Free Statement of Work Template
Fill in the scope, the deliverables and how each one is accepted, the milestones, who does what and the price, and the statement of work lays itself out as you type, with the totals worked out. Print it, save a PDF or copy it into an email. Sections you leave empty stay out of the document.
What goes in a statement of work
Background and objectives
Why the project exists and what it must achieve, in a few lines. Objectives say what done looks like; the scope says where the edges are.
Scope: in and out
What the work includes, and a shorter list of what it does not. The out-of-scope list settles the arguments you can already see coming.
Deliverables and acceptance
Each thing that will be handed over, with a due date and the criteria it is accepted against. A table beats a paragraph.
Milestones and roles
The dates that matter and who is responsible for what on both sides, including what the client must provide and by when.
Assumptions
What the price and timeline depend on: data in a given format, access to people, one round of feedback. If an assumption fails, it is a change.
Price, payment, changes, sign-off
Fixed fee, time and materials or milestone payments, when invoices are due, how changes are agreed, and signatures from both sides.
Scope of work template
People search for both names and often mean the same document. Strictly, the scope of work is one part of a statement of work. The Washington State Department of Enterprise Services' template describes the SOW as the document that "describes the scope of work required to complete a specific project", and its scope section as the place to say "what is and is not included".
If you only need a scope of work, fill in the title, the parties and the in-scope and out-of-scope lists, add deliverables if you have them, and clear the clauses you do not need: empty sections stay out of the document.
Keep the out-of-scope list short and specific. Montana's state guideline for statements of work says exclusions must be shorter than inclusions. Name the things someone will ask for later, such as custom integrations, data clean-up or extra training sessions.
Writing the SOW as a deal moves to delivery? Pair it with the sales handover template.
Then open the project with a project kickoff meeting agenda.
Scope changed after signing? Write it up with the Change Order Template.
Three ways to price a statement of work
Pick one in the form and the document works out the totals:
- Fixed fee
- One price for the whole scope. The client knows the cost up front; if the work takes longer, the provider absorbs it, which is why the out-of-scope list and the assumptions matter.
- Time and materials
- Each role's rate times its estimated hours, totalled. Invoices follow the hours actually worked, so the estimate is a forecast, not a cap, unless you write a cap in.
- Milestone payments
- The price split into payments that fall due as milestones are reached, such as kickoff, go-live and final acceptance. The payments add up to the total.
- After signing
- Whichever model you use, a change to scope, timeline or price is written down, priced and signed by both sides before the work changes.
Acceptance criteria that end arguments
Make it testable
"Sales ops can run the pipeline report for all 60 reps" can be checked. "A user-friendly CRM" cannot.
Name who accepts
One person or role signs off each deliverable. Washington State's template asks the SOW to say how the work will be accepted and who is authorized to accept it.
Set a review window
How long the client has to review each deliverable and what happens with the feedback. The default acceptance clause gives 5 business days; change it to fit.
Agree the criteria first
Montana's guideline defines acceptance as a written approval of the deliverable based on pre-defined acceptance criteria. Write them before the work starts, not at handover.
More for sellers handing a deal to delivery: sales handover template, consultant meeting notes, B2B SaaS sales, project kickoff meeting agenda.
Sources
Scope is agreed out loud first. Write down what was said.
What is in, what is out and what counts as done get settled in discovery calls and the kickoff, long before anyone writes a statement of work. Record those meetings in ParrotNotes and you get a summary and the action items, so the SOW matches what the customer asked for and delivery hears it the same way. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.
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