Services Contract

The Services Agreement is a legally binding contract delineating the rights and obligations of a Service Provider (an actor offering a service in exchange for money) and their Client (an actor receiving a service in exchange for payment).

It can be used by Service Providers irrespective of whether they are companies, sole trader or self employed independent contractors, and by Clients irrespective of whether they are private consumers or companies employing the services for business purposes.

This document contains the familiar core provisions of any contract for services. It defines the Parties, the duration of the relationship, the nature of the services provided and fee paid in exchange for services.

It also includes provisions to deal with more peripheral aspects of the Service Provider-Client relationship, including the manner in which the contract can be terminated, modified, assigned or disputes resolved.

This document caters for a wide variety of services contracts. As such it includes a wide variety of optional clauses. For example, the document contains sections on confidential information, data protection and intellectual property, which are usually employed in agreements for IT or business consultancy, but may be omitted in agreements for construction. Users can choose to include or exclude these more specialist clauses in a way that reflects their particular needs and interests. The user can press the "?" symbol for help in determining which of these more specialist clauses they may want to include in their Services Agreement.

How to Use this Document

This document should be filled in accurately by the user. When signed, its contents has legal consequences, so it should be executed with care.

The Services Agreement should be signed by both Parties. In the event, either the Service Provider or Client is a legal entity, the Agreement should be signed by an individual on their behalf who is duly authorised to do so. Both Parties should retain a hard and soft copy of this contract, and should refer to it to resolve any confusion over their respective rights and obligations. It should act as a touchstone for managing their relationship.

Where Parties reveal a high volume of Confidential Information or the Confidential Information has a high commercial value, they may adopt a separate Non Disclosure Agreement, to outline the specific rights and obligations of the Parties in respect of Confidential Information. 'Confidential information' is information of a proprietary, commercial or sensitive nature, unauthorised disclosure of which could imperil the competitive advantage of a business. Any additional Non Disclosure Agreement, should be attached to the present document.

In the event the Parties use existing intellectual property or create new intellectual property (such as copyrights, design plans, databases, inventions, patents) it is advised that the Parties conclude an additional intellectual property rights licensing agreement or assignment agreement, which should be attached to this document.

Similarly, in some cases, the Client may request the Service Provider signs a Non Compete Agreement, to preclude the Service Provider using information, expertise and other commercial valuable material obtained in the performance of their contract with the Client, with one of the Client's competitors. If a Non Compete Agreement is concluded by the Parties, it too should be annexed to the present Agreement.

Where applicable, the Parties should attach their data protection or privacy policies to the present document.

Applicable Law

This Services Agreement is based on the principles of Irish Contract Law.

It is also written in contemplation of, and to give effect to the principles of the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1995 (as amended) and the Consumer Protection Act 2007.

Given that there will likely be an exchange of personal data in the performance of this Agreement the legislation governing data protection is incorporated, including, GDPR 2016/679, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the ePrivacy Regulations, 2011

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.