Fixed price or day rate: choose a model you can both understand.

Distinguish a price for an agreed scope from a price for time.

With a fixed price, you propose an amount for a defined service, its deliverables and its conditions. With a day rate, the amount depends on an agreed rate and the days accepted as chargeable. The choice changes how you prepare and monitor the budget; it does not replace a clear description of the work.

Use your estimate without confusing it with the bill

You can estimate four days to prepare a fixed-price proposal, then agree a total amount. Those days are an internal pricing assumption. On a day-rate project, you need to explain how days will be counted, recorded and reviewed with the client. A four-day estimate can therefore have a different meaning in the two proposals.

Keep the pricing model separate from payment dates

A fixed price can have different agreed payment schedules without becoming a day rate. A daily price does not require payment every evening either. Distinguish the amount or its calculation, the condition for starting and the payment dates. The client should understand these three decisions separately before work begins.

Explain what a day and a half-day cover.

A day rate is incomplete if a day remains undefined. Agree what it covers, how time will be counted and which activities are included: production, preparation, meetings or travel, as appropriate. Explain how a short intervention or a working day interrupted by a client dependency will be treated.

Describe the units you choose

State the reference hours or working windows where they help remove ambiguity. A half-day price needs discussion; it is not automatically the daily rate divided by two. Booking arrangements and changes to agreed dates also deserve a decision suited to the project.

A day reserved, a day worked and a calendar day are different events. Clarify their treatment rather than assuming that every date in the calendar is chargeable, or that every interruption will be absorbed without consequences.

Prepare a readable record

Choose the information to share: date, activity, amount of time counted and the relevant task. Identify who reviews the record, how often and how a difference will be clarified. This documents work under the agreed rules; it does not, by itself, authorise an additional chargeable day.

Choose according to how clearly the scope and decisions are defined.

A stable scope makes a fixed-price proposal easier to prepare: identifiable deliverables, available inputs, an organised review and understood dependencies. When priorities develop during the work, a time-based arrangement may be considered with monitoring and budget limits. Neither model automatically brings an unclear project under control.

Assess what you can actually predict

Check the available content, access, decision-makers and review criteria. If these are missing, the number of days may change for reasons that a rate alone cannot resolve. A defined discovery phase can help you decide what comes next, whichever pricing model you eventually choose.

Make decision-making responsibilities visible

For either model, describe the deliverables or objectives of the phase and the client’s contribution. Daily changes of priority need a different follow-up from a final presentation of an agreed result. Choose a process that both parties can actually maintain.

In Dealokr, the conditions and their signature provide a shared project reference. When preparing a fixed-price project, you can connect an agreed price with a sufficiently defined scope. An internal estimate in days remains a planning assumption, distinct from actual time-based billing.

Read a fictional comparison with the same scope.

Imagine creating a welcome pack with client-supplied content and defined deliverables. The estimate is four days. We compare an agreed fixed price of €2,000 excluding VAT with a fictional day rate of €500 excluding VAT. Separate expenses are excluded to isolate the comparison; neither amount is a recommended rate.

Compare amounts using the agreed chargeable days

Across all three scenarios, the fixed-price scope and conditions remain the same, with no additional request. For the day-rate option, the days shown are counted as chargeable under the agreement, not simply days that have elapsed. Any additional day is assumed to be authorised, with the cap revised beforehand where applicable.

The day-rate calculation is “agreed chargeable days × agreed rate”. The fixed price remains the price for the scope defined in this example. If the work changes or another condition becomes relevant, examine the new decision rather than applying the table mechanically.

Keep the example separate from permission to exceed a cap

With a cap of four days and €2,000 excluding VAT, the fifth day requires a decision before it is worked. The table does not authorise an overrun. These amounts are not net income: expenses, deductions and the project’s actual conditions still need to be considered.

Understand what efficiency and uncertainty change.

In the fictional fixed-price project, completing the same work in three days does not automatically recalculate the price as three day rates. The client accepted a defined service at an agreed price. The different duration does change your internal economics, which you should consider alongside costs and the quality of the delivered work.

Consider an estimate that was too short

If the same scope takes longer than expected, the fixed price does not automatically become an extra bill. Examine the cause: estimating, an incident, a missing contribution or an agreed change. Address the situation within the project’s framework rather than treating every overrun as additional client scope.

Do not confuse a day rate with guaranteed volume

A daily rate does not guarantee that a given number of days will be ordered or counted. Define the expected duration, dates and conditions for changes. The client needs visibility over spending; you need to understand the commitment that has actually been agreed.

Profitability cannot therefore be read from the model’s name alone. It also depends on price, work, expenses and how decisions will be made. Keep the assumptions visible so you can discuss what each party can anticipate and what still needs a decision.

Keep feedback and additional work within an agreed framework.

A fixed-price proposal needs to describe included revisions and how additional needs will be handled. On a day-rate project, priorities may develop within the agreed framework, but their effects on time, dates and budget still need decisions. In both cases, distinguish work that falls short of the agreement from a new result being requested.

Connect the request to the relevant reference

Describe the version, the point concerned and the expected result. Correcting an agreed item does not automatically become additional chargeable time simply because the project uses a day rate. Equally, a fixed price does not mean that every new idea is included without discussion.

Confirm the consequences before producing added work

Propose an addition, a replacement or another phase with its consequences. For a French B2B contract, article 1193 of the French Civil Code provides for changes by mutual consent or on grounds authorised by law. Keep the decision and its references with the original agreement, using documentation appropriate to the stakes.

A time-based discovery phase followed by a fixed-price phase can make sense if each has a defined purpose, a price or calculation method and a decision point. Agree this explicitly, without presenting an exploratory estimate as a complete result that has already been commissioned.

Agree the budget, monitoring and decisions about overruns.

For a time-based project, give an estimate and explain what it means. Is it an indication, a maximum budget or a set of days being ordered? A number alone does not establish what is authorised. Identify when the client will be able to review how much of the budget has been used.

Define how a cap will be managed

A cap should identify the amount or volume, the scope concerned and the action expected as the limit approaches. In our example, reviewing the situation before a fifth day creates a chance to discuss priorities, content or a new budget. An additional charge does not follow automatically from time spent.

Choose a suitable follow-up: activities completed, chargeable days counted and work that still needs a decision. If a difference appears, compare it with the agreed rules and have it clarified before continuing. The person reviewing the time record may be different from the person authorised to change the budget.

Describe payments separately

Set out payment dates or events, any necessary documents and separate expenses. Periodic billing, an upfront payment or another schedule does not follow from the words “day rate” or “fixed price” alone. Check that the pricing method, proposal and chosen project process work together.

Connect the pricing model with the way the project will run.

Before agreement, restate the result or phase, the price or its calculation, any chargeable days, the review process and how changes will be decided. The client should be able to explain what is commissioned and what still needs confirmation. You then have a shared basis for starting.

Build a fixed price from an estimate in days

An estimate of four days can inform a fixed price that is then agreed. Internal time tracking can help improve future estimates; it does not turn that total price into billing for actual days. For an open-ended time-based engagement, prepare a framework suited to the agreed periods, records, decisions and budget.

Prepare a fixed-price project in Dealokr

For a fixed-price project in Dealokr, the client pays 100% before production through Stripe Connect, then views a preview and can request the agreed revisions. You request the transfer under the project’s conditions; its confirmation opens access to hosted final files. The payout to your bank account is a separate step.

Explain this sequence and the scope alongside the accepted price. The client can then find what has been agreed, understand the action expected as the project progresses and follow delivery within a shared framework.