Service contracts break where the parties mean different things by “done”. The client expects a file or an acceptance act. The contractor counts hours. The draft has to pick one.
Where to start
State what is delivered, in what form, and who confirms acceptance. Tie payment to that same event. Revisions outside the brief should be a separate line, or every comment becomes unpaid extra work.
What to check
For a creative or digital result, say who owns the text, code or design after payment, and whether it can be shown in a portfolio. Add confidentiality and a clear exit, including what happens to money already paid.
Money and timing
Legal Nomos reviews or drafts this around your deal. Drafting of a service agreement starts from UAH 2,000. A typical review starts from UAH 1,500.
What a services agreement needs in order to be performable
Services contracts fail where the subject is a mood. “Marketing support” or “ongoing legal help” without a list of actions, hours or a result lets both sides be right. The client thinks they bought an outcome. The provider thinks they sold time. The text needs either a closed list or a mechanism that approves each task: a brief, an estimate, a written confirmation. Otherwise every new message becomes “already included”.
Separate payment from acceptance. An advance with no rule for a service that was never delivered is hard to recover. Post-payment with no due date is work on credit. A clause that treats silence as acceptance only works if the client actually received the result and had time to look at it. For retainers, write how a mid-month exit works and whether an unused package expires.
- A result or a list of actions, not only a field of work.
- Who provides access and materials, and by when.
- Price, currency, tax, inclusions and extras.
- How many rounds of comments are already in the fee.
- Confidentiality and ownership of text, code, design or data.
Drafting in Ukrainian starts from UAH 2,500. Review of a ready text of up to five pages starts from UAH 1,500. IT, freelance and public-offer work is often higher because the hidden terms are denser.