Engagement letters with a scope your clients can read
What you will do, what you won't and what the fee assumes, from your firm's approved wording, signed online.
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In QuoteCloud an engagement letter (or retainer agreement) is a branded document built from your template: scope, exclusions and assumptions from the content library, the fee in a price table, your standard terms in a locked block (Business) and an eSignature block for each party. Clients ask questions as comments and sign online.
Three engagement letters from a fictional firm, taking turns at the front, each showing its scope: a house purchase for Mia and Lachlan Brennan, a workshop lease for Corrigan Joinery, and a property settlement for Sarah Kwan. Each lists what the firm will do, what is not included and what the fee assumes.
Approved scope wording, one block per practice area
Partners write and approve the scope clauses once. Whoever prepares the letter inserts them from the content library, then adds the matter's own details.
- Conveyancing purchase: scopeText block · Property
- Commercial lease, tenant: scopeText block · Commercial
- Property settlement: scopeText block · Family
- Wills and powers of attorney: scopeText block · Estates
- Not included: advice to a guarantorText block · Exclusion
- Assumptions: one document, two roundsText block
- Fees: fixed fee plus hourly estimatePrice table
- Standard terms of engagementText block Locked
- Signatures: client and guarantoreSignature blocks
- 1Cover and welcomeFrom the commercial template
- 2What we will do From library
- 3Not included From library
- 4What our fee assumes From library
- 5Our costs From library
- 6Standard terms Locked block
- 7Accept and sign From library
Start from approved wording
Every letter in a practice area starts from the same scope, exclusions and assumptions, saved in the content library.
Terms that stay as approved
Lock the standard terms so nobody edits them by accident while preparing a letter.
Content locking: Business plan
The matter's own details
Names, the property or the lease, and anything unusual about this matter, written into the letter by the lawyer.
Content library: Essentials and up
How the content library worksA scope the client can question before signing
Tom Corrigan reads the letter and asks, as a comment, whether the review covers the personal guarantee his mother is giving. Rupert answers in the same thread: no, and the letter already says so under Not included.
If an answer does change the scope, use Revise Last Version to update the letter before anyone signs. The earlier version stays in the document's history.
- Included, not included and assumptions side by side
- Comments and replies in the document
- Revise a sent letter before it is signed
1. Scope of our work
MatterLease of the Unit 4 workshop, for the tenant
What we will do
- Review the landlord's draft lease and disclosure statement
- A written summary of the key terms and risks
- Negotiating changes with the landlord's lawyers
- Final review before you sign the lease
Not included
- Advice to the guarantor (they should get their own)
- Fit-out contracts, planning or licensing
- Disputes under the lease after it is signed
Our fee assumes One lease on the landlord's standard form · No more than two rounds of changes
3. Standard terms
- Our standard terms of engagement form part of this agreement and are attached.
- Disbursements are passed on at cost, including any tax charged to us.
- We will tell you in writing before any work outside the scope above is charged.
- You may end this agreement at any time; you pay for work done up to then.
Tom CorriganDoes your review cover the personal guarantee Anne is giving?
Rupert, Thistlewood MarshNo. We act for the company, so Anne should get her own advice on the guarantee. It's listed under Not included so nobody assumes otherwise.
What a clear engagement letter answers
The questions a client asks later, answered in the letter they signed. Each is a part of your QuoteCloud template.
Who you act for
The client named on the cover, and who you don't act for, such as a guarantor who should get their own advice.
What you will do
The work in plain steps, from a scope block in your content library.
What isn't included
The exclusions that cause disputes when they're missing: appeals, tax advice, work after settlement.
What the fee assumes
The assumptions behind a fixed fee or estimate, so a change of circumstances is easy to point to.
How you charge
Fixed fees, estimates and disbursements in the costs table, with your hourly rates.
Who signs
Each party in their own signature block, after an optional email passcode. See signing and passcodes.
Bring your engagement letter into QuoteCloud
Free for 14 days, no credit card. We convert one of your existing templates, such as your engagement letter, during the trial.
The company signs, and so does the guarantor
Tom signs as director for Corrigan Joinery; Anne signs as guarantor of the firm's costs. Each gets their own email link, enters the optional one-time passcode and signs in their own browser, with no account to create.
