What was agreed before any hour was worked
The engagement letter, the rate card, the estimate, the cap and the scope sentence decide what may be billed at all.
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The Letter Nobody Reads Again
The engagement letter decides what may be billed, and it is read once by each side and then filed. Six things in it that settle arguments two years later.
The Rate Card and What It Does Not Say
A rate card is a list of prices per hour. What it leaves out is who will be doing the hours, which is what actually determines the bill.
An Estimate Is a Promise About Scope
Clients hear an estimate as a price. Firms mean it as a price for an assumed amount of work. The gap between those two readings is where overruns live.
What a Cap Actually Caps
A cap limits the fee for a defined piece of work. Whether it limits anything at all depends entirely on how the definition was written.
Scope, Written in One Sentence
Most scope documents are long and unread. A single sentence that both sides can repeat does more than three pages nobody opens.
Who May Work On It, and at What Rate
The staffing decision moves a bill more than the rate card does, and almost nobody agrees it in advance. What a staffing clause can and cannot do.
Changing the Terms Halfway Through
Rates rise, scope grows, teams change and matters outlive their letters. Four changes, and what each needs in order to be agreed rather than imposed.