How to Write a Commission Brief Form

A commission brief form should turn “can you make something like this?” into a paid, scoped request by collecting references, purpose, usage, size, format, deadline flexibility, budget fit, and must-haves before you reply. The form should separate required details from nice-to-haves so you can accept, decline, or deliver without a free pre-sale interview. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

Publisher disclosure: this page is written by Brillay. Brillay's public pricing page confirms the fee model referenced below. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Brillay workflow claims below are based on its public how it works and Custom Work pages.

For creators, the painful part of commissions is rarely the first message; it is the unpaid interrogation after it. Illustration buyers send three vibes and no canvas size. Character design clients forget commercial usage. Code review buyers paste “can you look at this?” without a repo link or goal. Resume, manuscript, landing-page, and VOD review requests arrive as broad “thoughts?” messages that require you to define the job for free.

What fields should a commission brief form include?

A commission brief form should collect only the details that determine fit, scope, and delivery: references, purpose and usage, size or format, deadline flexibility, must-haves, nice-to-haves, and exclusions.

The practical reason for keeping the form tight is usability. Nielsen Norman Group's form-usability recommendations say to distinguish optional and required fields, eliminate as many optional fields as possible, and limit a form to only one or two optional fields when possible (Nielsen Norman Group, “Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations”). For a commission brief form, that makes six required prompts plus one or two optional prompts a defensible starting point: the required fields prevent an unusable order, while the optional fields capture preferences you can ignore without breaking the deliverable.

Baymard Institute found that the average checkout flow contained 11.3 form fields and that 17% of users had abandoned an order because checkout was too long or complicated (Baymard Institute). A commission brief is not a retail checkout, but Baymard's figures support a conservative pattern: add fields only when missing information repeatedly makes requests impossible to deliver.

Can I copy a commission brief template?

A copy-paste commission brief template should use plain questions the buyer can answer without knowing your internal process. Adapt this block to the exact service, then mark the first six fields required and the last two optional if they do not affect whether you can deliver.

Commission brief form

1. What are you asking me to make, review, or critique?
2. Attach or link the references I need to understand the request.
3. How will you use the finished work or feedback?
4. What size, format, file type, page count, runtime, or URL should I work from?
5. What is your ideal deadline, and is it flexible?
6. What must be included for this order to count as complete?
7. What would be nice to include if it fits the scope?
8. What should I avoid or ignore?

Use service-specific language where it reduces ambiguity. For illustration, “references” can mean pose, outfit, palette, character sheet, and “avoid this” examples. For a resume critique, the same field can ask for a resume PDF, target role, and two or three job posts. For code review, it can ask for a repo link, changed files, framework, and the main concern. The template works because it asks what changes the deliverable, not everything the buyer could possibly say.

Which reference files are actually useful?

Useful reference files show what success looks like, what constraints exist, and what the creator should avoid. For visual commissions, that can mean mood boards, poses, character sheets, brand colors, outfit references, screenshots, or “avoid this” examples. For service commissions, it can mean a GitHub link, landing-page URL, resume PDF, manuscript excerpt, VOD link, analytics screenshot, or previous draft.

Brillay Custom Work lets a follower add request details and file attachments at order time, and the public Custom Work page describes the offer as paid, scoped custom work that a creator defines before followers order. A creator can pair an upload prompt with a custom text field for links when the useful reference is a repo, page, doc, video, or public portfolio rather than an upload. That pairing is especially important for critique work, where the core artifact may live at a URL while the buyer still needs to attach context, screenshots, or source files.

Do not ask for every possible reference. A buyer commissioning a half-body character illustration may need pose, outfit, palette, and usage. A buyer requesting a résumé critique may need the résumé, target role, and representative postings. A code review buyer may need the changed files, repo link, language or framework, and main concern. The field should ask for evidence that changes your deliverable, because extra reference clutter increases reading time without improving scope.

How should buyers define usage and purpose?

