Contract Clause Library
Exclusions clause
Explicitly lists what is not included in the engagement — the direct complement to the deliverables clause.
Where the deliverables clause says what's in, the exclusions clause says what's out — explicitly naming adjacent work that a client might reasonably assume is included but isn't: paid media management on a design project, ongoing hosting on a build project, copywriting on a development project. Naming these directly heads off the most common category of out-of-scope requests before they happen.
Sample wording
Sample language (illustrative, not legal advice)
This engagement does not include: paid advertising campaign management, third-party software licensing fees, content copywriting beyond the templates provided by Client, or ongoing website maintenance following the 30-day post-launch support period.
Red flags
- An exclusions list so short it doesn't cover the adjacent services most likely to come up
- Exclusions that contradict something implied elsewhere in the deliverables list
- No connection back to a change-order process for how an excluded item could be added if the client actually wants it
How MarginFlow reads it
MarginFlow treats every line in this clause as a standing rule: if an incoming client request matches something explicitly excluded here, it's flagged with high confidence as billable out-of-scope work, since the contract itself already anticipated and named exactly this scenario.
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