How would I be engaged: on the agency's payroll, as a sole trader or company, or something else?

This one answer changes your tax, your insurance, your holiday entitlement and who is liable if something goes wrong. If the person offering the role cannot state it clearly, find out before you compare the rate to a salary.

What is the rate, and is it hourly, daily, or a fixed price for the whole piece of work?

Fixed price shifts the risk of a scope change onto you, which is fine if the scope is defined and painful if it is not. Hourly and daily are safer for vague briefs, so match the pricing model to how well specified the work is.

Is that the rate the client is paying, and what is the agency's margin?

Ask plainly. Some recruiters disclose the margin and some refuse, and the refusal itself is information. Knowing the bill rate tells you how much room exists in a negotiation and whether an extension can come with a raise.

Is overtime paid, and what counts as overtime?

Day rate contracts often absorb long days invisibly, so ask what a day means: seven hours, eight, or until the work is finished. Also ask about weekends and on-call, which are the two that quietly become expected.

How often do I invoice, and how many days after that am I paid?

Monthly invoicing on sixty day terms means the first payment can land nearly three months after you start. Ask who approves the invoice, because a single approver on holiday is the usual cause of a missed payment run.

Professional & Academic

Questions to Ask Before Accepting a Contract Position

Questions for the point where a contract role is offered and not yet signed, covering how you would be engaged and paid, agency margins, invoicing and notice terms, what you are being brought in to deliver, ownership of your work, and what conversion to permanent really means.

20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide

Open any question to see why it works.

1
How would I be engaged: on the agency's payroll, as a sole trader or company, or something else?
This one answer changes your tax, your insurance, your holiday entitlement and who is liable if something goes wrong. If the person offering the role cannot state it clearly, find out before you compare the rate to a salary.
2
What is the rate, and is it hourly, daily, or a fixed price for the whole piece of work?
Fixed price shifts the risk of a scope change onto you, which is fine if the scope is defined and painful if it is not. Hourly and daily are safer for vague briefs, so match the pricing model to how well specified the work is.
3
Is that the rate the client is paying, and what is the agency's margin?
Ask plainly. Some recruiters disclose the margin and some refuse, and the refusal itself is information. Knowing the bill rate tells you how much room exists in a negotiation and whether an extension can come with a raise.
4
Is overtime paid, and what counts as overtime?
Day rate contracts often absorb long days invisibly, so ask what a day means: seven hours, eight, or until the work is finished. Also ask about weekends and on-call, which are the two that quietly become expected.
5
How often do I invoice, and how many days after that am I paid?
Monthly invoicing on sixty day terms means the first payment can land nearly three months after you start. Ask who approves the invoice, because a single approver on holiday is the usual cause of a missed payment run.
6
How long is the contract, and how likely is an extension?
Ask how many contractors in this team have been extended and how many times. A three month contract that has been extended for two years is a different proposition from one that genuinely ends, and it changes what you should charge.
7
Is there a minimum number of guaranteed hours or weeks?
Many contracts allow the client to reduce your hours to nothing without ending the agreement, which leaves you unavailable and unpaid. A guaranteed minimum, even a small one, is often negotiable and rarely offered unprompted.
8
What notice does each side have to give?
Look for whether it is equal. One week from them and four from you is common and worth pushing back on, since it means they can end it instantly while you cannot take a better offer without a month of exposure.
9
What exactly am I being brought in to deliver?
Push until you get something with an edge to it: a migration completed, a backlog cleared, a system documented. Contracts written as help the team are the ones that drift, and drift is what makes an end date impossible to plan around.
10
Am I replacing someone, covering a vacancy, or extra capacity for a deadline?
Each has a different failure mode. Replacing someone who left suddenly means undocumented work and possibly a difficult manager, covering a vacancy means you may be auditioning, and deadline capacity means the end date is real.
11
Who do I report to day to day, and who sets my priorities if that person is unavailable?
Contractors are frequently shared between managers with different urgent requests and no way to arbitrate. Ask for one name, and ask how work gets prioritised, because being pulled three ways is how a good contract goes bad.
12
Who approves my timesheets, and what happens when they are away?
This sounds administrative and is the most common reason contractors get paid late. Ask for a named deputy, and find out whether approval is weekly or monthly, since a missed weekly approval can delay an entire invoice.
13
What benefits, if any, come with this: paid holiday, sick days, public holidays?
Usually the answer is none, which is the correct answer to hear plainly. It matters because your rate has to cover unpaid time off, and a contractor who takes three weeks off a year is working roughly forty-nine weeks, not fifty-two.
14
What equipment and system access will I have, and how long does onboarding take?
Contractors regularly spend the first two weeks unable to log in, and on a three month contract that is a sixth of the engagement. Ask whether you are billing during that period, because in many contracts you are not.
15
Who owns the work I produce, and can I describe it later?
Assume the client owns the output, then ask specifically whether you can reuse general tools or libraries you already had, and whether you can name them as a client. Both are usually negotiable and rarely mentioned.
16
Is there a non-compete or non-solicit clause, and how long does it run after I leave?
For contractors these clauses can block the next role in the same industry or stop the client hiring you directly. Read the scope and duration, and note whether it is worded to cover clients you brought with you.
17
If it converts to permanent, when can that happen and is there a fee?
Agency contracts often carry a conversion fee or a minimum period before the client can hire you without penalty. This is the mechanism that quietly kills conversions, so find out the terms before you take the role for that reason.
18
Would I be included in team meetings, planning and reviews, or kept separate?
Some organisations exclude contractors from anything strategic, which makes the work harder to do well and much less interesting. Ask what a contractor here is not invited to, and you will usually get a straight answer.
19
What happens if the budget or the project is cancelled mid-contract?
Ask whether there is a termination clause with a payout or whether the notice period is the only protection. Projects funded from a single budget line are the most likely to end abruptly, and it is fair to ask where the money comes from.
20
Can I see the full contract before I resign from anything or turn down other work?
The terms in the contract routinely differ from the ones described on a call, particularly notice, payment days and restrictive clauses. Nobody reasonable objects to this request, and needing to rush past it is the warning.

