Consultancy Agreements: Key Components for a Partnership

It is very important to start a professional relationship on the right foot. There are times when untrustworthy people try to gain leverage by not providing the agreed service, on the other hand, taking the full payment against that service. The reason why consultancy agreements are created these days is to force performance from such untrustworthy people. As verbal contracts are losing their value in this complicated market, a consultancy agreement is a good force to make sure that all the nuances related to your agreements are discussed beforehand.

What are some of the major types of consultancy agreements?

Different types of consultancy agreements that you can draw include:

• IT consultancy agreement

Under this, you will get the optimised Technical Support that you’ve been looking for. Issues related to internal networking website development and software are dealt with such type of consultancy agreement.

• HR consultancy agreement

All the agreements that are based on a growing or an already established giant depend upon good consultancy agreements. Any legal obligation that is arising due to employment-related issues or for a consistent on boarding system, is dealt with such agreements.

• Operations consultancy agreement

Agreements that are focused on supply chain efficiency and taking care of companies manufacturing services including storage and delivery, comes under this head.

• Leadership consultancy agreement

We need guidance in many aspects of our life and this special type of agreement are designed to provide good leaders and career coaches. They help with talent acquisition or forming good leaders for your company. These types of agreements are only entered by high performing companies and projects.

• Financial consultancy agreement

Any agreement dealing with increasing profits, down payment of debts, investments cutting down of course or any short term or long term investment plans. Consultancy agreement in India has grown a lot in the recent past and financial consultancy agreement has played an important role in it.

• Legal consultancy agreement

Whenever you’re thinking of hiring any legal expert consider yourself entering into a legal consultancy agreement to make sure you are not duped by any malpractices.

• Compliance consultancy agreement

These types of consultancy agreements cover industries regulations and standards which any company needs to comply with. If you’re looking to hire such kind of specialist make sure you make them sign a good detailed compliance consultancy agreement. This will not only serve you well but will also make sure that you have a good future professional path with the company.

What are the major points that a consultancy agreement should include?

• Starting and ending date of the contract
• Details regarding all the services that are needed to be provided
• Contact information of the business house
• Contact information of the consultant
• A detailed explanation regarding ownership of the intellectual property that is in contention.
• Details regarding fees and compensation agreed upon.
• Procedure and jurisdiction of the court for dispute settlement
• The termination period Allows parties to terminate the agreement upon completion of the contract or after reaching the notice. There are times you do not forms the contract from any side of the party contracts are also terminated.
• Details regarding expected channel of communication
• All the information in detail regarding confidentiality and what information would amount to confidential information
• Details of all the liabilities
• Details regarding indemnification
• What will be the policies regarding reimbursement
• Set rules and regulations which will be used for enforcement of agreement legally
• Details regarding all the initials, signature and acknowledging them at the end.

Once these things are covered we have a very handy consulting agreement in our hands.

Extra documents which are needed with a good consulting agreement

Business relationships are very complex and sometimes even a consulting contract is not enough to explain all the intricate details regarding the nature of service. In these situations, you are also expected to provide some extra documents along with your consulting agreement. These documents are:

• Receipt of the employee handbook

If the nature of business is complex then you can ask your HR to devise a handbook in which all the details can be mentioned accordingly regarding policies and expectations from the employee. This handbook can be provided to every new employee who is hired in the company permanently or for a specific period

• Non-solicitation agreement

This agreement targets the secrecy and privacy of your company. There are times when clients and competitors might use all the important information to concoct plans against you. A Non-solicitation agreement will restrict your employees from working with your competitors or poaching your clients away from you.

Conclusion

It is advisable to have a good consultancy agreement each time you contact her independent contractor or you are hiring a permanent employee. A proper template on a regular contract is not enough to design a consultancy agreement. You need proper heads and a detailed explanation of every clause to make sure that the purpose of your agreement is fulfilled to its core. This helps in employment being smooth and organised. This also helps in seamless and successful business relations with your peers.