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Handling Contract Signing with a Client? [closed]
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I recently began dwelling in the world of freelancing, and just finished negotiating with a client over video chat, and am currently drafting up a contract.
My question is in regards to signing the contract. Should I print it out, make a copy, sign it and mail it to him? And wait for him to mail it back? and then send him a copy, when I receive it?
Thank you!
contracts clients
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
closed as off topic by Jim G., jcmeloni, Deer Hunter, Rhys, ChrisF May 5 '13 at 22:13
Questions on The Workplace Stack Exchange are expected to relate to the workplace within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
I recently began dwelling in the world of freelancing, and just finished negotiating with a client over video chat, and am currently drafting up a contract.
My question is in regards to signing the contract. Should I print it out, make a copy, sign it and mail it to him? And wait for him to mail it back? and then send him a copy, when I receive it?
Thank you!
contracts clients
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
closed as off topic by Jim G., jcmeloni, Deer Hunter, Rhys, ChrisF May 5 '13 at 22:13
Questions on The Workplace Stack Exchange are expected to relate to the workplace within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
I recently began dwelling in the world of freelancing, and just finished negotiating with a client over video chat, and am currently drafting up a contract.
My question is in regards to signing the contract. Should I print it out, make a copy, sign it and mail it to him? And wait for him to mail it back? and then send him a copy, when I receive it?
Thank you!
contracts clients
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
I recently began dwelling in the world of freelancing, and just finished negotiating with a client over video chat, and am currently drafting up a contract.
My question is in regards to signing the contract. Should I print it out, make a copy, sign it and mail it to him? And wait for him to mail it back? and then send him a copy, when I receive it?
Thank you!
contracts clients
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
asked May 5 '13 at 4:57
VAlexander
112
112
closed as off topic by Jim G., jcmeloni, Deer Hunter, Rhys, ChrisF May 5 '13 at 22:13
Questions on The Workplace Stack Exchange are expected to relate to the workplace within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
closed as off topic by Jim G., jcmeloni, Deer Hunter, Rhys, ChrisF May 5 '13 at 22:13
Questions on The Workplace Stack Exchange are expected to relate to the workplace within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17
add a comment |Â
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
4
down vote
accepted
It depends.
In general, printing, signing, faxing (or mailing), and waiting for the other party to sign the contract gives you the greatest degree of legal coverage. On the other hand, that can take some time particularly when the client has a legal department that has to review the exact verbiage and wants to clarify some terms. When there are tight deadlines, that process can use up a lot of valuable time.
It may well be reasonable to start working with just an email that the other party replies to that outlines the general terms of the agreement. This introduces the risk that you'll do work that you ultimately won't get paid for. But it eliminates the risk that you're going to be idle waiting for the contract to be signed and it can help get your working relationship off on the right foot who sees you as committed to helping them resolve their problems rather than being committed to getting contracts in place.
As part of this, you'll want to consider how useful your legal coverage is likely to be. Even if you've got an iron-clad contract, you probably want to be aware of whether it would ever be worth your time to try to collect if, for whatever reason, the client decides not to pay. If you're doing a small project where you'll only make a few hundred dollars and the client is located in a different jurisdiction, you probably wouldn't bother suing and would just have to write off the invoice if they decide not to pay. Filing a small claims case and spending time convincing a judge that you delivered probably wouldn't be financially sensible-- you'd be better off spending those hours doing work and simply writing off the invoice. On the other hand, if you're incurring more risk-- if you're doing a fixed price contract for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that will require hiring a bunch of subcontractors, having that iron-clad contract in place is much more critical.
You'll need to decide how best to balance these factors. You may be comfortable starting work earlier with a client that you've done work for before. You may initially prefer to start work earlier when you don't have other work competing for your attention and wait for contracts to be signed when you have a bunch of other things in your queue that you can be working on.
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
4
down vote
accepted
It depends.
