Explain your fee stages to a new client

Clients often don't know what each stage covers or why fees are staged. A plain explanation avoids disputes later. Setting out each stage, its fee and what it excludes, alongside your formal terms, also helps the client budget for the whole project.

A free AI chat tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude)

Steps

1. List your stages, what is included and excluded at each, and the fee for each.
2. List the other costs the client may face that are not yours: other consultants, planning and building regulations fees, surveys.
3. Example (made up, for illustration only): for a house extension, the explainer sets out four stages, from brief to planning drawings to technical design to site visits, each with its fee, and says the structural engineer and the planning application fee are paid by the client separately.
4. Run the prompt.
5. Check it against your formal terms of engagement line by line; where they differ, fix the explainer.
6. Use it alongside your formal appointment documents, not instead of them.

The exact prompt

Write a plain-English explanation of our fee stages for a homeowner client of [practice name].
Stages, what's included, excluded, and fee for each: [list].
Also explain: what other consultants they may need to pay for [list], and when planning and building regulations fees apply. Friendly, clear [British] English. Under 400 words. Don't add stages or promise approvals. Do not give any figure for planning or building regulations fees; write [CHECK CURRENT FEE] instead.