Unsigned draft · For review
Hourly work agreement
Complete the bracketed details and review every clause before signing.
- The Business
- [Business legal name]
- The Client
- [Client legal name]
1. The work
The Business will do work the Client asks for of this kind: [describe the kind of work]. Each request, and any estimate of the time it will take, may be agreed by email. Work of another kind is added only by a change both parties approve in writing.
2. Rate and billing
The Client pays [the hourly rate] for each hour worked, billed in 15-minute increments. The Business invoices [every two weeks or each month] for the time worked since its last invoice, with the hours by date and task, and each invoice is due within 15 days of its date. Expenses are billed at cost, and only if the Client approves them in writing first. The Business may change its rate for work done after a date at least 30 days after it tells the Client in writing.
3. Time estimates
A time estimate is the Business's best judgment, not a fixed price or a cap. The Business tells the Client before it goes more than 10% over a time estimate given in writing, and the Client decides whether the work continues.
4. Late payment
If an invoice under this agreement is not paid within 15 days after it is due, the Business may pause the work until it is paid, after telling the Client in writing, and any agreed dates move by the same amount. Pausing does not change what is owed.
5. Who owns the work
Rights in each deliverable transfer to the Client automatically, and only, when every invoice for the time spent on it is paid, other than amounts the Client disputes in good faith in writing. Until then the Business keeps all rights, and the Client may use drafts only to review them. The Business keeps its own pre-existing tools, code and know-how, and gives the Client a permanent, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy and change any of them that are part of the deliverables, and to let others do so for the Client. Third-party materials come with their own licenses, which the Business passes on.
6. Confidentiality
Each party keeps the other's non-public information confidential and uses it only for this work. This does not cover information that is public, that the receiving party already knew or developed on its own, or that the law requires it to disclose.
7. Ending this agreement
Either party may end this agreement at any time with 7 days' written notice, or at once if the other party materially breaches it and does not fix the breach within 10 days of being told. The Client pays for the time worked and the expenses it approved up to the end date; nothing else is owed for ending it. Once the Client pays, the rights in Who owns the work transfer for that work.
8. Limits of liability
Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential losses. Each party's total liability under this agreement is limited to the total fees under it. These limits do not apply to amounts the Client owes under this agreement, to fraud or willful misconduct, or where the law does not allow a limit.
9. Independent contractor
The Business works as an independent contractor. It decides how to do the work, pays its own taxes, and covers its own tools and expenses unless this agreement bills them to the Client.
10. Everything else
This agreement is these clauses and any change both parties approve in writing. If an invoice issued under it says something different, this agreement governs. It is governed by the laws of the place where the Business is based when the Client signs it. The parties indicate their agreement by signing below. Notice in writing includes email. If a part of it can't be enforced, the rest still applies. Electronic signatures and copies have the same effect as originals. Headings and the In short notes are reading aids only; the full text governs.
For the Business
Signature: __________________________
Name and title: _____________________
Date: ______________________________
For the Client
Signature: __________________________
Name and title: _____________________
Date: ______________________________
Unsigned draft prepared with BillGrid's free contract templates. Review and adapt the full agreement before either party signs.