Consultancy terms and conditions

Like our free consultancy agreement template, this document is designed for use by consultants operating in a range of different fields and specialisms.

The key difference between this terms and conditions document and the consultancy agreement document is structural rather than substantive: this document assumes that the parties will sign or otherwise agree one or more statements of work, each incorporating the provisions of the terms and conditions.

If you are looking for a document that provides for the transfer of IPR, see the standard version of these terms and conditions on Website Contracts.

*Please purchase a licence on Website Contracts if you wish to use this template without the credit/attribution text. If you are happy to retain that text, there is no need to purchase a licence.

Document contents

The particulars of each contract are intended to be set out in the statement of work – a skeleton version of which is provided with this document – while the general legal provisions are set out in the terms and conditions.

For instance, the exact nature of any deliverables should be set out in the statement of work. The terms and conditions take account of the possibility that deliverables may include third party works and/or works supplied by the client. The IP provisions concerning deliverables are very straightforward: there is a simple licence to use. If more sophisticated licensing provisions are required, or if rights will be assigned/transferred to the client, you should consider the standard and premium consultancy terms and conditions documents available at https://www.website-contracts.co.uk/consultancy-contracts.html.

Three main options are suggested regarding charges: first, charges may be specified in a statement of work; second, they may be agreed by the parties in writing on an ad hoc basis; and third, the charges may be calculated on a time-spent basis.

Other important provisions of the T&Cs include:

• a space for providing a definition of the services, together with details of the standards (e.g. reasonable skill and care) that the services must meet;
• payment provisions, detailing when payments must be made, how they must be made, and the consequences of a failure to pay;
• general warranties concerning the services;
• limitations and exclusions of liability, protecting both or one of the parties;
• provisions regarding the termination of contracts, and what happens after termination; and
• general boilerplate provisions.

Alternative documentation for consultancy services

See the tables below for links to our full range of consultancy agreement templates. Use Docular if you would like to edit the documents online, or website-contracts.co.uk if you just want to download a suitable MS Word document for editing in your word processor.

In addition to these agreement-style documents, we also have a selection of T&Cs-style documents.