ZAMBO.

Direct answer

Training is included, they say. Included in what, exactly?

The build is delivered, the client is happy with it, and now comes the sentence that quietly doubles projects: your team will need training on this, and that is included, right? Sometimes it genuinely is, because someone wrote it into the agreement or said it in a call you forgot. Often it is an assumption doing the asking, and an assumption you accept once becomes a standing obligation: sessions, repeats for new hires, and questions forever, all priced at zero. The answer is not a flat no. It is a check of what was actually promised, a clean line between the walkthrough every delivery owes and the training that is real work, and training offered properly as its own small stage. Here is the sequence.

See the instrument first: the live demo runs one real call and hands you its verifiable receipt, no signup.

Updated October 30, 2026. First published October 30, 2026. The two delivery records quoted below are real and public, with their client decision states read back from the live service.

Step 1. Check what was actually promised before answering

Do not argue from memory, yours or theirs. Read the agreement, the quote, and the thread in order, looking for the specific words: training, sessions, onboarding, handover, walkthrough, documentation. Three findings are possible. Training was promised in writing, with a shape, a number of sessions or a format, in which case it is included, deliver it well, and this page is about step 5 for next time. A walkthrough or handover was promised, which is a different and smaller thing, covered in step 2. Or nothing about training exists anywhere, in which case the honest sentence is that training was never in the agreement, said plainly and without accusing the client of inventing it. Assumptions grow in silence; the client may sincerely believe a standard that exists in their other supplier relationships. The document check converts a he-said argument into a shared read of the same page.

Step 2. Separate the walkthrough you owe from the training you do not

Every delivery owes a basic orientation: the handover itself, what was built, where it lives, how the client accepts it, and the documentation agreed in the quote, enough for the client to own and judge the deliverable. That is part of delivering, and withholding it to win the training argument would be wrong. Training is the layer beyond orientation: teaching staff to do their jobs with the thing, repeated live sessions, exercises, questions across days, materials prepared for their team, sessions for people who join later. Name the boundary in your reply with examples from their own request, so the line is concrete rather than legalistic: the recorded walkthrough of the finished work and the written guide are in the delivery; two live sessions for the operations team, with practice and follow-up questions, are training, and training is a stage. Most clients accept a boundary they can see.

Step 3. Read the two states the delivery can sit in when the ask arrives

The boundary is easiest to hold when the delivery itself is a defined record: what was handed over is listed, so what was not handed over is visible too. The record format is AER-1, published as an IETF Internet-Draft (draft-zambo-aer1-26), and each step carries a verifiable receipt: a receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved. The two public records below show the states a delivery can carry:

Accepted: the decision is on the record

Pending: checked, and still waiting on a decision

An accepted record, 4 of 4 steps checked, decided_by client, release_hint ok_to_release, decided 2026-10-16T14:31:51.146Z in that example, is a delivery the client side closed on the agreed scope: training asked for after that acceptance is, by the record's own shape, a new stage following a finished one. A pending record, 5 of 5 steps checked and release_hint hold, is a delivery still awaiting its decision, and there the right order is to close the delivery first, get its acceptance recorded, and only then scope training, so training never becomes a reason the original job stays open forever.

Step 4. Offer training as a small stage with a price and an end

Make saying yes easy by making the offer concrete: a named package, for example two live sessions of a stated length for up to a stated number of staff, one recorded session they keep, a short written guide, and a questions window of a stated number of days after the last session, at a stated price. Concreteness does three jobs: the client can approve it in one message, the scope is visibly finite, and the price is plainly for a defined thing rather than an hourly meter running in a classroom. Offer a lighter door too, the recorded walkthrough plus the guide, with questions by message for a shorter window, at a lower price, for clients whose team is small or self-sufficient. Record whichever they choose as its own accepted stage, sessions delivered listed like any other deliverable. Training given away vaguely is resented by both sides within a month; training sold as a tidy stage is usually thanked for.

