10 Free Simple Business Contract Templates & Agreements

Making pinky promises or giving someone your word won’t cut it in the business world—every agreement has to be backed by a contract. 📜

A legally binding contract outlines any official commitment enforceable by law, defining expectations from all involved parties to avoid miscommunication.

When drafted precisely, it prevents conflicts and mitigates the risk of compliance issues for all parties involved. On the other hand, a weak contract or service agreement can cost you big time—we’re talking exhausting court proceedings, legal fees, breach penalties, and loss of reputation. 

With such high stakes—especially for an expensive business agreement, drafting contracts can be nerve-racking. If you’re looking for a stress-free way to create watertight legal business agreements, you need proper contract templates.

Let’s discover what they should look like and explore 10 of the best options available on the market!

What Is a Business Contract Template?

As a legally binding agreement, a contract has to be drafted in a specific manner to be valid. You must use formulaic legal phrases and jargon that aligns with the transaction, payment terms, contract agreement, and overall legal agreement for all parties involved—which is tricky for a layman.

That’s where business contract templates come in—these tools help you write comprehensive contracts without legal expertise. 🧑‍⚖️

The template simplifies drafting by giving you a standardized framework to work with. It contains industry-approved stock language—also called boilerplate clauses—contextual to the subject matter of the contract or partnership agreements

Keep in mind that business contract templates are not universal in nature and depend on the specific country or industry. Some fit any business transaction involving a vendor-customer relationship. Others like an independent contractor or rental agreement, however, outline the terms and conditions for a particular situation—like a real estate purchase or employee job description.

According to a benchmark study by World Commerce & Contracting (formerly IACCM), more than half the contracts made are based on the wrong template, which can lead to compliance issues. That’s why using the right one is crucial!

What Makes a Good Contract Template?

Whether you need a go-to contract structure for recurring deals and transactions or something situation-specific, there are certain features a quality partnership agreement template should have.

In general, look for contract templates with: 

1. Relevant sections: The template should have a conventional structure to lay out the agreement logically. See that it has:
   • Suitable boilerplate clauses
   • Blocks for core areas like signatures and seals
   • Defined indemnification sections to offer protection against potential conflicts
2. Customizability: You should be able to tailor the predefined clauses to the transaction or service in question effortlessly. The template must be reusable and scalable
3. Collaborative tools: The template should allow real-time editing with partners, employees, and vendors to address all stakeholder needs
4. Trackability: It should let you monitor contract changes. For frequently updated deals, the template should expedite the revision and approval process
5. High usability: A person without a legal background should be able to use the document from the get-go. High-end contract templates have built-in guides to assist the user 

10 Free Contract Templates to Use in 2024

We’ve compiled a list of 10 contract templates for different use cases, including general business agreements, lease rentals, and employment contracts. Our selection criteria covered factors like overall functionality, language consistency, and ease of use.

1. Business Contract Sample Template

Looking for an all-purpose, simple contract or service provider template to facilitate purchaser-vendor agreements? The Business Contract Sample Template is your go-to launchpad!

This beginner-friendly template is 100% scalable, so businesses small and big can use it to prepare concrete, well-rounded agreements. It lets you draft commercial contracts in the capacity of a seller or a buyer with its nine standard sections:

1. Heading
2. Services Offered
3. Consideration and Fees
4. Cancellation
5. Governing Law and Legal Fees
6. Warranties Offered
7. Severability
8. Waiver and Amendments
9. Complete Agreement

The boilerplate clauses here are done to perfection—you only have to provide the specifics, like the details of Party A and Party B, services and warranties offered, mutual duties, and estimated completion dates. To avoid confusion, the parts you must fill out are highlighted in brackets.

Once you complete the sections, move to the Acknowledgment page—this is where the involved parties put their signatures to accept the contract’s terms and conditions. 🖊️

If you also need a starting place for what your invoice should look like, check out our invoice template for business services.

Like all templates, this one enables team collaboration—you can create and manage tasks, draft contracts in real-time with your coworkers, and monitor the changes made.

