Business consulting agreement template
A consultant advises a client on its business: services, schedule, fees, deliverables, confidentiality and liability. A sample contract you can read in full, edit in QuoteBill and sign online with a secure link.
Sample — review with a lawyer · Simple electronic signature with an audit trail
Who it is for
For an independent consultant or a consulting firm and a business that hires them to analyse, advise or run workshops, who want the scope, the fees and the limits of the advice in writing.
What it covers
14 clauses, in this order. Each one is in the sample text below, and you can edit, remove or add clauses before you send.
1. Purpose
What the agreement is for: the business consulting services the Consultant provides to the Client, what each side has to do and how the fees are paid.
2. Consulting services
A blank to describe the topics and deliverables, such as an analysis, recommendations, a workshop or a report. Work not described is handled as a change in scope.
3. Approach and schedule
Blanks for the start date, remote or on-site work, the approach, meetings and milestones, and an estimate of the time needed unless a fixed fee is set.
4. Client cooperation
The Client names a contact person and provides information, access and decisions in good time, and is responsible for the accuracy of what it gives. Delay moves the Consultant’s dates.
5. Nature of the advice
Advice is given with reasonable care, but the Client decides and carries it out, and no business result is promised. Legal, tax, investment or medical advice is in only if licensed and listed in a blank.
6. Fees and invoicing
Fees come from the price schedule, with a choice of fixed fee, hourly or daily, and a choice of when to invoice. Taxes are added where the law requires.
7. Expenses and changes in scope
Travel, materials and third-party costs at cost with prior approval. Extra work is quoted in time and price first, approved in writing or electronically, and charged at a blank rate.
8. Deliverables and ownership
After payment the Client may use the reports for its own business. The Consultant keeps its methods, templates and know-how and gives the Client a licence to use them within the deliverables.
9. Confidentiality
Non-public business information stays confidential for a blank number of years after the agreement ends, with the usual exceptions.
10. Conflicts of interest and references
The Consultant discloses conflicting interests at once and names the Client as a reference only with consent. Nothing stops either side from working with others.
11. Term and termination
Ends when the services are complete or on a blank date. Either side may end it on notice or for serious breach. The Client pays for work done and approved expenses, and materials go back.
12. Liability
A blank sets a cap on each side’s liability, with the usual exceptions where the law does not allow a limit. Lost profit and indirect loss are excluded as far as the law allows; the Client owns its decisions.
13. Independent parties and changes
The Consultant is an independent business, not an employee, partner or agent, and answers for its staff and subcontractors. This contract is the whole agreement; changes need both sides’ written or electronic agreement.
14. Governing law and disputes
The law you name applies. The sides first try to settle a dispute in good faith, and otherwise the courts you name decide.
A price schedule (items, quantities and prices) is part of this contract. It starts empty, in your currency, and the clauses on fees and payment point to it.
The sample text
The whole sample, as QuoteBill starts it. Text in double square brackets, like [[10]], is a blank to fill in or check. A figure or time such as [[10]] that you leave as it is is used as shown when you send; a blank that needs your own words must be filled first. The clause text is written in English, Korean, Japanese and German; in other languages a contract starts in English for you to translate.
Read the sample text
Business Consulting Agreement
Parties: Consultant · Client
1. Purpose
This agreement sets out the business consulting services the Consultant provides to the Client, what each side has to do, and how the fees are paid.
2. Consulting services
The Consultant provides the following consulting services to the Client:
[[Describe the services and deliverables]]
Work that is not described here is outside this agreement and is handled under Expenses and changes in scope.
3. Approach and schedule
The Consultant starts on [[Date]] and works [[remotely / on site at the Client’s premises / both]] as follows: [[Approach, meetings, workshops and milestones, with dates]]
The estimated time needed is [[Hours or days]]. This is an estimate unless the price schedule states a fixed fee.
4. Client cooperation
The Client names a contact person ([[Name and contact details]]) and gives the Consultant the information, access, documents and decisions it needs, in good time and in the form requested.
The Client is responsible for the accuracy of the information it provides. If the Client is late, the Consultant’s dates move by the same time.
5. Nature of the advice
The Consultant gives advice and recommendations with reasonable care and skill. The Client decides whether and how to use them and is responsible for its decisions and for carrying them out. The Consultant does not promise any particular business result, sales figure or saving.
Advice in areas that the law reserves to licensed professionals, such as legal, tax, investment or medical advice, is part of this agreement only if the Consultant holds the required licence and the service is listed here: [[none / the licensed services included]]
6. Fees and invoicing
The Client pays the fees shown in the price schedule of this contract, which are charged [[as a fixed fee / by the hour / by the day]]. The Consultant invoices [[monthly in arrears / on completion of each milestone]], and the Client pays on the payment terms stated in this contract. Taxes are added where the law requires.
