Freelance client onboarding checklist
Every item is something that costs an email now and a fortnight later. The order matters: nothing below the money section should happen before the money is agreed.
33 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Before you say yes
- What is the actual problem, in their words?
- What does done look like?
- Who signs off, and is that person in the conversation?
- What is the deadline, and what happens if it moves?
- Is there an existing supplier, and why are they leaving?
- Money — agree this first
- Day rate or fixed price, decided and stated
- Payment terms in days, written down
- Deposit for a new client, commonly a third
- What is billable: travel, calls, revisions
- Purchase order or reference the invoice must carryInvoices without it sit in a queue for a month and nobody tells you.
- Late payment terms
- Expenses: what is covered and what needs approval
- Paperwork
- Contract or a written statement of work
- Intellectual property: who owns the output
- Confidentiality agreement, if they need one
- Insurance certificate, if they ask
- Your tax and company details for their supplier system
- Onboarding forms in their procurement portal
- Access and tools
- Email or guest account
- Access to the files, repositories or systems you need
- Which chat tool, and are you in it
- Calendar access, if you need to book with them
- A named person for when access breaks
- How you will work
- A weekly check-in in the calendar
- Where progress is visible without asking
- How many revision rounds are included
- Your working hours and response time, stated up front
- How scope changes get agreed and priced
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What should I agree before starting freelance work?
- Scope, rate, payment terms, who signs things off and what happens when the scope changes. Written down, in any form — an email you both replied to counts.
- Should I ask for a deposit?
- For a new client, yes — commonly a third up front. It filters out the clients who were never going to pay, which is the expensive failure mode, not a small one.