Non-reserved business legal services
A contract review is £249 +VAT. At the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this kind of work, £249 buys roughly an hour of a solicitor's time — here it buys the whole job. Every price below is what that job costs at ordinary size, agreed in writing before anything starts, with no hourly meter running behind it.
Five defined jobs at five published prices. Each figure is what that job costs at ordinary size and complexity, plus VAT, agreed in writing before any work begins. If what you have is not one job but a steady trickle of legal questions, a subscription is usually the cheaper route — the arithmetic for that is in the questions at the foot of this page.
The figure beside each package is the price for that job at ordinary size and complexity: a normal commercial contract, one set of terms, a first employment contract. That is the number you pay for a job like that. It is written as a starting price rather than a flat one because a ten-page supplier agreement and a sixty-page framework contract are both "a contract review", and charging the same for both would mean overcharging one of you.
What makes a job non-standard: the length and complexity of the document; the number of parties involved; selling to consumers rather than businesses, which brings statutory cancellation rights and the unfair terms rules into play; needing more than one set of documents, such as separate terms for a second product line; unusual shift patterns or sector rules in a handbook; and anything already in dispute, which is not fixed-fee work at all.
You will not discover any of that afterwards. Send the actual document rather than a description of it and you get one figure for your job, in writing, before you commit — and if it cannot be done for anything close to the published price, you hear that then rather than halfway through. On a fixed-fee job that figure is the invoice: no file-opening fee, no admin charge, no expenses line added at the end.
A fixed fee suits a job with edges: review this contract, write these terms, get this hire right, put the ownership of the company in writing. You know the cost before you commit and the cost does not move while you think about it. Where it stops working is open-ended trouble. A customer who has already threatened a claim is a dispute, not a fixed-fee job, and a legal question every fortnight for a year is what the subscription is for. Our services page shows which route each kind of work takes. Tell us the job and we will say which of the three you actually need, including when the answer is none of them.
Every fixed fee is written against a defined scope, so both sides know where the work stops. Here is what sits inside each package, what sits outside it, and what decides how long it takes.
For a contract someone has put in front of you that you do not want to sign blind. One document, read properly, explained in plain English. Our guide to business contracts covers the clauses that cause the most trouble.
What is included
What is not included
What sets the timescale. The document is read once for shape and again for detail, then the summary is written against a delivery date agreed with you at the start. If you are up against a signing deadline, say so in the first email: it goes into the scope, and if it cannot be met you are told before you commit rather than after.
For a business with staff and no written rules, or written rules that no longer describe how the place runs. Our guide to staff handbooks and policies explains which policies a small employer genuinely needs.
What is included
What is not included
What sets the timescale. A handbook is a stack of policies working together rather than one document, so it takes longer than a single piece of drafting. What extends it is customisation — unusual shift patterns, sector rules, or existing policies that contradict each other. Where that happens we put a usable core in place first and refine the edges afterwards.
For the terms you issue: how you get paid, what you are responsible for, and what happens when a customer changes their mind. If you sell online, read our guide to website terms and privacy alongside this.
What is included
What is not included
What sets the timescale. The drafting is rarely the slow part. Waiting is: when the order is accepted, who carries the risk while goods are in transit, what happens if a customer cancels halfway through. Answer those in one go and the job moves in one go.
For a company with more than one owner and nothing written down about what happens if they stop agreeing. Our guide to shareholder agreements sets out the decisions the document forces you to make.
What is included
What is not included
What sets the timescale. The drafting is quick. The timescale is set by how long the shareholders take to agree what they actually want — the conversation the document forces, and the real reason it is worth doing.
For the first hire, or the first hire done properly after a run of contractors. Our guide to employment contracts covers what has to be in writing and when.
What is included
What is not included
What sets the timescale. How settled the role is. Once the hours, the notice period and the pay are decided, the pack is straightforward drafting. Tell us the intended start date in the first email and the work is planned against it.
Two illustrative examples of how a fixed-fee job runs, from first email to finished work — including the point where the fixed fee stops. They are made-up scenarios written to show the process and the edges of a scope, not real clients.
A small manufacturer has been trading on a one-page order form written years ago, when everything was sold locally and paid for on delivery. They now ship nationally, invoice on 30 days, and have twice been left carrying the cost when a customer rejected a batch weeks after receiving it.
They ask for a fixed quote on a set of terms. We scope it first: one set of terms, one customer type, sold business to business. That scope is written into the quote, so it is clear what is being priced. Because the sale is business to business rather than to consumers, we say up front that if they later start selling direct to the public, they will need a separate consumer-facing set, and that would be a separate job.
The finished terms deal with the three things that were costing them money: a fixed window for rejecting goods, a retention of title clause so unpaid stock stays theirs, and interest and compensation on late payment under the late payment legislation. They also get a short note on how to make the terms actually apply — putting them on the order form and referencing them before the customer commits, rather than printing them on the back of the invoice, where they arrive too late to bind anyone.
What the fixed fee did not cover: when a customer disputed an old invoice the following month, that was a new matter. Chasing it was quoted separately, and if it had gone to court it would have moved to RHF Solicitors.
Two people started a business together three years ago on a fifty-fifty split and a handshake. One now works in it full time, the other has taken a job elsewhere and contributes occasionally. Neither has raised it, and both are quietly uneasy.
The fixed fee covers one shareholder agreement plus a read-through of the existing articles. The scoping call is the hard part, and it is where the value sits: what happens if one of them wants out, who decides what, what counts as a decision needing both of them, and what happens to the shares of someone who stops contributing. We put the questions on the table and let them answer, rather than drafting around the disagreement.
