Engagement & Payment Policy

This policy sets the standing terms referred to in the Scope Schedule. It does not replace the Master Services Agreement; it fills in the payment, sequencing and revision terms that the Scope Schedule leaves to be set for each engagement.

How an engagement runs

Payment happens in stages. Delivery does not. Work is delivered once, finished, as a complete set — never in pieces.

You submit an inquiry, or complete the online estimate. This produces an indicative figure based on your description of the work. It is not a quote and binds neither of us.
If the work looks like a fit, I send you the Project Questionnaire, this policy, the Master Services Agreement, and a draft Scope Schedule.
You return the completed questionnaire together with the sample materials it asks for. Nothing is firm until I have seen actual material.
I confirm the fee, or revise it. If what you send is materially different from what was described, you hear the revised figure at this point — before anything is signed, and before you have paid anything.
We sign the Master Services Agreement and the Scope Schedule. The Scope Schedule lists exactly what you will receive and exactly what is excluded.
You make the first payment. Work begins on receipt — not on signature.
I work. Where an engagement has a midpoint check, you receive a short written progress note, not a partial deliverable.
The final payment is invoiced and clears. Delivery follows, complete and in the agreed formats.
Your included revision rounds run from the delivery date. After the revision window closes, further work is quoted separately.

Payment structure

Set by the size of the engagement. The applicable line is recorded in your Scope Schedule.

Engagement fee

Under $1,500

$1,500 – $5,000

Over $5,000

Scoping Assessment

A Scoping Assessment is a separate, contained engagement. The fee is $750, flat, payable in full before the review begins.

It produces a written scope: what the work would involve, in what order, what it depends on, and a fee for the full engagement, together with the assumptions that fee rests on.

The fee is credited in full against any engagement commissioned within 45 days of the date the written scope is delivered. The credit assumes the material has not materially changed since the review. If it has, the scope and fee are revisited before work begins, and you receive the revised figure before anything is signed.

Once the review has begun the assessment fee is not refundable.

If an engagement ends early

Payments already made are not refundable. Fees are earned on reaching each stage.

If you stop an engagement partway, you owe nothing further for stages that have not begun. Where a stage is partly complete, the remaining balance for that stage is prorated rather than invoiced in full.

You receive whatever has been completed at the point work stops, once any balance for work already performed is settled.

Revisions, and what counts as one

This distinction is the one most likely to cause friction, so it is set out plainly.

A Revision

Changes to a deliverable within the scope already agreed: corrections, tightening, tone, ordering, emphasis, formatting. The deliverable stays the same deliverable.

A round is one consolidated set of changes — a single marked-up return, not a stream of separate messages over several days.

Not a Revision

New material introduced after work began.
A new or additional deliverable.
A changed objective or audience.
Rework required because information you held was not supplied at the outset.

Any of these is new work: it is quoted from the same rates and agreed in writing before it starts.

Terms

Rounds included are stated in the Scope Schedule and vary with engagement size.
Included rounds must be used within the revision window stated in the Scope Schedule, running from delivery.
Additional rounds are charged at the rate stated in the Scope Schedule.
A round required within 48 hours carries the rush premium stated in the Scope Schedule.
Unused rounds are not refundable and do not carry over to another engagement.

Two things I will always do

Tell you before doing work you have not agreed to pay for. If something needs to grow, you hear it first, in writing, with a figure.

Tell you if I am the wrong person for the work. Before you have paid anything, and even if I have already quoted.

Any rush engagement · 100% in advance
Priority scheduling displaces other work

Deliverables are not licensed for use until the fees attributable to them are paid in full (Master Services Agreement, §5(e)).

Third-party costs — filing fees, courier, printing, expedited service — are billed at cost and are not included in the figures above.

To begin

100% in advance

50% to begin

40% to begin

Remainder

__________________

50% invoiced and cleared before delivery

30% at the agreed midpoint

30% before delivery