Usage and purpose tell you whether the buyer wants a private keepsake, a public asset, or something tied to business value. A personal avatar, a commercial mascot, an internal code review, a public landing-page critique, a resume rewrite for job applications, and a manuscript review for submission are not the same job even when the deliverable looks similar.

Ask one required question: “How will you use this?” Then offer plain options: personal use, public post, portfolio or channel asset, business or brand use, internal team feedback, application or submission, and “other.” If usage affects your price or licensing, say that before checkout rather than discovering it after the buyer has already written a vague request.

Usage fields also protect rights conversations. The U.S. Copyright Office says a commissioned work made for hire requires a written agreement between the party ordering the work and the creator, and only certain categories of commissioned works can qualify (U.S. Copyright Office Circular 30). That is why a brief should ask about usage but not pretend to transfer rights by itself; rights transfer, exclusivity, and work-made-for-hire language belong in explicit terms when those issues matter. This is general information, not legal advice.

If a commissioned deliverable will be used in sponsored content, testimonials, ads, or public promotion, the usage field should surface that early. The FTC's Endorsement Guides define a clear and conspicuous disclosure as one that is “difficult to miss (i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers” (16 CFR Part 255).

“Difficult to miss (i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers.” — Federal Trade Commission, 16 CFR Part 255

What format, size, and deadline fields matter?

Format, size, and deadline fields should identify the deliverable, the source material, and the time constraint in the same place. “Draw my character” is vague; “half-body PNG, transparent background, for a profile banner, flexible within three days” is scannable. “Review my stream” is vague; “20-minute VOD segment, focus on pacing and chat engagement, written notes” is deliverable.

For visual work, ask for dimensions, orientation, file type, background, color mode if relevant, and where it will appear. For writing or critique, ask for word count, page count, URL, file type, priority questions, and whether comments should be high-level or line-level. For code review, ask for language, repo or snippet, what changed, what the buyer is worried about, and whether the deliverable is a written checklist, annotated comments, or a short summary.

Deadline wording should include flexibility because the date alone does not tell you whether to accept, decline, or treat the order as a rush request. A dropdown can say: “hard deadline,” “preferred date,” “flexible,” or “rush request; decline if unavailable.” Brillay's Custom Work flow lets the creator set the service price and delivery time before the follower starts the order; if the follower needs something outside that stated delivery time, the form should tell them not to purchase that offer.

How do must-haves prevent scope creep?

Must-haves prevent scope creep by identifying the few details that decide whether the buyer will consider the commission complete. Nice-to-haves are preferences; must-haves are acceptance criteria. Mixing them together is how a buyer later says, “I thought this was included,” even though the original message never made it clear.

Use two separate fields:

• Must-haves: “What must be included for this to count as complete?”
• Nice-to-haves: “What would be great if it fits, but is not required?”

For illustration, a must-have might be a specific outfit, pose, pet, color palette, or transparent background. For character design, it might be age range, silhouette, species, props, or worldbuilding constraints. For code review, it might be security concerns, performance, naming, or test coverage. For a resume critique, it might be a target role and three job listings. For VOD review, it might be “focus only on the first 10 minutes and retention hooks.”

Freelancers Union's Contract Creator starts the freelance work agreement by identifying the freelance worker, hiring party, and services being provided in exchange for payment, then builds the agreement around the work being promised (Freelancers Union Contract Creator). A brief is not the final agreement for every project, but a buyer's must-haves give you a written baseline for accepting, declining, or delivering the service.

How does Brillay collect paid order briefs?

Brillay collects the commission brief inside a custom request order: followers answer your prompts, attach the materials you requested, and pay by card as guests before you start. In workflow terms, the brief arrives as part of the order instead of as a loose DM that still needs to be priced.

You define the offer title, description, what followers get, what you need from them, what is not included, the price, the delivery time, and optional custom fields. You redirect followers from social DMs to your Brillay page, where the request and the payment happen on the page, as a guest.

