How To Create A Consulting Services Agreement

Our consulting services agreement gives you the flexibility to structure the agreement according to your specific needs. This agreement can be completed in just minutes but is robust enough to provide thorough protection for both parties over the life of the business relationship. The company hiring the consultant can choose exactly how it wants the business relationship to proceed and can customize the following important terms:

The consultant’s job duties and services
Whether the consultant is allowed to engage in any other outside employment while working for the company
Whether the consultant is to be paid hourly, a salary, salary plus commission, solely on commission, or on a custom pay structure
What benefits the consultant will receive, if any
Whether the consultant or the company is responsible for covering the consultant’s out-of-pocket business expenses
Whether to include options such as confidentiality, non-compete, and non-solicitation provisions
Whether the parties are required to submit disputes to binding arbitration
When and how the agreement will expire or be terminated by the parties
Under what circumstances the consultant will receive severance pay, if any
Any other specific terms or conditions the parties have agreed upon

Party Information and Relevant Dates
Job Description
Compensation and Benefits
Confidentiality, Non-Compete, and Non-Solicitation
Additional Terms
Create Your Consulting Services Agreement Now

Party Information and Relevant Dates

You will begin the form by entering in the full legal names of the consultant and hiring party. Note that the form calls the hiring party the “company,” but this can also be just an individual.

An important term in this section is the agreement length. Selecting "indefinite term" will allow the consultant to be terminated at any time, with or without cause. This is an at-will consultant relationship, akin to at-will employment. Selecting "fixed term" will allow you to specify the exact length of the term the consultant will provide services for. Select "when the job is done" if this agreement will end when the consultant completes his or her services.

Job Description

Next you will fill in the job description section with the relevant services the consultant will perform. There is no need to include every little service the consultant will be responsible for doing. The agreement allows the company to assign new duties that are reasonable within the scope of the agreement, so simply including the general job duties will suffice. You will also be able to select whether or not the consultant is allowed to engage in outside employment for other businesses while performing the services under this agreement. This term is usually negotiated upfront with the consultant to ensure all parties are on the same page.

Compensation and Benefits

The following section will allow you to customize the pay structure according to what the parties have agreed upon. You will be able to choose between hourly pay, a salary, salary plus commission, solely commission, or some other custom pay structure. You will then have the option to specify any benefits the consultant will receive. This part is optional, since you can always agree on benefits at a later time with the consultant or in a separate agreement.

Confidentiality, Non-Compete, and Non-Solicitation

Next you can decide whether you want to include confidentiality, non-compete, and non-solicitation provisions. The confidentiality provisions will prevent unwanted disclosure of the company’s confidential information and trade secrets by the consultant. The non-compete provision will prevent the consultant from engaging in any direct or indirect competition with the company during the agreement and for a period of time thereafter.

Finally, the non-solicitation provision prevents the consultant from negatively interfering with any of the company’s business relationships, including the company’s relationships with its own employees. It’s usually a good idea to include these provisions unless you want to outline them in a separate agreement. Again, these provisions will likely need to be negotiated between the parties upfront.

Additional Terms

In the final section you will specify which state’s laws will govern the agreement. Usually, the company lists its principal place of business as the governing state. Other options would be to use the company’s state of incorporation or the state where the two parties are conducting any business together. You can then add any other terms and conditions desired. This allows you complete flexibility to tailor the document to reflect the specific situation and true intent of the parties.

Be sure to preview the agreement first, though, so that you know what’s already been included. After that, just follow the instructions at the end of the document to formally execute it and make sure all parties get a copy of the final version. That’s it, you’re done!

Create Your Consulting Services Agreement Now

Get started now! Create your agreement in just minutes by using our customizable consulting services agreement template.

How to Create a Consulting Services Agreement

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