French project scoping kit for freelance designers: 7 templates (brief, discovery questionnaire, quote, schedule, feedback log, acceptance, wrap-up) and PDF guide

The kit is written in French and follows French law: every file is in French, the guide, the templates and the example. It is meant for freelance designers who work as sole traders in France (entrepreneur individuel, micro-entrepreneur included) and want to run a client project from the first meeting to the wrap-up. It follows a design project in 6 steps: discovery, scoping, quote, production, feedback, acceptance and close. At each step, the guide explains what to do and why, and gives you the template to fill in: discovery questionnaire, brief, quote, schedule, feedback log, acceptance report and project wrap-up. A sample file shows the 7 templates filled in on an invented project, the redesign of a neighbourhood bookshop’s website.

The kit frames the relationship with the client; it replaces neither your accountant nor a lawyer. It is not a contract, not terms and conditions of sale, and not an invoice template. The quote template opens with this disclaimer (in French): “Template to be checked by your accountant, and by a lawyer for the assignment of rights and for any contract with a consumer. It does not guarantee that your business documents comply.”

• A 20-page PDF guide: how to use the kit, then one chapter per step. Discovery (preparing the meeting, running the conversation, spotting warning signs), scoping (workshop, scope, acceptance criteria), quote (knowing who your client is, what is mandatory and what is recommended, deposit or down payment, VAT mention, assignment of copyright, terms of sale and invoicing between businesses), production (milestones, workload and margin, check-ins), feedback (running a round, sorting each comment, keeping the log), acceptance and close (running acceptance, invoicing, the wrap-up). Then the presentation of the templates and the sample file, the sources and the colophon. The table of contents and the bookmarks lead to every part.
• Labels you can read at a glance: the guide separates what a legal text requires (with the article or the official page that says so), what is common practice or advice, the rules between businesses and those that apply with a consumer. Values that change (rates, thresholds, social contributions) are given with their date and source, and left as fields to fill in the templates.
• 5 document templates, in Markdown and DOCX, with the same headings in the same order:
  • Discovery questionnaire: 15 questions for the first meeting, with preparation and follow-up.
  • Project brief: context, goals, audiences, scope in and out, deliverables, constraints, acceptance criteria.
  • Quote: mandatory and recommended mentions kept apart, assignment of copyright with one line per right, a block for terms of sale between businesses, acceptance.
  • Acceptance report: items delivered, criteria checked one by one, reservations and how they are lifted, decision and signatures.
  • Project wrap-up: planned versus actual (days, income per day, feedback), lessons for the next quote, client feedback.
• 2 spreadsheets with formulas (.xlsx), each with a “Mode d’emploi” (how to use) tab:
  • Project schedule: milestones by week with their calendar, estimated, sold and actual workload, margin after social contributions.
  • Feedback log: log of comments by round, type, decision and status, with a count per round and rounds beyond the agreed package.
• A 17-page sample file (PDF): the 7 templates filled in, in project order, on the redesign of an invented bookshop’s website. The filled schedule has 9 milestones and 8 tasks, the filled log 14 comments over 2 rounds; both filled spreadsheets are delivered separately. The bookshop has no name, people have generic first names, and addresses, numbers and amounts are fictitious.

Files in the kit:

guide-cadrage-projet.pdf
modeles/questionnaire-decouverte.md
modeles/questionnaire-decouverte.docx
modeles/brief-client.md
modeles/brief-client.docx
modeles/devis.md
modeles/devis.docx
modeles/proces-verbal-recette.md
modeles/proces-verbal-recette.docx
modeles/bilan-projet.md
modeles/bilan-projet.docx
tableurs/planning-projet.xlsx
tableurs/suivi-retours.xlsx
exemple/dossier-exemple.pdf
exemple/planning-projet-exemple.xlsx
exemple/suivi-retours-exemple.xlsx

The zip also holds the licence text and the credits.

Sources

The rules quoted in the guide point to official French pages, consulted on 11 November 2026: the government’s guidance pages for businesses, the Urssaf site for micro-entrepreneurs, the official tax bulletin, the national consumer institute and the legal texts on Légifrance. The Sources page of the guide lists them with their addresses. Every rule carries its reference; dated values should be checked again before each quote.

Production and AI

The texts of the guide, the templates and the sample file, as well as the layout and spreadsheet scripts, were written with an AI assistant, then reviewed and checked: every reference verified against its source, tagged PDF tested, amounts in the example recalculated from the spreadsheets. The kit contains no image made by an image generator.

• Tagged A4 PDF (guide and sample file): real text you can select and copy, structured headings, bookmarks, live links, language set to French. The PDFs open in any PDF reader and print on A4.
• DOCX: the 5 document templates for a word processor, with heading styles and French language, without an imposed font: they take the font of your document.
• Markdown: the same templates, to read and fill in any text editor. Fields to fill in are written “[À remplir : …]”.
• XLSX: the spreadsheets open in common spreadsheet apps, which compute the formulas on opening. A plain file preview, without a spreadsheet app, may show empty cells.
• Font: the PDFs are set in Work Sans, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, embedded as a subset.

Good to know before buying:

• The whole kit is in French and follows French law.
• The kit is meant for designers working as sole traders (entrepreneur individuel, micro-entrepreneur included). A company has other mentions to carry, and the guide does not cover the artists-authors scheme.
• The quote is a template: have it checked by your accountant, and by a lawyer for the assignment of rights and for any contract with a consumer. The kit provides no contract, no terms of sale and no invoice template: invoices are made in your invoicing tool.
• Feedback rounds and their deadlines are presented as a practice to agree with your client, not as a rule.

The kit is sold under the commercial licence: you may use the templates for your own projects and hand your clients the documents you make from them (quote, brief, acceptance report), but you may not resell or redistribute the kit, in whole or in part.

• Presentation template for freelance designers: to present your offer or proposal to the client before the quote.
• French UX audit kit: when a redesign starts with an audit, its findings feed the brief and the scope (in French).

Is the quote ready to send?

No, it is a template. It separates the mandatory mentions, drawn from the official pages cited in the guide, from the recommended ones, and tells you which instructions to delete before sending. Have it checked by your accountant, and by a lawyer for the assignment of rights and for any contract with a consumer: it does not guarantee that your business documents comply.

Does the kit suit me if I work through a company?

The guide and the quote are meant for sole traders (entrepreneur individuel, micro-entrepreneur included). A company carries other mentions (company name, legal form, share capital) that the template does not provide for. The artists-authors scheme is not covered either.

Can I hand my clients the documents I make from the templates?

Yes. The commercial licence lets you use the templates for your projects and hand your clients the documents you make from them. It forbids reselling or redistributing the kit itself, in whole or in part.

1.0.0 (11 November 2026): first version.