For Custom Work, followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. Delivery is one-time: you send text plus files of any allowed type and/or a link. Once you deliver, the follower can still open a support conversation on that same order — a question about the delivery, a broken file or link, a correction, or a refund request — which you handle under your own posted policies; anything beyond that is a new paid order. Those mechanics are documented publicly through Brillay's Custom Work and how-it-works pages, while the pricing page explains the fee model.

How does paid intake compare with alternatives?

Every intake path eventually gets you the same information; what differs is whether you did the scoping for free first. That matters when the main problem is not discovery; it is preventing unpaid pre-sale interviewing before a small custom job is even worth evaluating.

Ko-fi's own commissions page says creators can offer commissions for digital art, poetry, personal tutorials, feedback sessions, video messages, and custom crafts, and that Ko-fi commissions have a 5% platform fee on the free plan, with payment-processing fees separate (Ko-fi Commissions). The comparison is not that one intake style is universally better; it is that a commission brief form should match the job. Use paid order intake for a defined $25 portfolio review or $50 commission with clear boundaries; use a separate quote for open-ended projects, rush work, commercial rights, or anything you cannot price confidently upfront. Every offer is one priced request on the same page: the price, the scope and the delivery window are published, the brief is collected at checkout, and the follower pays upfront by card as a guest, so the work arrives already paid for and already specified.

What should buyers see before checkout?

Buyers should see the scope boundary before checkout, not after the creator has already read a vague brief. A good service page says what is included, what is not included, what the buyer must provide, the delivery time, and what happens if the request is outside scope.

Use plain copy like this:

“This is a one-time written critique of one landing page up to 1,500 words of page copy. Attach screenshots or include the URL. I will send written notes with priority fixes. This does not include rewriting the page, designing new graphics, live calls, or follow-up revisions.”

That wording gives the buyer a mental receipt before they order. A character-design version might say: one full-body concept sketch, flat colors, transparent PNG, three required references, no commercial usage unless selected in the usage field. A VOD-review version might say: one timestamped written review of up to 20 minutes, focused on pacing and retention, no live coaching.

For payment expectations, keep the fee math separate from the creative scope. Stripe publishes typical U.S. online-card pricing of 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge, with other payment methods and countries varying (Stripe pricing). When setting a $25 review or $50 commission price, account for Brillay's platform fee and separate payment-processing fees, as detailed on the pricing page.

Creators who also handle sponsorship leads can keep follower commissions separate from brand inquiries. A creator selling paid critiques can still route brand requests through a dedicated intake form, similar to how beauty creators separate paid product reviews from brand inquiries and food creators separate recipe-development requests from sponsorship leads.

Frequently asked questions

What is a commission brief form?

A commission brief form is an intake form that asks the buyer for the information needed to accept and deliver a custom request, such as references, usage, format, deadline, and must-haves. Its job is to replace vague pre-sale messages with a structured request.

How many fields should my brief include?

Use enough fields to prevent ambiguity, but not so many that buyers abandon the order. A practical starting point is six required fields plus one or two optional fields, which follows Nielsen Norman Group's recommendation to minimize optional fields and stays well below Baymard Institute's checkout-field benchmark.

Should I use Paid Questions for commissions?

Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling. Use Custom Work when the buyer needs to provide request materials and receive a one-time deliverable such as a critique, review, custom asset, or audit.

Can buyers send files with a Brillay brief?

Yes, Custom Work supports follower-provided materials as part of the order flow, which is what makes it useful for illustration references, resume PDFs, manuscript excerpts, screenshots, VOD context, and other commission materials. The exact service prompt should tell followers which files or links are useful instead of inviting a pile of irrelevant references.

What if the buyer leaves important fields unclear?

Buyers skip fields that feel optional, not required. The cleaner approach is to make the unclear details required fields so the buyer answers them before the order reaches you.

Create your free Brillay page with no follower minimum or platform gate, then put one link in your bio for Custom Work and your other offers. Followers can order without an account, and eligible creators can receive payouts in 41 countries.