How to Amend Your Contracts Without Rewriting Them

Need to make an update to your contract? How about your pricing and payment plans? Whatever you do, get it in writing! This post will show you how to update and amend your contracts without rewriting or resending the entire thing.

P.S. — this is the same process for renewing!

When do you need amendments?

There are several situations in which you would need to amend your contracts. While some scenarios happen more often than others, it’s always a good idea to protect your business!

Scope creep

Scope creep happens to service providers, freelancers, and small business owners quite often. It could include too many rounds of edits or approvals, changing deadlines, unreasonable requests of your time, and more. In other words, it looks a whole lot like pushing boundaries (a big no-no if you want to keep operations running smoothly…and keep your sanity intact).

Scope creep is usually caused by:

• Lack of communication
• Lack of boundaries
• Not enough clarity in your contracts
• Lack of research or resources to begin work
• Changes to deliverables
• Lax deadlines

It’s definitely a huge pain, but with the right contract in place, you can avoid it.  

Your contracts have collected cobwebs

We review our contracts every single year. Why? Because life changes and you  always want to make sure your contracts have the right updates to keep pace. 

Think about situations like the coronavirus pandemic. This may be a larger scale than what anyone will (hopefully) have to deal with (again), but contracts created in 2019 didn’t have the same coverage they needed to have in 2020. And that’s where the updates come in handy!

Payment delays

If you don’t have  clear invoice deadlines, you may run into issues with being paid on time. And if that happens, you’ll need to make sure you update your contract to include these new deadlines. But make sure this time, you get more specific and add clarity to cut out any confusion on the client’s end (and to protect your booty even more!).

Adding services

Maybe a client has asked you for additional help — like adding a photography session or designing an extra web page. Don’t forget to update that contract! You want to be protected, even if you don’t think you’ll need it.

Your contract only covers what services are included in the contract, not things that are up in the air or verbally agreed on. Get it in writing and  make sure all parties involved fully understand and agree to the changes. 

You don’t need to resend the entire contract

Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to? If you’re making amendments to your contract, you don’t have to resend, or even recreate, the entire thing. 

That’s why having amendment clauses in your contracts are so important — it saves you time from trying to update and change where it’s not needed. And all of our  contract templates in our shop have this!

Get it in writing

You can send these amendments via email as long as your contract allows it. But again, get it in writing (are you noticing a theme yet?). You’ll need it to reference later. Slack or Voxer messages could be considered “in writing”, but they’re more difficult to reference down the line and could be lost due to plan or data limits.

And make sure you seek written acknowledgment of the amendment. For example, ask that the recipient email back with something like, “yes, sounds good; please proceed.” They can also do this by paying the invoice. 

How to amend your contracts

Wondering what this all looks like? Check out this video here! We walk you through the process step-by-step to show you how simple amending your contracts can be.

You can also use some of these examples below when  you’re ready to notify the recipient!

Renewal of Original Contract – No Changes

Hi  CLIENT, 

I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and as our original term is ending, it’s time to renew. At this time, there are no changes to our pricing or contract. For your convenience, I will continue to invoice you monthly until our contract is canceled. Should any changes arise as they do from time to time, such as any fee increases or scheduling changes, I will do my best to make you aware of them as soon as I can.

If everything looks good, all you need to do is continue to pay your invoices on time and your contract will renew monthly. If you have any questions, please reply to this email.

Thank you so much for your support of my business, it means so much to me.

Best wishes, 

[YOUR NAME]

Renewal of Original Contract with a Price Increase

Hi  CLIENT,

I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and as our original term is ending, it’s time to renew. If everything looks good, all you need to do is continue to pay your invoices on time, and your contract will renew monthly. 

Thank you so much for your support of my business, it means so much to me.

I do want to highlight that in light of recent market conditions, my rates are increasing as of  [DATE: MONTH DAY, YEAR; example: January 1, 2023]. The good news is this is over  XX [example: 90 days] days away, which hopefully gives you plenty of time to adjust to our new pricing.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email.

Best wishes,

[YOUR NAME]

Renewing with an Upgrade to More Services/Bigger Package 

Hi  CLIENT,

I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and as our original term is ending, I would like to present you with your renewal options. We can either proceed with your current package, or we could upgrade you to the  ABC package.

The advantages of upgrading are:

[example; ex: lower cost per hour– you’ll only be spending $40 per hour with me now instead of $45 per hour]

[example; ex: increased access to me via Slack. We only jump into our clients’ slack channels at this level]

[example; ex: rush projects accepted. Our normal rush fees still apply but rush delivery is now available to you in this upgraded tier of service]

Please let me know how you’d like to proceed by next week, and I’ll get your new invoice to you. 

Or, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email.

Best wishes,

[YOUR NAME]

Get a checklist to make sure you never miss a step

Read your contract carefully to check that it has all the necessary and correct information…then read it again. And again. You want to make sure it's free from spelling errors, missing or incorrect names, outdated pricing for your services, and that the other necessary updates discussed are included. 

Don’t skip this step (unless you’re cool with losing some brownie points)!

But heck, we know all this legal rigmarole can be hard to remember. So…we’ve simplified it into one easy-to-use checklist to make sure you never miss a step!

The Client Contract Checklist  will walk you through everything your contract needs — ideal for those of you who already have a contract and want to double-check it! Plus, you’ll get access to  Hold My Hand™  guides* that explain the major provisions in your template in everyday terms, so you can understand the contract you’re sending out.