Service contract
Also known as: maintenance contract, service agreement
A written agreement defining the scope, cadence, price, and terms of recurring service between a service business and a customer. The contractual basis for maintenance plans.
A service contract is the legal document underlying a recurring service relationship. It typically covers: scope (what work is included), cadence (when visits happen), price (flat monthly, annual, or per-visit), exclusions (what isn't covered), warranty terms, cancellation policy, and any service-level commitments (response time, priority scheduling).
For residential service, contracts are typically lightweight — a one-page agreement signed at plan signup. For commercial service, contracts are more substantial — multi-page documents covering SLAs, change-order procedures, indemnification, insurance requirements, and dispute resolution. The contract matters because it determines what happens when something goes wrong — a poorly-defined scope leads to "that wasn't covered" disputes; a vague cadence leads to missed visits; a missing cancellation clause leads to customer-retention disputes. FSM software typically generates contracts from templates at plan signup and stores the signed version with the customer record. Tracking contract expiration + renewal dates is critical to recurring-revenue retention.
Related terms
Maintenance plan
A recurring service contract bundling preventive visits at a flat monthly or annual price, typically with priority scheduling and a discount versus per-visit pricing.
Recurring service
Work that repeats on a schedule — weekly, monthly, quarterly — for the same customer at the same site.
Service-level agreement
A contractual promise about how fast you'll respond, how often you'll visit, or how quickly you'll resolve issues.