The letter asks for a $1,500 payment on signing, which can be made once every party has signed. Payments go to the Stripe or PayPal account your firm connects. QuoteCloud does not operate a trust account; check your own trust-money rules before taking payments for future costs.
- Several signers, each with their own block
- Not yet signed shows on the document
- Certificate of authenticity and audit trail
eSignatures: every plan · payments: Essentials and up
Payments on signing4. Accept and sign 1 of 2 signed
- Tom CorriganDirector, for the client Passcode verified Signed · 6 Nov, 4:12 pm
- Anne CorriganGuarantor of costs Passcode to a•••@example.com Awaiting signature
Certificate of authenticity and audit trail attached
From instructions to a signed engagement letter
Pick the template
One engagement letter template per practice area, with your letterhead and standard terms.
Insert the scope
Add the scope, exclusions and assumptions for this kind of matter from the content library.
Write the matter in
Client names, the property or contract, and anything unusual about this matter.
Set the costs
Fixed fees, estimates and disbursements in the price table, with an optional payment on signing.
Send and answer
Each party gets a link; questions come back as comments and the letter is signed online.
Engagement letter questions, answered
Can we use our own engagement letter wording?
Yes. Your engagement letter becomes a QuoteCloud template with your letterhead, and your scope clauses, exclusions and standard terms are saved as blocks in the content library. QuoteCloud converts one existing template for free during the trial on the Essentials, Business and Enterprise plans. QuoteCloud gives no legal advice on the wording.
Can we stop the standard terms being edited?
Yes, on the Business plan. Content locking keeps a block such as your standard terms of engagement exactly as approved, so it can't be changed while someone prepares a letter. On other plans the terms are still a saved library block that everyone inserts the same way.
Is a retainer agreement the same document?
Many firms call the client's engagement a retainer agreement. In QuoteCloud it is the same kind of document: scope, costs, terms and signatures. Money asked for when the client signs is a payment on signing, paid to the Stripe or PayPal account your firm connects; QuoteCloud runs no trust account.
Does AI write the engagement letter?
No. Your letters come from your own templates and library blocks. On the Business plan the AI Co-Worker can help staff while they edit, and anything it suggests is flagged until a person accepts it. It does not write or send letters by itself.
Can colleagues work on a letter together?
Colleagues can comment on a document and reply in the same thread, and clients can ask questions as comments before signing. Editing the same document at the same moment as a colleague is not something we claim.
What happens if the scope changes after signing?
Send a revised letter or a new document for the client to sign. Before signing, Revise Last Version updates the sent letter and keeps the earlier version in its history; after signing, a change of scope goes out as its own signed document.
More for law firms
Every page of the QuoteCloud legal microsite, from the intake form to the signed agreement.
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Costs disclosure & costs agreementsFixed fees, estimates, hourly rates and disbursements set out clearly, then signed by every party online.Explore
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Scope changes & revised estimatesWhen the matter changes, send a revised agreement or a new estimate and keep each signed version on record.Explore
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Legal templatesReal QuoteCloud agreement templates, and how your firm's own precedents become QuoteCloud templates.Explore
- Matter intake formsThe client's details, other parties and key dates collected inside the document, ready for your conflict check.
- Fixed-fee legal packagesWill and power of attorney bundles, employment advice and visa packages, chosen and signed in one document.
- Conveyancing & property costs agreementsA fixed conveyancing fee, searches and settlement costs as their own lines, signed by both buyers.
- Staged litigation estimatesEach stage estimated as a range, counsel and expert fees as disbursements, revised before the next stage starts.
- Signing, passcodes & multiple partiesClients, both spouses or a guarantor sign online, each after a one-time passcode, with a certificate and audit trail.
- Payments on signingA set amount or the whole fixed fee paid when the client signs, through Stripe or PayPal into the account your firm connects.
- Practice management, CRM & accounting integrationsSigned engagements to your practice-management system through Zapier or the API, and to Xero or QuickBooks.
- QuoteCloud implementation for law firmsPrecedents converted, standard terms locked, fee items in the library, partner approvals and training.
- FAQAnswers to the questions law firms ask most about costs agreements, signing and payments.
Your next engagement letter, signed sooner
Free for 14 days. No credit card required.