your client doesn’t hold up their end of the agreement by not paying you, for instance. Hopefully, it won’t come to this but that’s what a contract is for — to put you at ease by providing a layer of security for your business. 

Aside from protecting your business, a freelance contract also communicates professionalism. If a client receives your branded proposal and it also includes a clearly outlined contract agreement, then that indicates that you know what you’re doing and they can trust you to complete the work.

If a client sends you their contract, review it carefully to see if there’s anything that contradicts the terms and conditions in your standard contract. If you spot any clauses that you want to change, you can either bring these to their attention to see if they can amend them or ask if they’re open to reviewing and signing your contract instead. Oftentimes, your client just hasn’t worked with freelancers before and sent you their standard vendor contract. They may need to send your freelancer contract to their legal team to review, but once they do that, you’re good to go.

Looking for contract terms to add to your freelance contracts? Utilize 20+ pre-written contract term templates on Wethos. 

What to Include in a Freelance Contract: 9 Terms and Conditions 

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your contract, it’s key to choose freelancer terms and conditions that make the most sense for your line of work and business processes. Here are some common clauses to include in your freelance contract as a start. 

1. Payment methods

To get paid for your work, your contract must outline your preferred ways to accept payments. Let your clients know the different ways they can pay you once they receive an invoice, whether that’s a card payment, bank transfer, or even a check. 

Including this term in your contract helps prepare your clients ahead of time so they know what to expect once they receive their first invoice from you. 

2. Payment terms 

Timely payment is another important consideration for a freelancer. Unlike a salaried job, you don’t receive automatic payments every two weeks. You’re entirely responsible for setting up a payment process and schedule that ensures you have a consistent cash flow to cover your business and personal expenses. 

To help with this, add a clause around payment terms to your contract. Your payment terms can outline your invoicing cadence, when payment is due, and what the late fee is if the payment isn’t made in X number of days. 

3. Ownership 

Outlining the rights and ownership involved with the project can be helpful for a couple of reasons. One, it’s important to acknowledge what exactly the client has rights to once the final product has been delivered. For example, let’s say you designed a logo for a client’s business. While they may have all rights over the final logo, you’ll probably want to maintain rights for any design variations or concepts you presented that didn’t make the final cut. 

Another thing you can outline under this contract term is whether or not you want the right to showcase the project or the client’s logo in your freelance portfolio. Most clients should generally be okay with you disclosing that you worked together as long as you’re not breaching confidentiality. An exception to this would be if you’re a ghostwriter, for example. In this case, you might not be able to disclose what you wrote or who you wrote it for. 

4. Confidentiality 

This is a standard contract term for most people doing business with another company or vendor. 

A confidentiality term ensures that both parties will not disclose each other’s confidential information and documentation to third parties while the contract is in place (and sometimes beyond the contract, depending on your terms). Anything that has been deemed confidential by the other party and shared between the two of you can be considered protected under this clause.  

Including this in your freelancer contract not only showcases professionalism but also establishes trust and can put your client at ease knowing that you’re going to maintain their confidential information. 

5. Expenses

This term helps make it clear who will be responsible for expenses accrued outside of the original project scope and price. 

Let’s say you’re producing a video for a client and it requires traveling to the shoot location. You may request that your client covers any travel expenses which you will add to your final invoice. Whatever your preference is when it comes to expenses, use this contract term to clearly outline your expectations. 

6. Feedback rounds

If you’re doing any design, development, or any other creative work, then it’s also a good idea to include a set number of feedback rounds in your contract. 

It’s important to call out any fees that the client is responsible for if they require additional feedback rounds that are outside of what’s listed in your standard contract. For instance, let’s say your contract includes two feedback rounds and your client asks for a third. Decide how much you want to charge for the additional round. You could charge a flat fee or an hourly rate based on the number of hours you anticipate the editing round will take. 

7. Timeline and schedule 

Including a timeline term in your contract helps set expectations around submitting deliverables. This can include the expected turnaround time and the time it typically takes between feedback rounds. 

A few other things you could outline as part of this term are your preferred communication methods or availability for meetings (e.g., you prefer email and aren’t available for meetings or calls on Fridays). Outlining your personal work schedule and preferences makes clients aware of how you work which helps improve communication and limits any confusion. 

8. Project delays 

Your time is valuable. Most freelancers have a set amount of work or projects they can take on each month, often planning ahead to make sure they can fit everything in. So if a client is delaying a project — let’s say by not providing critical information or documentation that’s needed for the project to move forward — then they’re effectively pushing back the timeline which can impact the rest of the projects on your plate. 

To avoid this, outline the process for a project delay. Will you simply pause the project until they provide what’s needed? Or will you charge a delay fee after a certain number of days have passed? It’s your contract and your business, so you can include whatever makes the most sense for you. Ideally, the project won’t come to this — but just knowing that they’re agreeing to this term is likely to keep your client on track. 

9. Term and termination 

A termination clause should outline the process for ending a contract. This should include a timeframe either party has to provide notice and how they should provide notice (e.g., 30 days written notice that you want to terminate the contract). 

While terminating may sound like a bad thing, it doesn’t always mean the contract is ending on a bad note. This term can also be used to outline the end date of the project. If you’re a consultant and agreed to work with a client for a three-month contract, then the termination clause simply lets both parties know that the agreement ends after the three-month period. 

A freelance contract is essential to keep your business protected and running smoothly. While you should add commonly-used terms around payment, ownership, and termination, feel free to create your own contract terms that are unique to your business (and consult with a professional for legal guidance!). Freelancing is entrepreneurial, and creating a sound freelance contract is one of the many elements that go into running your business. 

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