Ask HN: As a freelancer, where do you get your contract templates from? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: As a freelancer, where do you get your contract templates from?

6 pointssharmanaetor6 comments

I assume most of the freelancer here sign some form of a contract before beginning work. Do you use a generic template? Where did you pick up that template from? Did you get a lawyer to write it up or did you pick one off the web?

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I _almost_ never user a lawyer or a legalese contract. The projects I do, custom CMS's and small business applications, just don't demand it.

What I have is signed work agreement.

It specifies deliverables, cost, cost and process of scope changes, an short term maintenance agreement(with cut off date) and how the software is licensed (I only deliver software which has an open source license, MIT usually).

Licensing the software under open source lets the client have it, and frees me to reuse it for other projects. There is also a warranty clause in the license.

Twice in 20 years I have not gotten paid. Neither time I had an agreement, both were for small amounts.

But, if you have large clients, a large budget, or intellectual property is an issue then consider a lawyer, and one who has dealt with software projects before.

Did you word the work agreement yourself?

I do word them myself. And I go over it with the client to make sure they understand everything in it. I keep it simple, which is not easy and takes time.

I am also doing this with over 20 years of experience. When I first started I looked at and read over existing contract templates - and I was worried about protecting myself.

But, do have something in writing, do not work on a handshake (unless it is very small).

I agree, and add that Scope of Work and the process to change the scope are the most important (followed by deliverables and cost) because those two areas seem to cause most contention.

I also love the idea of using existing and well understood licenses. On the surface, it seems much safer than rolling your own licensing schemes, or having a lawyer do the same (I'm a non-practicing lawyer and a current web developer. In my research on design/dev contracts, i've never heard anyone doing this, but it sounds like a brilliant idea!)

Go see a lawyer. I was lucky enough to have a friend who was happy to help initially, and a family member who I could call from time to time. Ultimately though, actually hiring someone to sort through the all minutiae can be extremely valuable when dealing with bigger corporate or government clients. Even more so if you plan to accumulate your own IP.

Here is the template I have used in projects:

http://rosskimbarovsky.com/contracts-for-software-and-websit...

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