In general, printing, signing, faxing (or mailing), and waiting for the other party to sign the contract gives you the greatest degree of legal coverage. On the other hand, that can take some time particularly when the client has a legal department that has to review the exact verbiage and wants to clarify some terms. When there are tight deadlines, that process can use up a lot of valuable time.
It may well be reasonable to start working with just an email that the other party replies to that outlines the general terms of the agreement. This introduces the risk that you'll do work that you ultimately won't get paid for. But it eliminates the risk that you're going to be idle waiting for the contract to be signed and it can help get your working relationship off on the right foot who sees you as committed to helping them resolve their problems rather than being committed to getting contracts in place.
As part of this, you'll want to consider how useful your legal coverage is likely to be. Even if you've got an iron-clad contract, you probably want to be aware of whether it would ever be worth your time to try to collect if, for whatever reason, the client decides not to pay. If you're doing a small project where you'll only make a few hundred dollars and the client is located in a different jurisdiction, you probably wouldn't bother suing and would just have to write off the invoice if they decide not to pay. Filing a small claims case and spending time convincing a judge that you delivered probably wouldn't be financially sensible-- you'd be better off spending those hours doing work and simply writing off the invoice. On the other hand, if you're incurring more risk-- if you're doing a fixed price contract for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that will require hiring a bunch of subcontractors, having that iron-clad contract in place is much more critical.
You'll need to decide how best to balance these factors. You may be comfortable starting work earlier with a client that you've done work for before. You may initially prefer to start work earlier when you don't have other work competing for your attention and wait for contracts to be signed when you have a bunch of other things in your queue that you can be working on.
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
accepted
It depends.
In general, printing, signing, faxing (or mailing), and waiting for the other party to sign the contract gives you the greatest degree of legal coverage. On the other hand, that can take some time particularly when the client has a legal department that has to review the exact verbiage and wants to clarify some terms. When there are tight deadlines, that process can use up a lot of valuable time.
It may well be reasonable to start working with just an email that the other party replies to that outlines the general terms of the agreement. This introduces the risk that you'll do work that you ultimately won't get paid for. But it eliminates the risk that you're going to be idle waiting for the contract to be signed and it can help get your working relationship off on the right foot who sees you as committed to helping them resolve their problems rather than being committed to getting contracts in place.
As part of this, you'll want to consider how useful your legal coverage is likely to be. Even if you've got an iron-clad contract, you probably want to be aware of whether it would ever be worth your time to try to collect if, for whatever reason, the client decides not to pay. If you're doing a small project where you'll only make a few hundred dollars and the client is located in a different jurisdiction, you probably wouldn't bother suing and would just have to write off the invoice if they decide not to pay. Filing a small claims case and spending time convincing a judge that you delivered probably wouldn't be financially sensible-- you'd be better off spending those hours doing work and simply writing off the invoice. On the other hand, if you're incurring more risk-- if you're doing a fixed price contract for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that will require hiring a bunch of subcontractors, having that iron-clad contract in place is much more critical.
You'll need to decide how best to balance these factors. You may be comfortable starting work earlier with a client that you've done work for before. You may initially prefer to start work earlier when you don't have other work competing for your attention and wait for contracts to be signed when you have a bunch of other things in your queue that you can be working on.
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
accepted
up vote
4
down vote
accepted
It depends.
In general, printing, signing, faxing (or mailing), and waiting for the other party to sign the contract gives you the greatest degree of legal coverage. On the other hand, that can take some time particularly when the client has a legal department that has to review the exact verbiage and wants to clarify some terms. When there are tight deadlines, that process can use up a lot of valuable time.
It may well be reasonable to start working with just an email that the other party replies to that outlines the general terms of the agreement. This introduces the risk that you'll do work that you ultimately won't get paid for. But it eliminates the risk that you're going to be idle waiting for the contract to be signed and it can help get your working relationship off on the right foot who sees you as committed to helping them resolve their problems rather than being committed to getting contracts in place.
