At MonsterContracts, we believe your contract process should build trust, not create friction. Yet for many web professionals, every new project feels like starting from scratch: revisiting legal terms, customizing documents, and waiting for approval from the client’s legal team. It slows everything down—and adds risk.

That’s why we recommend the two-document approach. It’s the method we’ve used for years, and it’s baked into the very structure of MonsterContracts.

If you’re still sending full-length contracts for every project, this strategy can streamline your process, shorten your sales cycle, and create a more professional client experience.

The Two Documents We Recommend

1. The Master Services Agreement (MSA) – This is your legal foundation. It contains your standard terms, responsibilities, communication boundaries, intellectual property clauses, and more. The MSA is meant to remain unchanged between projects.

2. The Proposal of Services – This is where the project-specific details live: scope of work, deliverables, timeline, pricing, and any negotiated changes or exceptions.

We recommend sending both documents together and having them signed at the same time. In the signature block of the proposal, include language that states the MSA has been received and is incorporated into the agreement. A simple line like:

Client acknowledges receipt of the Master Services Agreement, which is incorporated into this agreement by reference.

This effectively binds both documents into a single enforceable contract—without duplicating content or adding legal bloat to your proposal.

Why It Works

Using the same MSA across all clients ensures consistency. You don’t need to track different contract versions or rewrite clauses every time. All your protections stay intact.

When a client negotiates a term—say, a different payment schedule or a modified approval process—you note that change in the proposal, not the MSA. This keeps your core agreement clean and consistent.

Clients benefit too. Their legal team only needs to approve the MSA once. Future projects simply require approval of the proposal, which is often handled by marketing or operations. You skip the bottleneck of legal review for every new engagement.

Designed for Repeat Business

The two-document strategy is ideal if you work with clients on more than one project. It eliminates the need to re-sign a full contract every time. As long as your MSA hasn’t materially changed, your client can just sign the new proposal and get started.

At MonsterContracts, our downloadable contract system is built around this exact workflow. Your purchase includes a fully customizable MSA designed to work alongside your project proposals. It’s a repeatable, scalable solution that protects your business without slowing it down.

If you’re looking for a smarter way to manage client contracts, we believe this strategy—paired with MonsterContracts—can help you simplify your process and close projects with confidence.