A bill of sale is given to a buyer when he or she buys something. For example, Mary buys a small gazebo the timber framer already has cut. It basically says that the gazebo now belongs to Mary, whenever it will be delivered (often fob at your shop). The timber framer could probably put something on the bottom of the bill of sale that says the frame is sold “as is, without any express or implied warranties or guarantees about anything.” I don’t know if this cya would be necessary or effective, as I am not really that familiar with bills of sale. Doesn’t say Mary is responsible for putting up the frame, obtaining local code approvals, making sure her subdivision permits gazebos, etc etc. Not a legal problem for the timber framer as he didn’t promise to do these things, but it sure might leave Mary in a lot of trouble, and mad at the timber framer, if she didn’t think about things like this. So, if you’re going to use a bill of sale, you might want to think about giving the customer a piece of paper spelling things like this out. Not a contract, but just more information your customer might find helpful, and will prevent some from coming back disgruntled because you didn’t mention that they needed concrete footings and tie downs. Again, I don’t think Mary would have any legal recourse against you for not telling her these things, but it sure hurts your reputation (and isn’t that really what you have to sell) if you have grumpy former customers.
Now let’s say Mary comes back years later and wants a frame cut for her dream house. No way a bank is going to loan her money to give to you without a contract. And unless Mary and the timber framer live in a handshake world, neither should want to tackle a larger frame without some kind of a contract. It’s just too big a risk for both parties without a contract.
