Start with the reason this software should exist, not a list of screens. Who will use this, how often, and how is the job done today? An experienced team who understands the goal often proposes an alternative that costs less; one who only sees a feature list will price your assumptions along with the work.
Set out the scope cto as a service short scenarios: what the user does and what the system does in response. Just as important, state explicitly what is out of scope. A written out-of-scope list removes more friction during acceptance than any other single page. Also mark which parts are firm and which are still open — honest teams price those differently, and pretending everything is fixed helps nobody.
Set out your constraints. The list covers systems you must integrate with, the data you have and where it lives, security and compliance rules, traffic expectations, supported browsers or devices and any technology you are committed to. If there is a hard date, ai development company explain what drives it: typescript framework an experienced team is usually able to cut the right scope to protect it, provided they hear about it early.
Write down what the word done means feature by feature. Testable acceptance criteria need not use any formal notation: a short paragraph describing the expected behaviour is sufficient. This single habit shortens the review at the end considerably and eliminates the most common source of disputes.
One last thing, state what you want in the response. Ask for a breakdown by feature or module, a written list of assumptions, whatever the team considers risky and an optimistic and a pessimistic figure. Treat a wide range as useful information rather than evasion: it usually points to where your description is thin. From there rewrite that part and request a revised number — the second estimate tends to be the one worth planning around.