Freelance contract template for international clients

Need a contract for a client abroad but do not want to pay a lawyer for a small project? A freelance contract only has to write down what you both already agreed: what you will deliver and what is outside it, what the client must give you, how much they pay and when, who pays for the tools, who owns the work, and how either of you can end it. The easiest way to make one is to turn your agreed proposal into the contract. The clauses below are in plain English, and you can download the whole template as a Word file to fill in. It is a starting point, not legal advice, and a large contract is worth showing to a lawyer.

What the client's side worries about

A small business owner in the US who hires you from India is taking a risk too. She has never met you. She worries that you will disappear halfway through, that her data will end up somewhere it should not, that she will pay for work and then find she does not own it, and that hiring you could look like hiring an employee, with the tax questions that brings in the US. Her finance team, meanwhile, wants a document they can match to your invoices.

A clear contract answers those worries before she has to raise them. It also shows her how you work before the work begins. Large companies often send their own contract and will negotiate yours line by line. Small companies usually agree to a clear one without changes.

Your proposal is already most of the contract

After a first call, I send the client a proposal: what I will do, how much it costs, how long it takes, what is included and what is excluded, and what I need from them, such as their time, a point of contact, data and access. Sometimes I add points about policy and payment. The client may ask for changes. A three-month plan might become two months, or the price might move. Once we agree, I turn that same proposal into the contract. Nothing in it surprises anyone, because we have already talked through every line.

The clause that has helped me most is the scope. I once ran a trial for a client to test cold email campaigns in three industries. Partway through, they wanted to test a fourth. Because the contract said three, I told them that the payment covered three, and that the fourth would cost extra. The client agreed to pay for the fourth without any fuss. So far, I have not had a big problem with any of my contracts.

The contract, clause by clause

Copy these clauses into a document, fill in the parts in brackets, and send it for signature by email or through an e-sign tool.

1. The parties and the start date

Your name, city and country, the client's company name and address, and the date the work starts. Use the same names that will appear on your invoices, such as the ones you make with the free invoice maker.

2. The scope

What you will deliver, by when, and in what form. If the result can be measured, write the number: "lead lists for [3] industries", not "lead generation". Then add one line: "Anything not listed here is outside this agreement and will be quoted separately before work starts."

3. What the client provides

The access, data, feedback and point of contact you need, and how quickly. "If [client] does not provide [access] within [5] working days, the delivery dates move by the same number of days."

4. Revisions

How many rounds of changes are included, and what further changes cost. Keep it to one sentence. For the conversation when a client asks for more, see how to say no to a client without losing them.

5. The fee and when it is paid

The amount, the currency, and what is paid before the work starts. I ask for payment before I start, because I do not want to be chasing money after the work is finished. For a monthly arrangement, the month is paid in advance. For a project, write which part is paid upfront and which on delivery. Freelance invoices and getting clients to pay on time explains how I decide what to ask for upfront.

6. Late payment

When an invoice is due, and what happens if it is late: "If an invoice is unpaid [15] days after its due date, work pauses until it is paid." The messages to send before that point are in how to ask a client for payment politely.

7. Tools and subscriptions

Decide this before you start, because tool costs are easy to forget and hard to raise later.

• For a one-time project, estimate the cost of the tools and any AI usage, and include it in your price.
• For work that will run for months, the client opens the accounts in their own name, pays for them directly, and adds you as a user. If the work needs an AI model every day for three, six or twelve months, the client's own API key goes into the tool.

I prefer the second way for long-running work, for two reasons. A client should not depend on you for their own systems, and if you are paying for a client's tools and the client stops paying you, you lose that money too. Be open about costs. Tell the client what you know, and say plainly when you need to research a tool's price first.

8. Who owns the work

"When [client] has paid all fees in full, [you] transfer to [client] all rights in the deliverables, worldwide and for the full term of those rights." Then protect what you bring with you: "My own templates, methods and tools made before or outside this project remain mine, and [client] may use any of them that are part of the deliverables." In the US, work by a contractor does not automatically belong to the client unless a signed agreement says so, which is why many US clients ask for this clause.¹

9. Confidentiality

You keep the client's information private, use it only for this work, and return or delete it at the end, and so does anyone working with you. If the client prefers to send their own non-disclosure agreement, read it and sign it. I sign NDAs with almost anyone who asks.

10. How long it runs, and how to end it

I do not lock clients into three-month or six-month contracts. A common way to start is a paid first period of 30 to 45 days, and after that the agreement continues month to month. Write it like this: "After the first [45] days, either party may end this agreement with [30] days' written notice. Email counts as written notice."

11. Handover at the end

The client pays for the work done up to the end date. Within [7] days of the final payment, you hand over files, logins and documentation, and you remove your own access to their systems.

12. You are an independent business

"[You] are an independent contractor, not an employee. [You] decide how, when and where the work is done, use [your] own equipment, and handle [your] own taxes in India." The IRS looks at the whole relationship, not only this sentence, to decide whether someone is a contractor, but the clause records how you both see it.² A US client may also ask you for a Form W-8BEN, which you give to the client, not to the IRS. It tells them that you are not a US person.³

13. If something goes wrong

Which country's or state's law applies, and how you will settle a disagreement: by talking first, within [30] days, and then through the courts or a named process. Many US clients will want their own state's law. For a small project, this clause matters less than the payment terms, because a payment made upfront protects you better than any court far away.

A worked example

Take a made-up case: a data analyst in Hyderabad has a first call with the owner of a 20-person e-commerce company in Texas, who wants a monthly sales dashboard and clean customer data.

1. The proposal. She sends a proposal for a dashboard updated every Monday, from the store's order data and its email tool, with a data clean-up in the first month. She lists what she needs: read access to both tools, one contact person and an hour a week.
2. The negotiation. The owner asks for weekly updates on two more product lines. She adds them at a higher monthly fee, and the owner agrees.
3. The contract. She copies the agreed proposal into clauses 1 to 6. The first month is paid upfront. The data tool is in the client's name, so the client pays for it directly. Ownership passes on payment, and either side can end it with 30 days' notice after the first 45 days.
4. The change. In month three, the owner asks for a forecast as well. She points to the scope, quotes it separately, and the owner decides whether to add it.