7. Expenses and changes in scope
Travel, materials and third-party costs are charged at cost against receipts, and only with the Client’s prior approval.
If the Client asks for work outside the services described, the Consultant says what it would add in time and price and starts only after the Client approves it in writing or in electronic form. Extra work is charged at [[Hourly or daily rate]].
8. Deliverables and ownership
The Consultant delivers the reports and materials listed under Consulting services. Once the Client has paid the related fees, it may use them for its own business as it wishes.
The Consultant keeps its methods, templates, tools and know-how, including those it developed before or independently of this agreement, and grants the Client a non-exclusive right to use them as part of the deliverables. Third-party materials are used under their own terms, which the Consultant tells the Client about. The Consultant does not publish or reuse the Client’s data or results.
9. Confidentiality
Each party keeps the other’s non-public business information confidential, uses it only for this agreement and shares it only with people who need it and are bound to confidentiality. This does not apply to information that becomes public without a breach, that the receiving party already knew, or that the law requires it to disclose. The duty continues for [[3]] years after this agreement ends.
10. Conflicts of interest and references
The Consultant tells the Client without delay about any interest or engagement that could conflict with the Client’s interests in this work.
The Consultant may name the Client as a reference or describe the work in its portfolio only with the Client’s consent in writing or in electronic form.
Nothing in this agreement stops either party from doing business with others.
11. Term and termination
This agreement starts on the effective date and runs until the services are complete or until [[End date]], whichever comes first.
Either party may end it with [[14]] days’ notice in writing or in electronic form, or at once if the other seriously breaches it and does not remedy the breach within [[7]] days of being asked to.
The Client pays the fees for work done and the approved expenses up to the end date, and each party returns the other’s materials and information.
12. Liability
Except for intent, gross negligence, personal injury or where the law does not allow a limitation, each party’s total liability to the other under this agreement is limited to [[Amount, or the fees paid or payable under this agreement]].
As far as the law allows, neither party is liable for lost profit or indirect loss.
Responsibility for decisions taken on the basis of the Consultant’s advice stays with the Client, as stated under Nature of the advice.
13. Independent parties and changes
The Consultant is an independent business, not an employee, partner or agent of the Client, and decides how it performs the services. It may use staff or subcontractors who are bound by the same duties and stays responsible for them. This contract is the entire agreement between the parties on the services. Changes are valid only if both parties agree to them in writing or in electronic form.
14. Governing law and disputes
This agreement is governed by the law stated under Governing law. The parties will first try to settle any dispute in good faith. Otherwise the courts stated under Jurisdiction decide, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.
Payment terms
The fees are invoiced [[monthly in arrears / on completion of each milestone]] and are payable within [[14]] days of receiving the invoice, by bank transfer to the account stated on the invoice.
Governing law
[[Country or state whose law applies]]
Jurisdiction
[[Courts that decide disputes, e.g. the courts of your city]]
How to use it
Choose the template
Press the button to use this template. If you are not signed in, you first sign in or sign up for free and then come straight back to it.
Start a draft
The new-contract page opens with this template marked. Press its card to create a draft. Your company details fill in Party A, and you fill in the blanks, the other party and, where the template has one, the price schedule.
Send it for signature
You sign first, then send each signer a secure link and, by another route, an access code. Signers need no account.
Next steps
Your client opens the link on any device and needs no account. See what the signing looks like on the E-Contracts page, and read which kind of electronic signature is enough for which document.
Already signed? Make the invoice from the signed contract: the parties and the price lines carry over, in full or for a deposit. The guide on turning a quotation into an invoice shows how to review the new draft, its dates and the PDF.
What it is, and what it is not
QuoteBill creates a simple electronic signature with an audit trail. In the EU, the UK, the US and Korea a signature is not denied legal effect only because it is electronic, and in Japan most contracts need no particular form at all. What a simple electronic signature proves in a dispute depends on the evidence behind it, and some documents need another form.
It is not a qualified or advanced electronic signature, and QuoteBill does not verify who the signers are. It records the use of the link and access code you delivered, so anyone who has both can sign. The signature certificate lists every link issued and, for each action by the sender or a signer, its IP address and browser where they could be read.
Some documents need another form. Wills, many real-estate transfers, guarantees and some employment documents must, in some countries, be handwritten, notarised or signed with a qualified signature. The templates are samples, not legal advice: review them with a lawyer.
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