Consulting Statement of Work Template
Four documents and four sheets built so every rejection routes to one outcome: re-performed free, priced down, change ordered, or accepted and invoiced.
Free download · No account needed
Acceptance Log · Ravenstone Logistics · warehouse operating model review, 46,000 fixed fee
Six events, four outcomes, and two of them cost you nothing
| Ref | What came back | Outcome | Money |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-01 | D-01 assessment report accepted on 24 Apr by the named approver | Accepted | Milestone released |
| A-02 | D-02 model reconciles to 3.4 percent. Schedule C says within 1 percent | Re-performed | No increase in price. Round 1 of 2 |
| A-03 | D-02 round two asks for two customer segments that are not in Schedule C | Change order | CO-02, four days, 3,200. D-02 stays accepted |
| A-04 | Second workshop ran with five of the eight named attendees, two of them left after 40 minutes | Reduced value | Minus 1,900. No re-performance possible in the window |
| A-05 | D-03 options paper delivered 3 Jun, no response by 17 Jun | Deemed accepted | Invoiced 17 Jun under clause 6.4 |
| A-06 | D-01 reopened on 11 Jul to hold back the final invoice | Refused | Accepted 24 Apr and closed. Routed to change control |
A-03 is the row that pays for the engagement. The comment was reasonable, the client was not being difficult, and nothing in it cited anything in Schedule C. Every template online calls that a cure period at no additional charge. It is a change order, and the deliverable it arrived against is still accepted and still invoiced while the new work gets priced.
A-06 only works because A-01 carries a date and a name. Acceptance is an event rather than a mood. Once it has happened, reopening it needs a stated ground, and a preference expressed eleven weeks later is not one.
Fixed fee 46,000. Final position 47,300: five milestones of 9,200, less 1,900 of reduced value on D-04, plus a 3,200 change order.
Search this and the templates are better than they used to be. The free ones now ship objective acceptance criteria, a ten day review window, deemed acceptance on silence, a cure period, milestone fees tied to acceptance, and change control by written amendment. That is a real bar and most independents are below it. What none of them decides is the only question that matters when a deliverable comes back: whose fault is it, and therefore who pays for the next version.
A rejection routes to one of four outcomes here, and only two of them are free. FAR 52.246-4 gives the buyer re-performance at no increase in contract amount where services do not conform to the requirements, and where re-performance cannot fix it, a price reduction reflecting the reduced value of what was performed. A workshop that happened with three of eight people cannot be re-performed. Comment that cites nothing in the criteria is a change order, and the deliverable stays accepted and stays invoiced.
The fourth outcome is refusal. Acceptance is an event with a date and a named signatory. FAR 46.501 makes it an acknowledgment that the work conforms, so a deliverable accepted in April is not reopened in July to justify withholding the last invoice. The payment clock needs both halves nailed too, which is why the milestone sheet defines what makes an invoice proper at this client. A scope change later needs its own paper, which is the change order pack. Build it from the proposal that won the work, or take the files blank.
What's in the pack
Deliverable Register
The acceptance basis per deliverable written as countable tests, the one named approver with authority to give it, the review window, and whether the deliverable can be re-performed at all.
Acceptance Log
Every delivery, every comment and the outcome it routed to, with the round count that turns a two-round clause into something both sides read off the same sheet.
Payment Milestone Schedule
Milestone, trigger, amount, and what makes an invoice proper at this client, item by item, with both payment clocks running side by side.
Assumption Register
Each assumption with whose it is and the mechanism its failure triggers: acceptance, schedule, descope, change order or a stated reduction.
Statement of Work
Scope and exclusions, the deliverable schedule, the acceptance and payment clauses, and the client's own obligations written as dated items rather than as goodwill. Built for fixed-scope, deliverable-based work; an engagement that is genuinely ongoing advisory access fits a retainer better than a SOW with a rolling extension.
Acceptance Criteria Schedule
The tests, written so a reviewer and you reach the same verdict without a conversation. Where a bid already offered an acceptance basis, the response you wrote is where these come from.
Change Control Procedure
What counts as an instruction, who is authorised to give one, what has to be priced before any work starts, and the window for claiming an adjustment. Pricing one properly, on all three of its costs, is the change order pack.
What Acceptance Closes
The four outcomes with the test that routes between them, the narrow grounds on which an acceptance reopens, and the sentence that refuses everything else.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack in River and send the agreed proposal with the client's master agreement, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself.
- 2
Write tests, not adjectives
Every acceptance basis has to be countable by two people who disagree. Within 1 percent. Six of eight present. Twelve questions answered or recorded as gaps.
- 3
Name the mechanism now
For each assumption, agree before signature what its failure triggers: a new date, a descope, a priced change order, or a stated reduction.
- 4
Log every comment
Route each one to an outcome the day it arrives, count the rounds, and record acceptance as an event carrying a date and a name.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The zip is Word documents and CSV sheets, no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional half: the agent reads the agreed proposal and the client's own master agreement, then writes acceptance tests a reviewer and you would both score the same way. The rest sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Four Word documents and four CSV sheets in one zip. The sheets carry the columns that do the work: acceptance basis, named approver, re-performable, round count, outcome, mechanism. Open them in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. The statement of work and the schedules are .docx.
My client will never sign a deemed acceptance clause.
It is the federal default, and it is tighter than the ten days here. Under FAR 52.232-25 acceptance is deemed to occur constructively on the seventh day after the services are performed, unless there is a disagreement over quantity, quality or compliance. Ten working days is generous by comparison.
Why does a proper invoice definition belong in a statement of work?
Because the payment clock does not start until the invoice is one. The federal rule lists ten required items and returns a defective invoice within seven days with the reasons, which is a week gone. So the milestone sheet records what this client needs on the page: the purchase order, the cost centre, the addressee, a line per milestone.
The comment is reasonable but it is not in the criteria. Do I really charge?
Yes, and the register is what makes it easy. Two rounds are included per deliverable and the count is visible to both sides. A comment that names nothing in the acceptance schedule is new work, the original deliverable stays accepted, and its milestone stays invoiced while the change order is priced.
What if the deliverable cannot be re-performed?
Then its acceptance basis is a threshold somebody can count in the room, and its failure outcome is a stated price reduction. A workshop that ran with five of eight named attendees cannot be run again inside the engagement window, so the register carries the amount rather than a free rerun nobody can schedule.
How does this sit against the master agreement?
The master agreement holds the terms that outlive the project: liability, insurance, intellectual property, confidentiality. This holds the project: scope, deliverables, acceptance, milestones. Where they conflict the master agreement wins unless the scope says otherwise and both sides sign. The intake pack reads it in week one.
Decide who pays before it matters
Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or send River the agreed proposal and the client's master agreement and get acceptance tests written against it.
Edit with AI