At this stage in your business, you’re comfortable signing most contracts, but not confident you’re catching the important details.

Like the one that means your client gets the license to use the work before final payment is made. Which means you end up emailing them for months before they finally pay the last invoice.

This is an “Is it safe to sign?” check. 

Each of these five quick things takes only seconds to look for. But missing them can create issues later. 

So let’s avoid possible hiccups by taking a few minutes here to intentionally scan your contract.

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Quick check #1: When does the license start?

The first quick check you’re going to do is related to making sure the usage license isn’t granted until final payment is made.

What you are looking to determine here is “When does the license start?”

Clients always have a bigger incentive to pay when they don’t have the final thing they want, like the deliverable or the license. So this one reduces the likelihood of tracking down payment administrative headaches. 

Scan the license and payment sections to figure out when the license (or copyright ownership) actually happens.

Ideally, you’ll find something like, “Usage rights are granted upon full payment.” Because this means that the license doesn’t start until after the final payment is made.

If you find vague timing or language that indicates that the license is transferred when you provide the files, then you’ll want to flag this to discuss with your client.

If you find language that indicates payment must be made first, you are set here.

Quick check #2: Can you use it in your portfolio?

The next quick check applies when you are granting an exclusive license or copyright ownership. And that’s because here we want to make sure you can continue to use the work as part of your portfolio.

90% of the time, this isn’t a right that clients intend to take away from you. Instead, it’s an unintentional consequence of the legal rules.

So we want to scan the contract to make sure that you have a clear carve-out to use the work as part of your portfolio and self-promotion. 

If you find a line like this, you are set: “Creator retains the right to display work for portfolio and promotional purposes.”

If not, flag it to discuss with your client.

Quick check #3: Vague usage language

The third quick check is for those vague fallback phrases we’ve discussed, like “any and all uses” or “across all media, including future media”.

The reason this matters is because of the mismatch between contract clauses. 

You usually won’t find this mismatch within the same section. But it’ll pop up in other places in the contract. So this is another time when the find tool can help you quickly pinpoint any broader language in the contract.

So scan and flag anything that feels broader than expected to discuss with your client.

Quick check #4: Alignment with prior discussions

Your contract likely has a “four corners” or integration clause making the contract not any prior conversations your agreement.

Which is why the fourth quick check you are going to take is to make sure the contract matches the conversation you had.

This mismatch usually comes from the template not getting updated everywhere.

So flag anything that feels “bigger” than expected and ask the client if anything changed internally that resulted in these shifts.

Quick check #5: Control shifting language 

The final scan you’ll take is for contract clauses that can shift control. These often happen in the default contract template language.

You’ll look for things like, “Are they able to pass on their license to someone else?” (AKA sublicensing). Or “How can they alter your work without getting your permission?” (AKA modification).

Depending on the usage rights, you might need to grant these rights, but there are also times when it gives the client creative control over your work. 

For example, if they are getting social media usage rights, they need to be able to sublicense to have the right to post it to Instagram. And they might need the ability to crop if the platform aspect ratio changes.

But if they are getting social media usage rights, they don’t need the ability to change the model’s shirt color, resell your image to their clients, or pull out illustration elements and combine them differently.

These clauses are often short and don’t always feel important to scan, but they can shift the control of how your work appears in the world.

Why these are overlooked

The reason experienced creatives still overlook these small details is that the issues with them don’t show up until something goes wrong.

Problems surface when, like my friend Maria, you hand over the high-res files before final payment is made. And eight months later, you are still calling and emailing to get that final payment, even though the client has been using your work (and profiting from it) the entire time. In Maria’s case, she ended up having to send a cease and desist letter before payment was finally made.

Or when your client starts using the work in a way you didn’t think they could. And when talking to your lawyer, you realize that the “any and all usage” language was in another section of the contract. So their use is actually okay.

And that’s exactly why I created the Contract Decoder inside the artist’s Courtyard. It’s what you use when something looks fine, but doesn’t feel right. You can turn to it whenever a clause makes you hesitate, not only to understand what it means, but to spot red flags and get negotiation tips. Basically, it’s your checklist to know if a contract clause is safe or if you are right to pause on it.

Over time, you’ll get faster at these scans because you’ll know exactly where this language tends to hide.

And if you’re at the point where contracts are coming up regularly, and you don’t want to keep piecing this together on your own, that’s exactly what the artist’s Courtyard is built for. It’s where all of these pieces come together into a system you can actually use.