Step 5. If training really was promised, deliver it and fix the paper

When step 1 finds a real promise, an email where you said you would get the team up to speed, a quote line that reads training included, honour it in full and in good spirit, and bound it by its own words: the format the promise implied, a reasonable number of sessions, scheduled inside a reasonable window, then closed with a short note confirming the training delivered. Fighting a promise you made costs more than the sessions. But learn the lesson into the next agreement that same week: training is a named line, present with a price or absent in words, never a fog either side can shape later. The same applies to promises in calls: from now on, anything agreed in a call is confirmed in the thread the same day, one line, so the record of the deal is the deal.

Step 6. Write the next agreement so the question answers itself

One short block in the next quote ends this whole conversation in advance: delivery includes the handover walkthrough and the documentation listed; staff training is not included unless listed as a priced line; training, when bought, is the sessions and materials named in that line, inside a stated window. Add the neighbouring lines while you are there, since this ask travels with family: support after delivery, and revisions, each named as included with limits or excluded in words. Clients who intend to pay for what they use sign this happily, because clarity protects their budget too. Clients who push back on the sentence itself are telling you the assumption was the plan, which is exactly when you want to hear it, before the build, not after it.

What a record does not settle

A verifiable receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved; it does not prove what a contract promised, does not decide whether words in a call amounted to a promise, and cannot train anyone. The agreement text, the delivery record's scope, and the written training offer are what the conversation stands on. This page is general information, not legal advice; a large disputed obligation is worth a short professional review.

Frequently asked questions

My client wants me to train their staff to use what I built and says training is included. Is it?

Only if it was promised, and the check takes ten minutes: read the agreement, the quote, and the thread for the actual words, training, sessions, onboarding, walkthrough, documentation. A promised walkthrough or handover is part of delivering and you owe it: the orientation, the documentation agreed, enough for the client to own and judge the work. Open-ended staff training, live sessions, repeats, practice, and questions across days, is real work beyond delivery, and if no document promises it, it is not included, however sincerely the client assumed it was. Say that plainly, show the boundary with their own request as the example, and offer training as a small priced stage with a stated end, plus a lighter recorded option.

A call is where I might have said training was included. Nothing is written. What do I do?

Treat the honest uncertainty as shared, and resolve it generously once, in writing. If you plausibly said it, offer a bounded version, one live session plus the recording and guide, described as closing the point, and confirm it in the thread as the full extent of the training obligation for this project. If you are sure you did not, say the agreement does not include training, offer the priced stage, and still deliver the delivery walkthrough in full so the no is about training, not about helpfulness. Either way the outcome lands in writing this time, and the process fix is permanent: anything agreed in a call gets a one-line confirmation in the thread the same day.

How should I price staff training so it does not become endless?

Price a package, not an open meter: a stated number of live sessions of a stated length, for up to a stated number of attendees, the recording kept by the client, written materials named, and a questions window with an end date, all for one figure. Endlessness comes from undefined edges, repeats for new joiners, questions forever, so name those edges in the offer itself: extra sessions and later cohorts are further packages at the same rate. Delivered sessions get listed on the stage record like any other deliverable, so six months later both sides can see exactly what training happened, when, and for whom.

The client says every other provider includes training. How do I answer?

Agree that some do, because some bundle it into a higher build price, and point calmly at the two documents: their quote from you, which priced the build and the handover, and the training stage you are offering now at its stated price. Offer the comparison honestly: your build price plus the training package is the number to set against a bundled quote, and on that like-for-like basis you may well still be the better value. What you do not do is accept the premise that included is a universal standard with no price attached. Training is always paid for; the only question is whether it was priced openly as a line or folded silently into a bigger one.

How do I set up delivery so training never blurs into the build again?

Close the build as its own recorded delivery and let training be a separate stage with its own record: the build delivered as a handover the client accepts, and any training bought afterwards delivered and listed as its own stage, sessions, recording, guide, and window. When the work runs through Zambo, every step carries a verifiable receipt under AER-1, published as IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26, so the delivery's scope and the training stage sit side by side on the record, each with its own acceptance state, and neither can quietly swallow the other. New users get 20 calls and 1 wrap-up free every day, and picking up work in another AI is always free. For $0.99, deliver the next build that way and keep training visibly separate: get the Day Pass. A Day Pass is unlimited for 24 hours, no subscription. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month or $290 a year, and $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders, which adds private handover links, your branding, and the approval record as PDF and JSON files.

Related