Frequently Asked Questions

If you're only reviewing a few SOWs a year, a free or cheaper tool might feel like enough. But most of those tools run a single generic pass — SOWaudit's 62-point checklist runs a 3-pass AI architecture built from 25 years of real PS delivery experience, catching things a lighter tool can miss entirely. One missed clause can easily cost more than $79 — that's the real case for depth, even if you don't review often.

There are free and cheaper tools that flag generic contract risk — see our full comparison. SOWaudit costs more because it's built specifically for IT consulting and professional services delivery — the checklist and categories are tuned to how PS engagements actually go wrong, not generic contract risk. Decide what you're optimizing for: lowest cost per check, or a process built for your work specifically.

Plain English, on purpose. Every finding explains what's wrong, why it matters, and what to do about it — no case citations, no legalese. It's built to be read and acted on by a delivery manager or PM directly, not routed to legal for translation first.

You can, and for a quick read-through it'll catch some of the obvious stuff. What you won't get: a checklist built from 25 years of actual PS delivery experience, consistent structured output every time, severity scoring, tracking of what changed across re-audits, or a workflow your team can actually repeat and share. SOWaudit runs on Claude, purpose-built for this one job — the way a calculator beats a general chatbot at math even though the chatbot can technically do it too.

Never used to train any AI model — Anthropic's API doesn't train on inputs. Delete any audit or your whole account any time, and your SOW text and the AI's findings are both permanently removed, not just the original document.

No. SOWaudit is a risk-analysis tool, not a substitute for a lawyer. It's built for delivery leads and PMs to catch issues before signing, not to replace legal review on unusual or high-stakes contracts. Use it as a strong first pass, and loop in counsel for anything that needs to hold up as enforceable.

It's very good at catching the patterns that show up again and again — vague scope, missing acceptance criteria, uncapped liability, weak change-order language — because that's exactly what the 62-point checklist is built around. It's not a substitute for legal review on unusual, high-value, or heavily negotiated contracts, and it can miss context specific to your relationship with a client that a lawyer who knows the account would catch.

The Audit Report is built for before you sign. Once it's signed, the risk shifts from what the contract says to whether work is staying inside it — that's what Margin Sentinel is for. Separate feature: lock in your signed SOW, paste in project communications, and it flags anything drifting out of scope.

Every finding quotes the specific clause and explains the risk in plain terms, so it's easy to defend in conversation — you're pointing at actual language, not asking anyone to take an AI's word for it. Treat findings as the starting point for that conversation, not a final verdict.