A frequent sort of agreement is a service agreement or a supply contract. They can refer to a variety of commercial connections, but they usually refer to those in which a company offers services to a customer. These types of agreements, for example, are employed in instances involving a:
- Teacher tutoring a student
- Any matchmaker who helps people discover loving partners
- A migration agency assists a migrant in obtaining an Australian work and living visa.
A service agreement is always a legally enforceable contract that spells out the terms and conditions, rights, and responsibilities of each party. You need to involve certain commercial and business lawyers from a legal firm like Vault Legal in Australia.
How to write any service agreement?
In general, any service agreement must include the following sections and topics:
- A proper description of all the parties involved
The names and addresses of all the people involved should be listed at the start of your agreement. You should identify the type of entity, e.g. a corporation or a limited liability company if one or both parties are businesses.
- A description of the various services to be performed
Keep in mind that you will not be able to adjust your pricing if you end up performing additional work, so be as detailed as possible. As an example, a caterer would want to know how long they will be at the event, how many servers they will have, how many guests they will feed, and how much and what kind of food they will provide.
The caterer will be more likely to bid the work appropriately if the materials and time are accurately listed.
- A description of payments and fees
Include phrases like hourly, weekly, or monthly prices, as well as whether you charge a fixed fee per assignment. You may also need to clarify whether the pricing will include expenses, like travel for a certain consultant who needs to visit multiple corporate locations, or whether those charges will be paid and reimbursed separately.
You should also offer a payment schedule, complete with due dates and amounts. Caterers, for example, will usually have 2 amounts and payment dates, one for the initial deposit and the other for the rest due. Other suppliers, such as contractors, may have a months-long payment schedule for projects that take a long time to finish.
- The effective date and also validity date of the contract
The date after which all parties are obligated by the provisions of a contract is known as the effective date. The effective date is frequently the day on which all parties sign the contract, however, this is not always the case.
Next, give a work schedule—project work should at the very least contain beginning and conclusion dates. If your project has multiple stages or parts, you may want to provide additional due dates.
- Include a place meant for signatures
Service agreements must always be signed with a date by all parties involved. It is a good idea to get the signatures notarized for preventing any party from claiming at a later stage that it was never signed by them in the agreement.