The agreement that comes out of it sets a deadlock mechanism, a leaver provision distinguishing between someone who leaves well and someone who does not, and a pre-emption right so neither can sell to an outsider without offering the other first. We also flag a mismatch: their off-the-shelf articles allow a share transfer the new agreement is meant to prevent, so the articles need amending too.
What the fixed fee did not cover: the tax treatment of the leaver provisions went to their accountant, and each founder was advised to take their own independent advice before signing, since the agreement was drafted for the company rather than for either of them individually.
Use the contact form or email hello@buzzaccounting.co.uk. Attach the actual document rather than describing it, say what you are trying to achieve, and give the real deadline. Nothing is chargeable at this stage.
You get a written scope and a single price: what is included, what is not, what you will receive and when. If the job turns out to need reserved legal work, or is already contentious, we say so here — before you have spent anything — and route it to RHF Solicitors.
Nothing begins until you have agreed the scope, the price and the delivery date in writing. If we later find something genuinely outside that scope, we stop and re-quote rather than carry on and bill you for it.
The finished work, in plain English, on the date we agreed, for the price we agreed — plus a short explanation of how to actually use it, because a document nobody understands protects nobody.
Contract review from £249 +VAT. Terms and conditions package from £695 +VAT. Employment starter pack from £895 +VAT. Shareholder agreement from £1,250 +VAT. HR policies and staff handbook from £1,495 +VAT. Those are starting prices for a job of ordinary size and complexity, and you get a single fixed figure for your specific job, in writing, before anything starts. To put £249 in context, a solicitor charging the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this work would give you between roughly 45 minutes and an hour and a quarter for the same money. If you are on a Legal Foundations subscription, take 10% off any of these.
“From” is the price for a job of ordinary size, not a hook to get you into a conversation. You are quoted above it when the document is unusually long or complicated, when there are more than two parties, when you sell to consumers as well as to businesses, or when you need several sets of documents rather than one. Whichever of those applies, you are told which and why in the same email as the price, before you commit to anything. If the honest answer is that the job is too big to price this way at all, you get told that instead of a number nobody can hold to.
No. Every price on this page is quoted excluding VAT, and VAT is added at the current standard rate of 20%. In cash terms, a £249 contract review is £298.80, a £695 terms and conditions package is £834, and a £1,495 handbook is £1,794. If your business is VAT-registered you will usually recover it; if it is not, treat the gross figure as the real cost. Your quote states the fee, the VAT and the total, and that total is what appears on the invoice — there is no separate file-opening charge, admin fee or expenses line added afterwards on a fixed-fee job.
Fixed against a written scope, which is the part that matters. Before anything starts you get a document saying what is included, what is not, what you will receive and when. Nothing begins until you have agreed the scope, the price and the delivery date in writing. If something genuinely outside that scope then turns up, we stop and re-quote rather than carry on and add it to the invoice. That works both ways: a contract review covers one contract of ordinary length with one follow-up exchange, so a second round of mark-up after the deal changes, or negotiating with the other side on your behalf, is a new job with its own price.
We stop and tell you before doing it. Most of that risk is taken out at the scoping stage, which is why we ask for the actual document rather than a description — the difference between a straightforward set of terms and a complicated one is usually visible on the first read. Where a job genuinely grows, you get a second written quote for the additional part and you decide. You are never billed for work you did not approve. Occasionally the answer is that the job has become something else entirely, such as a contract review where the other side has already threatened a claim, and then it is a referral to RHF Solicitors rather than a re-quote.
For a review: a marked-up copy of the contract showing where the problems are, a written summary in plain English separating what is standard from what carries real risk, suggested replacement wording for the clauses worth arguing about, and one follow-up call or email exchange to talk it through. For drafting: the finished document, plus a note on how to make it apply properly — putting your terms on the order form and referencing them before the customer commits, rather than printing them on the back of an invoice where they arrive too late to bind anyone. All of it in plain English, because a document nobody understands protects nobody.
A fixed fee suits a defined, one-off job. A subscription suits a business that keeps generating legal questions. Do the arithmetic rather than guess: Business Legal is £249 +VAT a month, which is £2,988 +VAT across a year paid monthly or £2,490 +VAT paid annually, and includes typically four to six matters a month plus up to three contract reviews. Buy the same volume as fixed-fee work and you pass that within a handful of jobs. If you send us one contract a year and nothing else, pay the fixed fee. Legal Foundations at £49 +VAT a month, £588 +VAT across a year paid monthly or £490 +VAT paid annually, sits in between: the template library, the health check and 10% off fixed-fee work, which takes £149.50 off a £1,495 handbook.
Non-reserved work is done by the Buzz Legal team. Reserved legal work is done by Robert Festenstein, a solicitor at RHF Solicitors (SRA no. 324115), acting as a solicitor at that regulated firm rather than as part of Buzz Legal Ltd. You are told which applies before anything starts. It matters because the protections differ: Buzz Legal Ltd is not SRA-regulated, so our own work does not carry the SRA compensation fund and complaints about it do not go to the Legal Ombudsman, whereas anything RHF does carries the full regulatory framework. Our About page sets that out in full, and our complaints procedure explains what we do instead.
You hear about it before you spend anything. If a job needs reserved legal work, or has already become contentious, that is identified at the quoting stage rather than discovered halfway through, and it goes to RHF Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the SRA (no. 324115), at rates agreed and confirmed before that work starts. The handover is not a cold referral: whoever picks it up has already seen the matter, and any preparation done — the chronology, the evidence, the letter before action — goes with it, so you are not paying a regulated firm to read in from scratch. If a matter looks court-bound on day one, you hear that on day one.
Clear scope · fixed fees available. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the SRA.