A free client sign-off sheet for agencies: what was reviewed, what was approved, by whom and when, and what happens to changes after. Word download or copy it
Most disputes in agency work are not about quality. They are about memory. The client remembers asking for the change; the agency remembers the approval that came before it. Neither is lying. The sign-off sheet settles it, because it is written at the moment of approval rather than reconstructed later.
The sheets that get used have four things on them and nothing else: what was reviewed (with a link or a file name and version), what was approved, who approved it and when, and the rule for changes after approval. Signature lines, legal paragraphs and a logo at the top do not make it more binding; they make it less likely to be filled in.
Copy everything below into your document, or download the Word version.
List the pages, screens or files covered by this approval. Anything not listed is not approved.
Changes agreed as part of this approval (if any):
Changes to the approved items requested after the date below are outside this phase. They will be quoted as a change request, or carried into the next scheduled round, at the agency's discretion. Approval does not cover items not listed above.
Signature (if used):
The template above is the general one. The wording changes a little by job.
HopBack makes the sheet for you. When the client hits Finish review and chooses Approve, HopBack records their name and the time, locks the round, and keeps the list of what was on the review at that moment. The approval sits on the project, with the comments, where both sides can see it. The template on this page is for the projects that do not run through a review link, or for the client who wants a page to sign.
It is a record of agreement, and in most places an email reply approving a listed set of items is enough to show what was agreed. It is not a contract on its own; it sits under the contract or proposal that sets the scope and the rounds.
No. One per phase is enough: design approved, content approved, staging approved, artwork approved. Rounds inside a phase end with feedback, and the last one ends with the sheet.
That is what the "after this approval" paragraph is for. The change is quoted, or it goes into the next round if there is one. The sheet makes this a process rather than a disagreement.
Yes; use the artwork version. The line about spelling, dimensions, bleed, barcodes and color is the one that matters, because print errors cannot be fixed after the run.
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