As part of this, you'll want to consider how useful your legal coverage is likely to be. Even if you've got an iron-clad contract, you probably want to be aware of whether it would ever be worth your time to try to collect if, for whatever reason, the client decides not to pay. If you're doing a small project where you'll only make a few hundred dollars and the client is located in a different jurisdiction, you probably wouldn't bother suing and would just have to write off the invoice if they decide not to pay. Filing a small claims case and spending time convincing a judge that you delivered probably wouldn't be financially sensible-- you'd be better off spending those hours doing work and simply writing off the invoice. On the other hand, if you're incurring more risk-- if you're doing a fixed price contract for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that will require hiring a bunch of subcontractors, having that iron-clad contract in place is much more critical.
You'll need to decide how best to balance these factors. You may be comfortable starting work earlier with a client that you've done work for before. You may initially prefer to start work earlier when you don't have other work competing for your attention and wait for contracts to be signed when you have a bunch of other things in your queue that you can be working on.
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
It depends.
In general, printing, signing, faxing (or mailing), and waiting for the other party to sign the contract gives you the greatest degree of legal coverage. On the other hand, that can take some time particularly when the client has a legal department that has to review the exact verbiage and wants to clarify some terms. When there are tight deadlines, that process can use up a lot of valuable time.
It may well be reasonable to start working with just an email that the other party replies to that outlines the general terms of the agreement. This introduces the risk that you'll do work that you ultimately won't get paid for. But it eliminates the risk that you're going to be idle waiting for the contract to be signed and it can help get your working relationship off on the right foot who sees you as committed to helping them resolve their problems rather than being committed to getting contracts in place.
As part of this, you'll want to consider how useful your legal coverage is likely to be. Even if you've got an iron-clad contract, you probably want to be aware of whether it would ever be worth your time to try to collect if, for whatever reason, the client decides not to pay. If you're doing a small project where you'll only make a few hundred dollars and the client is located in a different jurisdiction, you probably wouldn't bother suing and would just have to write off the invoice if they decide not to pay. Filing a small claims case and spending time convincing a judge that you delivered probably wouldn't be financially sensible-- you'd be better off spending those hours doing work and simply writing off the invoice. On the other hand, if you're incurring more risk-- if you're doing a fixed price contract for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of work that will require hiring a bunch of subcontractors, having that iron-clad contract in place is much more critical.
You'll need to decide how best to balance these factors. You may be comfortable starting work earlier with a client that you've done work for before. You may initially prefer to start work earlier when you don't have other work competing for your attention and wait for contracts to be signed when you have a bunch of other things in your queue that you can be working on.
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
answered May 5 '13 at 5:57
Justin Cave
34.9k9112136
34.9k9112136
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
add a comment |Â
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
Thank you for clarifying this Justin! What we've been doing is drafting the contract. So I drafted it up, and emailed it to him, he suggested changes, and now we've both agreed on it. So based off of that, would you say that going with what I originally outlined, would be the best choice? Thank you!!!
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 6:03
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
@CloudyDays - As I said, "best" is subjective. If you want to optimize for never doing uncompensated work, yes. If you want to optimize for not having idle unbillable time, no.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 6:07
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
I just realized one more thing. Should I sign it first and then mail it, or should I mail it, and have them sign it first?
– VAlexander
May 5 '13 at 7:19
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
@CloudyDays - It would generally make sense to sign it before mailing (or faxing) it. If they're not going to change anything and they want a copy that is signed by both parties, you can save one round-trip if you sign it first.
– Justin Cave
May 5 '13 at 7:22
add a comment |Â
invest in a scanner, print, sign, scan, email to client, they print, sign, scan and email it back. Both now have a signed copy, cut out all the mailing delays
– Rhys
May 5 '13 at 14:01
Or you could use a service like EchoSign to electronically sign and delivery documents.
– jcmeloni
May 5 '13 at 14:17