2. Bid Contract Template

When pursuing a new client in a competitive environment, you want to cover all the bases and show that your company is the right fit. Trust the Bid Contract Template to help you make winning proposals! ✌️

With this template, you get full support for writing engaging proposals. Start by adding the party info to the document. Then outline various project deets such as labor costs, payment details, materials, or rental agreements for equipment to present your strengths objectively.

The default framework ensures the reader can skim the critical elements of the bid—here’s what the structure looks like:

• Purpose
• Services to be Rendered
• Pricing
• Timeline
• Project Plan and Payment Scheme
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Key Dates
• Terms and Conditions

These carefully designed sections facilitate easy comparison between competing bids. You can add subsections to further define the proposal.

Edit the template’s sample text to fit your bid. Add graphs, images, tables, and charts to clarify the work plan. 

For long-term projects, we recommend sharing the template with your teammates during pre- and post-bid meetings to double-check the profitability of the proposed services.

3. Addendum to a Contract Template

Contracts may be signed and sealed, but are they set in stone? Not quite if they have addendums. 🖇️

An addendum is a legal document added to an existing contract to modify some sections or insert new ones. Preparing the legally-binding document can be a nightmare because there’s a real risk of creating unintended inconsistencies or loopholes.

Enter the Addendum to a Contract Template—designed to help you amend an existing agreement without spoiling it!

Use the template to make changes in line with the original contract. The document will guide you to complete relevant sections, such as the contract name and date, modifications or additions, and date of effect. 

You will be able to mirror the original contract in terms of:

• Language
• Formatting
• Theme and font style

If you’re finalizing the modifications electronically, upload a photo of your digital signature, and you’re good to go. 

To ensure all information is centralized and your record-keeping is spotless, link the final agreement to Docs or add it to your CRM workflows. 

4. Catering Contract Template

Running a catering business is stressful enough, but drafting those super-detailed client contracts can be extra frustrating. 

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be, thanks to the Catering Contract Template!

This free contract template lets you outline your catering services in detail, establishing accountability in areas like cost and incentives, supplies, and staffing limits. It defines parameters for clients’ expectations, so there’s no room for misunderstandings in a legally binding document.

The template includes premade sections that work for both in-house and outdoor catering agreements. Customize options like Venue Coordination, Menu, and Event Specifications to explain how your team will provide the service. You have the option to attach a detailed menu (any file format) in Exhibit A: Catering Menu. 🍜

Catering contracts can often attract unforeseen circumstances that lead to disputes. With that in mind, you can add standardized clauses for Health Compliance, Legal Jurisdiction, Limitations and Remedies, Cancellation, and Insurance.

If you’re managing multiple clients and have a lot on your plate (pun intended), share the template with your staff to delegate drafting or service management duties.

Seek legal advice for specific laws and restrictions, but you can use free contract templates like this to get a head start!

Check out these affinity diagram templates!

5. Cleaning Contract Template

Just because you’re running a cleaning business doesn’t mean you’d want to clean up the mess arising from poorly written contracts. 🧽

The Cleaning Contract Template is just what you need to minimize the risk of misunderstandings between you and your clients and keep your image squeaky clean! 

The template is divided into clear-cut sections to address every aspect of your service—including what you’ll do, when, where, and how often. You can also add details about premise authorization and confidentiality if your duties expand to areas with entry restrictions.

While cleaning is a demanding job, using the template is a relatively smooth ride—all you do is fill out the marked areas, and you have a professional-looking agreement ready for signing in no time!

Since cleaning businesses typically deal with multiple client categories and requirements, you can duplicate the template to create readymade frameworks for different service types. This can save you drafting time, improve internal processes, and help you retain customers over time.

6. Project Management Services Contract Template

Project management (PM) contracts are different from your usual service agreements. They define the relationship between a client and a project manager, and considering the loose scope of the service, even tiny oversights can lead to costly legal disputes.

That’s why you need the Project Management Services Contract Template to help cover general PM agreement principles—like representation and mutual understanding—to protect your interests.

Whether you’re providing or outsourcing PM services—like an independent contractor—the template can play for both teams. It’s particularly useful for startups that cannot afford full-time legal counsel to oversee project management activities.

