Build Your Contract Walkthrough
It seems simple, right? You offer goods or services and your customer promises to give you payment in exchange. But the everyday reality of running a business can make this basic expectation harder to depend on than you think. This is especially true for freelancers, contractors and business owners who work on a project basis or in wholesale. Here’s how building a contract of your own can help your business:
Provide good customer service
Using a contract allows you to adopt a professional face and set expectations with your customers. If everyone’s on the same page about the scope of your project or the value of the goods you’re selling, you’re better positioned to build strong relationships.
Get Paid
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for independent workers to have a hard time getting paid for their hard work—a study by the Freelancer’s Union found that 71% of independent workers said they had trouble collecting payment from customers. Having a contract gives you legal leverage to collect payment if your customer misses progress payments or fails to pay for goods on time.
Avoid disagreements
Where there are purchases, there can be payment disputes. When your customer disputes a payment with their credit card issuer, the issuer offers you the opportunity to provide evidence that the transaction was valid. A signed contract that clearly outlines all of your sales policies—like your refund, return and cancellation policies—is key to challenging disputes with your customer’s card issuer.
Choose your contract
We’ve put together a few contract templates to help you cut down on the unknowns and make sure you get paid for your work. Choose the contract that applies to you.
| Service-based Business | Goods-based Business | Other Business Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Service-based Agreement | Sale of Goods Agreement | Credit Card Authorization Form |
| Completion of Services | Acknowledgement of Receipt of Goods | Refund & Return Policy |
| Catering Services Agreement | – | – |
Customize your contract
Once you’ve downloaded the contract template, read it through and replace all purple text with information specific to your business. The red text lists options that you may want to consider including to add nuance and detail to the agreement. Make sure to remove any clauses that aren’t relevant to your business or the situation at hand.
Add your business contact information
At the top of the contract, there’s a header section prompting you for your business contact information. We highly recommend that you always include this information in your contract. It’s important to make it clear from the outset which business this contract belongs to-and it will ensure that your customer knows how to return it to you after they’ve signed it.
You will also want to change all font colours back to black after you add in your information. Before you move forward with the contract, make sure that the customer has signed their initials in each designated space. You’ll also want to double-check that you and the customer have both signed and dated the agreement.
Attach your contract to a Square Invoice
If you’re using Square Invoices, you can attach relevant files like your contract, before/after images, bills of sale, or purchase orders to the Invoice (just make sure the files are in either PDFs or .jpg format). Your customer can download, sign and store the attachments for their records.
Once you’ve finished editing your contract, save it as a PDF file. You can attach the file to your Square Invoice by navigating to the “More Options” dropdown menu in the invoice and selecting “Add Attachment.”
Legal Disclaimer
We’re glad to offer you tools to help improve your business. But it’s important to note that Square is not a law firm and this document does not constitute legal advice. Square provides this template to individuals who choose to prepare their own contractual documents for their private use. If you need legal advice as to the accuracy, sufficiency or enforceability of specific contract terms you should consult with a licensed attorney.