Services agreement checklist

Create your document by following Rocket Lawyer’s step by step interview process. If you need to edit your answers after creating your document, you can return to the interview to do so.

Read the document to make sure it meets your needs and that you’ve provided all of the necessary information about the service relationship. Remember that, if you have any questions, you can Ask a lawyer for advice.

Various Schedules must be attached to your completed Services Agreement before it is signed. These must be written by the parties (ie they are not created as a part of this Services Agreement template), as they will be very specifically tailored to a specific service provision relationship. The exception is the Data Protection Schedule, which will be inserted automatically if you indicate that there is not a relevant Data processing agreement in place. You can Ask a lawyer if you need help negotiating or drafting any Schedules. 

You should attach: 

• the Specification of the Services being supplied

• the Charges Schedule

• the service levels agreement (SLA), if you have decided to include one

• the supplier’s Data processing agreement (DPA) to the Data Protection Schedule, if rules for their data processing activities are set out in a separate DPA (if you select during the interview that these rules will be set out in this Services Agreement, you do not need to attach a DPA as a Schedule)

• the customer’s Anti-bribery policy (aka an Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy), if they have one that the supplier must abide by

Schedules can be attached either by:

• inserting them into a downloaded Word Document version of your Services Agreement, or

• by attaching hardcopies to the printed version of your Services Agreement

Each party to the Services Agreement must sign the Agreement with the appropriate Schedules attached.

If either party is a company or an LLP, its representative (ie signatory) must sign.

The date of the contract is the date on which the parties sign, if that is the same day. If they sign on different days, the date of the contract is the day on which the last person signs.

You can sign your Services Agreement by either:

• signing in print, or

• signing online using RocketSign

  • if you sign online with RocketSign, you should download your Services Agreement and attach the relevant Schedules to it first (eg by adding everything into the same document). Once you’ve attached the Schedules, upload the full document to RocketSign to sign it online

A copy of your Services Agreement will be stored automatically in your Rocket Lawyer account ‘Dashboard’.

You should also download and securely store a copy of your Services Agreement for your records and ensure the other party to the Agreement does so too.

Make sure you regularly review your agreement. Be particularly alert to changes to the Specification of Services or the Charges, as set out in the Schedules.

If there are any changes, both parties will need to execute a variation of the Agreement.

•  Make sure you attach the relevant Schedules to your Services Agreement before it is signed. The Schedules should form part of the contract that the parties are agreeing to. They should be included with it when it is read and signed, to confirm that the parties agree to these exact versions of the Schedules.

• Only change the necessary aspects of your Agreement when you review. It’s important to regularly review your Agreement to ensure it’s up to date. It’s often more efficient, however, to change only certain documents if you want to make changes. For example, if the parties agree to alter the quality expectation for the services being provided, you could vary only the service level agreement if you’re using one, instead of the entire Services Agreement.