Fill one short form and get a complete, signable independent contractor services agreement and a matching statement of work — with the clauses freelance developers actually get burned on: IP assigned only on full payment, scope creep priced separately, net-30 with a late fee, and a liability cap.
Nothing is uploaded — the documents are built in your browser from the fields below. Change anything and the text updates live.
These are plain-English business templates, not legal advice, and no lawyer has reviewed them for your jurisdiction. For high-value or unusual work, have a lawyer read them once — then reuse forever.
The generator above covers the two documents you need on day one. The kit is everything else that comes up on a real client engagement, plus a CLI so you never fill a form again — one JSON file per client, one command, all six documents.
paperwork CLI — paperwork new acme then paperwork build acme fills every template from one JSON fileEditable Markdown + HTML. No subscription, no account, no watermark. Use it on every client for the rest of your career.
Card payment via Stripe. The download link is shown on the confirmation page and in your emailed receipt. Trouble downloading? The link is always at smeltworks.com/paperwork/thanks.html.
Four things go wrong on freelance projects. The generated documents are built around them.
Payment is tied to invoices on net-30 terms, not to a launch date the client controls, and a monthly late fee applies to overdue balances — which is also what makes the late-payment letters credible.
The SOW lists what's in scope and states plainly that anything else is estimated in writing and billed separately. Scope creep becomes a quote, not an argument.
IP transfers to the client on receipt of full payment — not on delivery. You keep your pre-existing tools and libraries, licensed to the client inside the deliverable.
Liability is capped at the fees paid in the six months before a claim, with no indirect or consequential damages. A $6k project should never carry $6m of exposure.
Free, specific write-ups on the paperwork side of freelance dev work.
Payment terms with teeth, IP assignment conditional on payment, liability caps — and what you can safely delete.
Deliverables as artifacts, an explicit exclusions list, acceptance criteria with a deemed-acceptance clock.
What belongs on the invoice, and the escalation ladder from friendly reminder to small claims court.
Three sentences that redirect "just a quick change", and a one-page change order clients will sign.