Canonical source: biz/legal/ONBOARDING.md — edit the markdown, re-run npm run sync in workspace-site, rebuild, redeploy. Internal only — this one has no client-facing PDF.
INTERNAL. This whole file is internal; it is never sent to a client. -------
Written 10 August 2026 alongside service-agreement.md v2.0.
The order of steps 3–6 is not a preference. CPA s49(4) requires a term that
limits liability or imposes an indemnity to be drawn to the consumer's
attention BEFORE they enter the transaction or pay anything, and s48(2)(d)(ii)
makes such a term unfair if it was not. Invoicing the deposit before the
agreement has been seen and accepted is what would break the §9 box — so
the agreement always goes first, and the invoice always follows acceptance.One page, in order. Nothing here needs a lawyer. Agents draft, Daniel sends — no document leaves this repo automatically.
1. Write the scope document. A quote or a short page listing the pages, features and content, with an expected delivery date. The agreement points at it in §1 and §6, and §6 makes its timeline the agreed period — without a date in there, ECTA s46 reads in 30 days and the client can cancel on seven days' notice once that passes.
2. Fill the agreement. Copy service-agreement.md, fill [CLIENT NAME], [CLIENT ADDRESS], [DATE], [PROJECT DESCRIPTION], [SCOPE DOCUMENT], [TOTAL], [BREAKDOWN]. Check the three bracketed defaults still suit the job: [30 days] waiting, [two rounds] of revisions, [10 business days] deemed approval, [60 days] free fixes.
Render it: node tools/render-legal-pdf.mjs legal/service-agreement.md — from ~/dan-hub/biz. The <!-- INTERNAL --> block is stripped on the way out. Open the PDF and check the §9 box is a tinted box, because that presentation is what makes the clause bind.
3. Daniel signs it first. Sign the PDF — stylus or wet ink, then scan — and keep the signed original in the client folder. This is the one signature that matters: the copyright assignment in §7.1 only has effect if it is signed by the party giving the copyright up, which is Leachie. The client's signature is good practice, not a validity requirement.
4. Send the signed PDF with the covering email below. Attach the scope document too.
5. Get acceptance in writing — three things in one reply. An email reply is enough, and it has three jobs to do:
(c) carries as much weight as the other two. The box exists to show that the liability cap and the asset warranty were put in front of the client and assented to before they paid anything, and an email reply cannot initial a PDF. Words in the reply do that job instead; the printed initial line is there for clients who mark up the PDF. If a reply is missing any of the three, ask for the missing piece before you invoice.
6. Only now invoice the deposit. Half up front. Work starts when it clears.
7. File and record. Signed PDF, acceptance email and scope document into clients/<name>/legal/. Then tick the client's row in REGISTER.md — an untracked agreement is the same as no agreement.
8. Keep the third-party asset list as you go. §7.7 promises the client a written list of every font, photograph, video or piece of music that is licensed rather than owned, and what its licence permits. Write it while you remember, not at the end. REGISTER.md already shows what happens otherwise.
9. At delivery: final invoice, then the assignment in §7.1 lands automatically on payment — no second document to sign. Hand over the asset list. Move the domain to the client as registrant if it is not already, and hand back account ownership.
10. If they go onto a care plan, send care-plan-terms.md. It is month-to-month on purpose: no fixed term keeps the whole of CPA s14 switched off, so resist selling an annual plan for cash-flow reasons.
11. If you want to publish the work, that is case-study-consent.md, separately, and before any discount is given rather than after. For a healthcare-practitioner client, read LEGAL-PLAN.md §6 first — the HPCSA rules constrain our copy about them, not just theirs.
Cold outreach. If the engagement came from us approaching them unasked, CPA s16 gives a separate cooling-off right — five business days — and the §3 consent does not switch that one off. Different Act, different trigger. Nothing to add to the agreement; just do not treat §3 as covering it.
A client who declines immediate start. Then the seven-day ECTA right is live, and taking a deposit inside those seven days is the open question flagged in the agreement's internal notes. Either wait out the seven days before invoicing, or start without a deposit.
Subject: Agreement for [project] — signed copy
Hi [name],
Attached is the agreement for [project], along with the scope document it refers to. I have signed it already.
It is written to be read rather than to be impressive, so please do read it — particularly the box in section 9, which limits what I am liable for and asks you to confirm you have the rights to any material you send me. If anything in it is unclear or does not match what we discussed, tell me and I will change it. A term you did not understand is not a term I want to rely on.
To go ahead, reply with three things: that you accept version 2.0 dated [date]; whether I should begin work straight away or wait out the seven-day cancellation period first (both are fine — starting now is what most people choose, and it means your project begins this week); and that you have read the box in section 9, including that you have the rights to any material you send me.
Once that is in, I will send the deposit invoice and get going.
[sign-off]
Send the deposit invoice as a separate message afterwards, never attached to this one.