Service agreement template for recurring service work

A service agreement is a written arrangement for repeat work: what you will do, how often, what it costs, and how either side can change or end it. Cleaning contracts, HVAC maintenance plans, pest control programs and equipment servicing all run on them. The template below covers the sections most agreements need; adapt it to your trade and check it against your local law, ideally with a lawyer, before you use it.

The sections of a service agreement

Template wording to adapt

Replace the bracketed parts. This is a starting point, not legal advice.

1. Parties. This agreement is between [business name, registration number, address] ("we") and [customer name, address] ("you"), for the sites listed in the schedule.
2. Services. At each visit we will [list the tasks]. The services do not include [exclusions]. Work outside this list is quoted separately and done only with your approval.
3. Frequency. Visits take place [every week / fortnight / month / quarter / year], starting [date]. We will confirm each visit [number] days in advance. Either of us may move a visit by agreement.
4. Price. The price is [amount] per [visit / month], plus [tax] where it applies. We invoice [after each visit / monthly in advance], and payment is due [number] days from the invoice date.
5. Price changes. We may change the price once every [12] months by giving you [30] days’ written notice. If you do not accept the new price you may end the agreement before it takes effect.
6. Access. You will give safe access to the site at the agreed times. If we cannot get in, the visit [counts as completed / is charged at (amount) / is rescheduled].
7. Pausing. You may pause visits for up to [period] by telling us [number] days before the next visit. Visits that fall due while paused are skipped, not owed.
8. Term and ending. This agreement runs for [period] from the start date and then [continues month to month / renews for a further period] unless either of us gives [30] days’ written notice.
9. Liability. We carry public liability insurance of [amount]. We will carry out the services with reasonable care and skill.

The free service agreement generator fills this template in from your answers, with the consumer-law line for your country.

Consumer law to check before you use it

• Australia: services come with consumer guarantees, including acceptable care and skill, that an agreement cannot remove. Unfair terms in standard form contracts are banned and penalties now apply.
• UK: agreements made at a customer’s home or at a distance usually carry a 14-day right to cancel; you must tell customers about it.
• US: the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives a three-day right to cancel certain sales made at the customer’s home. State law adds more.

Clauses that prevent most disputes

• A precise task list. Most arguments are about whether something was included.
• What happens when you cannot get in. Decide it before it happens.
• Notice periods that work both ways.
• A task list written by frequency, as in the cleaning schedule template, or a visit checklist such as the HVAC maintenance checklist.
• How extra work is approved: in writing, before it is done.

Running agreements in Primemgr

In Primemgr, a service agreement records the customer, site, equipment, what is done, the price and the frequency: weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, every one or more of those periods. It raises the job for each visit a set number of days before it is due, so visits are booked without anyone remembering to. Pausing an agreement skips the visits that fall due while it is paused, and an end date stops it. The guide on setting up service agreements walks through it, and the glossary defines a service agreement and preventive maintenance.