Sign-off
A client's formal approval that a deliverable or stage is accepted - the agreed point at which it is considered done.
For example, the agency sends final designs and asks for written sign-off before development starts. That approval protects everyone: it confirms the work meets the brief and marks the line beyond which changes become a change order.
Why it matters to your firm: sign-off is the line between 'in progress' and 'done', which is what makes payment milestones and scope boundaries enforceable. Without clear approvals, deliverables drift, revisions multiply, and there is no agreed point at which the agency has actually finished.
What a sign-off should capture
- Exactly what is being approved
- Who is approving (and that they can)
- The date
- Any conditions or caveats
- What happens next
Common mistakes
- Verbal sign-off with no written record.
- Not defining what the sign-off actually approves.
- Continuing work without it, then disputing scope.