Fixed price. One page. Before any work begins.

1. 01The process
   One named workflow. One step in, one step out. Specific enough that two people on your team would describe it the same way without comparing notes.
2. 02Working means
   A short, measurable definition. For example: "80% of inbound refund tickets get a human-approved reply within 4 hours, with no false approvals on amounts above €50."
3. 03In bounds
   A list of tools the agent will read from and write to. Anything not on this list is out of scope for this engagement.
4. 04Out of bounds
   Things we noticed but are not fixing here. Naming them on the page means we both know they exist; we just are not in this scope.
5. 05Cost cap
   Two numbers, in writing. A per-task ceiling and a monthly ceiling. If either is crossed, the system stops, an alert fires, and a human decides what to do.
6. 06Hours
   Our hours, fixed price. The price stays the same whether the work takes us less time or more. If it takes us more, that is on us.
7. 07Calendar
   A no-later-than date for the next checkpoint. Not a stretch goal. The date by which the deliverable is in your hands or you stop paying.
8. 08Definition of done
   A short test plan we both sign. If the test passes, the checkpoint is closed. If it does not, we keep going on our hours, not yours.

That is the whole format. If something on your engagement does not fit one of these fields, the answer is usually that it belongs in a future scope, not this one.

• Is there a fixed price tied to a specific deliverable?

  Open-ended hourly billing tends to spend the build budget on discovery. A fixed price keeps both sides honest about the scope.

• What does “working” mean, in writing?

  If the definition of done is fuzzy, the project will drift. A two-sentence measurable definition is enough.

• Are operating costs capped before we turn things on?

  Per-task and monthly ceilings, with a clear behaviour for what happens when they are crossed. This prevents surprise bills.

• Who owns the code, prompts, and configuration?

  You should. If a vendor will not commit to that on the page, you will be paying for access to your own work later.

• Is there a path to walk away cleanly at each stage?

  Healthy engagements have stopping points. If the only way to leave is at the end of a year-long contract, that is a different kind of relationship.

• Is the scope page short enough to read in five minutes?

  A long scope is a scope that is harder to enforce. Brevity is a feature.

How can you give a fixed price before knowing what is involved?

Because the scope is small. We pick one process, write down what working means in two sentences, and price the work to deliver exactly that. Bigger engagements are bigger only because they are several of these in sequence — each separately scoped and priced.

What if our process turns out to be more complex than expected?

Then we eat the extra hours, or we stop and re-scope together. The fixed price holds either way. The point of putting the scope on one page is so neither of us is surprised three months in.

Why publish the template?

Because the format is the easy part. The hard work is being honest about what is in scope and disciplined about what is not, and we do not have a monopoly on either. We would rather raise the bar of how scopes are written across the industry than gate the format.

Do you charge for the scoping itself?

Yes — a small fixed fee for Checkpoint 01. Small enough that walking away after it is a real, valid choice for both of us. That is the point: it is the cheapest way to find out whether we are a good fit before either of us commits the bigger budget.

What if we want to skip the scope and start building?

We will not. Without a one-page scope we have nothing to deliver against, which is not a position we will put either of us in. The scope is the contract.

Can we share the template with another vendor for a competing quote?

Yes — please do. The template is yours to use however you like. If a competing proposal hides pricing or refuses to commit to a definition of done, you have learned something useful for free.