Change orders, contracts & invoices for freelance developers
Turn "it's just one small change" into a written, priced change order agreed before you cut the branch.
Free: 1 client + 3 active projects. Pro: unlimited at $19/mo.
Where the money goes for developers
- The "small change" was described in a Slack thread, touches auth, the schema, and eleven tests, and is now somehow part of the original fixed bid.
- Nobody signs off on staging. The client finally tests two weeks after launch, in production, and files it as a bug rather than a change.
- The agency client is net-60, pays on day 75, and your hosting, error tracking, and API bills are all monthly.
- Discovery, architecture notes, and a two-page estimate get written before anything is signed, and half of those clients never start.
- Six weeks after handover the "quick fix" requests start, with no retainer to bill them to.
What PaloWorks does about it
Every feature below is in the product today. Free covers the whole workflow for your first client; contracts, time tracking, and the calendar are on Pro.
- Scope as an explicit deliverables list
- "CMS setup and content migration" is either a line on the scope or it is a change order. There is no third option to argue about in a thread.
- Change-order rounds and extra-work invoices
- When the work goes past what the scope covered, you price it and invoice it from the project rather than folding it into the fixed bid and hoping.
- Time log with an effective rate
- Hours logged against a fixed price, with the rate you are actually earning shown on the project — while there is still time to do something about it.
- Card payment through your own Stripe account
- A net-60 client's AP run is slower than their corporate card. The charge is made directly on your own Stripe account and settles to your bank — PaloWorks never holds the money and takes no fee on it; you pay only Stripe's standard processing fees.
- Contracts with a signature you can prove
- One agreement, generated from the scope and edited in plain text before it goes out, then signed by typed name with the time, the IP, and a hash of the exact wording. When their project manager changes twice mid-build, the agreement does not.
- A payment plan in the agreement
- Split a fixed bid into up to twelve payments — due on signature, on a date, on delivery, or when a key date is completed — in the agreement the client signs, and the Invoices tab shows what is agreed, invoiced, received, and still owed.
What a developer invoice usually holds
Line items you can type straight into an invoice. Quantities, tax, and discounts are handled for you, and duplicating an invoice re-opens the same amount, notes, and currency as a fresh draft under a new number.
- Technical discovery and architecture write-upExample amount: $1,800
- Frontend build — five page templates, responsiveExample amount: $7,500
- Stripe Checkout integration and webhook handlingExample amount: $2,400
- Data migration from legacy CMS — 2,400 recordsExample amount: $1,600
- Staging environment, QA pass, and fixesExample amount: $1,200
- Change order: role-based admin permissionsExample amount: $2,000
- Handover session and written runbookExample amount: $600
- Support retainer — 8 hours per monthExample amount: $1,200
The amounts are illustrations we wrote to show the shape of an invoice — not market rates, not a recommendation, and not figures from a real client. Amounts, tax, and discounts are yours to set, in your currency — PaloWorks does the arithmetic in whole cents so the totals never drift.
Questions developers ask
Is PaloWorks free for developers?
Free covers 1 client and 3 active projects: intake links, scopes, revision tracking, change orders, invoices, and card payments through your own Stripe account. Pro is $19/mo, or $192/yr ($16/mo billed yearly). It lifts both caps and adds contracts, time tracking, calendar, reports, planner, intake templates, multiple tax rates, draft from intake, and api and assistant access.
Do my clients need an account to see a scope or an invoice?
No. Every document you share — the intake form, the scope, the invoice, the project portal — opens from a link in their browser. There is nothing for them to install and no password for them to reset.
Can I send a developer a contract to sign?
Yes, on Pro. PaloWorks generates a project agreement from the scope you already agreed, your client signs it in the browser, and the signing record keeps the time, IP address, browser and a fingerprint of the exact document signed. Whether a particular agreement is enforceable depends on its terms and the law where you both work; PaloWorks is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.
What goes on a developer invoice?
The sample lines on this page show the usual shape of one. The amounts beside them are illustrations we wrote, not market rates and not a real client's figures — you set your own, in your own currency, and PaloWorks does the arithmetic in whole cents.
Templates and guides for developers
Article
Scope creep is a missing change order
How freelancers handle scope creep without eating the weekend: write the original scope as a list, then send a change order — new work, price, date — for anything that isn’t on it.
Free template
Web development invoice template
A development invoice built around milestones, hourly overage, pass-through service costs, and a defined warranty window.
Article
Send the invoice the day the work is done
How to send and follow up on freelance invoices so clients pay on time: put the due date in the scope, send the bill the day that slice of work is done, and use a three-note cadence instead of “just circling back.”
Free template
Graphic design invoice template
A design invoice that bills concepts, revision rounds, and file handover separately — so extra rounds are a line item instead of an argument.
Free tool
Late Payment Fee Calculator for Overdue Invoices
Invoice amount, due date, and your annual rate in — the fee accrued so far out.
Not quite what you do?
The workflow is the same underneath. These pages are written in each trade’s own words.