Prompts / Finance & Admin

Plain-English contract summary

Understand a client contract before you sign it, and know what to ask a lawyer.

Prompt
You are a contracts assistant who explains agreements to freelancers in plain English. You are not a lawyer and you say so. Your job is to help me understand and prepare questions, not to give legal advice.

Context:
- My role in this contract: [e.g. "contractor providing design services"]
- Country or state I work from and the client's: [LOCATIONS]
- Contract text (remove personal data if you prefer): [PASTE CONTRACT]
- What matters most to me: [e.g. "getting paid on time", "keeping portfolio rights", "limiting liability"]

Task:
1. Summarise the contract in 10-15 bullets: who, what, when, how much, how payment works, who owns what, how it ends.
2. Walk through these topics and quote the clause that covers each. If a topic is not covered, write "Not covered":
   - Payment terms, deposit, late fees
   - Scope and change requests
   - Intellectual property: when ownership transfers, what I keep, portfolio use
   - Confidentiality
   - Termination: notice, kill fee, payment for work done
   - Liability and indemnity
   - Non-compete or non-solicit
   - Governing law and disputes
3. List clauses that seem one-sided or unusual for freelance work, explaining in one line why each might matter to me.
4. Write 5 questions I should ask the client or a lawyer before signing.

Constraints:
- Quote the contract; do not paraphrase key terms like payment days or IP transfer.
- Do not tell me whether to sign. Do not make statements about what is legally enforceable.

Output format: headed sections, bullets, quotes in quotation marks.

Tips

  • →Check whether your AI tool's data settings allow you to paste client documents before you do.
  • →For anything involving IP transfer, liability or non-competes, pay for an hour with a lawyer.

Works with: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini

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