The specific, agreed conditions that work must meet to count as complete and approved, removing arguments about whether a deliverable is actually done.
Acceptance criteria are the checklist that defines “done.” Instead of the vague “the client is happy,” you write down concrete conditions up front: the site loads under three seconds, works on mobile, and includes the five pages listed. When the work meets them, it’s accepted — no debate.
For sellers, acceptance criteria are your protection against the moving goalpost. When “done” is defined in advance, a client can’t keep withholding approval because it doesn’t match a picture in their head they never described. It also front-loads the hard conversation to the start of the project, when it’s cheap, instead of the end, when it’s expensive. Write them into the statement of work or brief.
For buyers, insisting on acceptance criteria protects you too — it forces a shared, specific definition of success, so you’re not paying for something that technically got delivered but doesn’t do what you needed.
The pairing that works: acceptance criteria define the target, revision rounds define how many tries to hit it, and the handoff is the moment they’re confirmed met. Set them early by learning to write a project brief.