Sure, this template has the desired legal phrasing for the contract, but the language is easy to follow. You also get a built-in guide to assist you with the drafting process.

For example, if you’re unsure what to add to the Issuance of Invoices section, the template will showcase what invoicing and late fee elements to specify as well as specific payment details in the business agreement.

Customize the template with other payment specifics, such as:

• Estimated project budget 
• Hourly, weekly, or monthly rates
• Trial period reimbursements

7. Employment Agreement Template

An employment agreement works like an encyclopedia of info on a job position, making it the source of truth in potential labor law disputes. It’s a complex document, though, and drafting it is no walk in the park.

Trust the Employment Agreement Template to help you work on a legally sound work contract and business agreement. ✅

The template covers all essential components, from the salary scheme and overtime policy to expected office behavior, to fit different roles. The terms and conditions are divided into three main sections:

1. General Employment Policy: Defining the hiring and termination rules
2. General Workplace Policy: Covering areas like punctuality and remuneration
3. Internal Policies: Clarifying company-specific stand on office behavior, privacy, and substance use

These sections can have as many subsections as you want to account for particular rights and duties of an employee. Deleting an unnecessary clause won’t impact the template structure.

8. Commercial Lease Agreement Template

Need help figuring out the intricacies of a commercial lease agreement? Use the Commercial Lease Agreement Template to protect the interests of everyone involved.

This template helps etch out the governing clauses between the tenant/lessee and the landlord/lessor for various commercial leasing scenarios, such as:

• Renting a retail, office, or parking space
• Getting new equipment
• Entering into a lease-to-buy agreement for real estate or industrial land payment details

The template covers everything from the purpose of leasing the premises to tenant obligations. Edit the highlighted parts to define areas like security deposits, payment terms, subletting rules, renewal provisions, and insurance obligations.

You can link the template to internal documentation to keep the lease data centralized and trackable for everyone.

If you’re managing a large lease portfolio, use the template to share your workload.

Let’s say you want to rent a warehouse and delegate its management to a subordinate. In this case, you can go to the template and add administrative tasks, like paying property taxes or preparing renewal paperwork, for your store manager.

9. Word Independent Contract Template by Template.net

If you’re looking for a basic business contract template for Microsoft Word, consider the Word Independent Contract Template by Template.net.

What you’ll love about this simple partnership agreement is its user-friendliness. It comes with a front page where you can insert your company logo and add involved parties, dates, and other introductory components.

The meat of the template contains six primary sections:

1. The Parties
2. Consideration & Payment Terms
3. Covenants, Representations & Warranties
4. General Provisions
5. Applicable Law
6. Signatures

Add or remove text and edit fonts to create a contract that aligns with your brand preferences. This template is also available in Google Docs format, which makes it collaboration-friendly to an extent.

Some users may find the template’s all-purpose structure dull, but that’s part of its charm. It allows you to shape it into whatever contract you need at a given moment, although you may have to add customized boilerplate clauses on your own. 🔝

10. Google Docs Vendor Contract Template by Signaturely

Ran out of office supplies? Or is the WiFi out of service? Time to reach out to a vendor. ☎️

In its lifetime, an average company maintains hundreds of vendor lists to keep a steady supply of items and services critical to operations. Instead of wasting resources on drafting each document, turn to the Google Docs Vendor Contract Template by Signaturely.

The template defines the specifics of the exchange, outlining expectations in payment terms, deadlines, and deliverables of the service contract. Necessary sections are prefilled—you need to review them and add relevant info to empty spaces.

Like any standard template, you get indemnification sections for what-if scenarios like last-minute cancellations and severe weather conditions. 🌧

Thanks to the template’s universal structure, you can use it for various services, from hiring event planners to landscaping companies.

The template also works for personal scenarios. For example, if you’re planning a wedding, you can use it to draft individual contracts for your florist or baker. 

Become a Pro at Drafting Contracts with Free Contract Templates!

Let’s face it—drafting contracts isn’t the most exciting job out there. It’s tedious and repetitive but still a non-negotiable part of the business. 🙅

Save yourself the pain of drafting from scratch with the savvy contract templates on our list. They’re all customizable and when used well, can cut down the risk of manual errors monumentally!

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