Working out whether the contract is worth taking

Practical guidance for the conversation itself.

Working out whether the rate is real

Convert the rate into a year, honestly

Take the daily rate, multiply by the days you will actually bill after holiday, sickness and gaps between contracts, then subtract your own tax, insurance and pension. The comparable salary is usually a lot lower than the first multiplication suggests.

Price the gap, not just the contract

A six month contract is really six months of work plus however long it takes to find the next one. Contractors who price only the billed weeks end up earning less than the permanent role they left.

Find out what the client is paying

Ask the agency directly, and ask the client's team informally if you get the chance. Margins of a few percent and margins of thirty percent both exist, and only one of them leaves room for an increase at extension.

Negotiate terms, not only the number

Equal notice, a guaranteed minimum, shorter payment days and billing from your first day are often easier to win than a higher rate, and on a short contract they are worth more.

What to read closely before signing

Payment terms, including the invoice date, approval route and the number of days until payment. This is the clause you will care most about in month two.
Notice on both sides, and whether the client can suspend or reduce your hours without ending the contract.
Intellectual property wording, especially anything covering work created during the contract period rather than work created for the client.
Restrictive covenants: who you cannot work for, for how long, and whether that includes the end client and their competitors.
Any clause allowing the agency to change the rate at extension, or to substitute a different contractor.
Whether you are required to carry your own insurance, what type, and at what level. This is a real cost that should sit inside your rate.

Signals worth pausing on

Will not send the contract until you have given notice elsewhere.
Cannot say who your day to day manager would be.
Vague on the engagement type, or keen for you to decide the classification yourself.
The brief is a list of skills rather than an outcome, and nobody can describe what done looks like.
Long payment terms combined with a short contract, so most of the work is done before the first payment.
Several contractors have come and gone from the same seat in a year.

The questions

How would I be engaged: on the agency's payroll, as a sole trader or company, or something else?

What is the rate, and is it hourly, daily, or a fixed price for the whole piece of work?

Is that the rate the client is paying, and what is the agency's margin?

Is overtime paid, and what counts as overtime?

How often do I invoice, and how many days after that am I paid?

How long is the contract, and how likely is an extension?

Is there a minimum number of guaranteed hours or weeks?

What notice does each side have to give?

What exactly am I being brought in to deliver?

Am I replacing someone, covering a vacancy, or extra capacity for a deadline?

Who do I report to day to day, and who sets my priorities if that person is unavailable?

Who approves my timesheets, and what happens when they are away?

What benefits, if any, come with this: paid holiday, sick days, public holidays?

What equipment and system access will I have, and how long does onboarding take?

Who owns the work I produce, and can I describe it later?

Is there a non-compete or non-solicit clause, and how long does it run after I leave?

If it converts to permanent, when can that happen and is there a fee?

Would I be included in team meetings, planning and reviews, or kept separate?

What happens if the budget or the project is cancelled mid-contract?

Can I see the full contract before I resign from anything or turn down other work?