Statements of Work (SOW)

Learn how to use SOWs effectively within LawVu

Alina avatar
Written by Alina
Updated over a week ago

In this article:


What are SOWs (Statements of Work)?

A Statement of Work (sometimes called a Scope of Work) defines project-specific activities for a contractor providing services to their client. An SOW is often an important accompaniment to an MSA or Request for Proposal (RFP).

They are usually created before the project begins and help define its essential parts. Depending on the project's complexity, you may have several SOWs nested within one contract — one SOW for each Legal Service Provider or subcontractor.

A statement of work usually defines:

  • Purpose

  • Scope of work

  • Term of the contract

  • Milestone/Deliverables schedule

  • The acceptance criteria for the finished work

  • Cost and payment schedule


How to use Statement of Work contracts in LawVu

Note: If you cannot see the 'Statement of Work' tab within the contract, please get in touch with the LawVu Support team via the chat icon (located at the bottom-right of your LawVu screen). The support representatives will enable this feature for your required contract types.

Once switched on, Statements of Work are displayed as the last tab within the contract:

You have the freedom to add as many Statements of Work as you desire. When you click the Add Statement of Work button, you will be presented with the familiar 'Add by wizard / Add by Upload' creation method that you are already acquainted with.

Select the appropriate option and fill out the fields as desired, ensuring that any required fields (those with a red asterisk next to them) are completed.

The SOW inherits the members of the original contract. When a person is added as a member to the contract, they will be automatically added to the SOW as well.

The Contract value fields within each individual SOW are collated and displayed as the Total Value in the Statements of Work tab.

Within an SOW, you can perform the same actions as you would within regular contracts: set approval stages, move between lifecycle stages, edit details, add other files, start a conversation, etc. You can also restrict the SOW so only named members can access it.

You can see the number of SOWs attached to each contract and their total value by adding the SOW Count and SOW Value columns to your Contracts grid.


Example of how to use an SOW

In the animation below, you will see two SOWs nested within one contract. The document itself is found under the Contract file section from the Overview tab. Once you update the 'contract value' field, the total value gets updated as well to reflect the change.

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