Free Service Agreement Template for Field Service Businesses

A service agreement is a written contract between a service business and a customer that spells out the recurring work to be performed, the visit schedule, the price and billing schedule, the term, and how either side can cancel. At a minimum it must name both parties, describe the included services and the exclusions, and be signed by both sides. The template below covers all of it and is free to copy and adapt.

This guide is the document itself: a complete sample agreement, a plain-text version you can copy, and a walkthrough of why each clause is there. If you are still deciding whether to offer maintenance plans at all, start with our companion guide on building recurring revenue with service agreements — it covers the business case, the offer design, and how to sell them.

What a service agreement must include

Whether it is an HVAC maintenance plan, a lawn care contract, a pool service agreement, or a quarterly pest control plan, every solid service agreement answers the same ten questions:

• 1. Who are the parties, and where is the service address?
• 2. What work is included, and on what visit schedule?
• 3. How long does the agreement run, and does it renew?
• 4. What does it cost, and how often is the customer billed?
• 5. What is explicitly not included?
• 6. How are visits scheduled, and what access is required?
• 7. How can either side cancel, and what happens if they do?
• 8. What happens when a payment is late?
• 9. What is the provider liable for, and what not?
• 10. Where do both sides sign?

The template below answers each one in order. The sample data is fictional — a made-up HVAC company and customer — so you can see what a finished agreement looks like before you adapt the blank version to your own trade.

The service agreement template

Here is the full agreement as it would look filled in. Every name, number, and dollar figure below is sample data.

Copy the plain-text version

Below is the same agreement with placeholders instead of sample data. Click once anywhere inside the box to select the whole thing, copy it, and paste it into your own document. Replace every item in [BRACKETS], pick one of the two renewal options in Section 3 and delete the other, and add your logo and letterhead at the top.

SERVICE AGREEMENT

Agreement No.: [NUMBER]          Date: [DATE]

1. PARTIES
This Service Agreement ("Agreement") is between:
Provider: [YOUR COMPANY NAME], [ADDRESS], [PHONE], [EMAIL]
Customer: [CUSTOMER NAME], [SERVICE ADDRESS], [PHONE], [EMAIL]

2. SERVICES AND VISIT SCHEDULE
Provider will perform the following services at the service address above:
- [SERVICE 1 — e.g., cooling-system tune-up, once per year between March and May]
- [SERVICE 2 — e.g., heating-system tune-up, once per year between September and November]
Each visit includes: [WHAT EACH VISIT INCLUDES — e.g., inspection per Provider's standard checklist, standard filter replacement, written condition report].
Membership benefits: [BENEFITS — e.g., priority scheduling, 15% discount on repair labor, no after-hours dispatch fee].

3. TERM AND RENEWAL
This Agreement begins on [START DATE] and continues for [TERM LENGTH — e.g., twelve (12) months]. [CHOOSE ONE AND DELETE THE OTHER:]
(a) This Agreement renews automatically for successive terms of the same length unless either party gives written notice of non-renewal at least [30] days before the end of the current term. Provider will send Customer a renewal notice, including any price change, at least [45] days before each renewal.
(b) This Agreement ends on [END DATE] and does not renew automatically.

4. PRICING AND BILLING
Total fee per term: $[AMOUNT].
Billing schedule: $[AMOUNT] billed [MONTHLY / QUARTERLY / ANNUALLY] on [BILLING DAY] to the payment method on file.
The fee covers only the services listed in Section 2. Repairs, parts not listed in Section 2, and any other work will be estimated in writing and billed separately at [STANDARD / MEMBER-DISCOUNTED] rates.

5. NOT INCLUDED
This Agreement does not cover: [EXCLUSIONS — e.g., repairs and replacement parts; consumables beyond those listed in Section 2; damage caused by misuse, neglect, weather events, power surges, or work performed by others; equipment Provider determines is unsafe to service].

6. SCHEDULING AND ACCESS
Provider will contact Customer to schedule each visit within the windows in Section 2. Customer agrees to provide safe access to the work area at the scheduled time. If Customer misses a scheduled visit without at least [24] hours notice, the visit may be rescheduled once at no charge; additional missed visits may be subject to a trip fee of $[AMOUNT] or forfeited. Unused visits do not carry over past the end of the term and are not refundable unless required by law.

7. CANCELLATION
Customer may cancel within the first [30] days for a full refund of fees paid, less the standard non-member price of any services already performed. After that, either party may cancel with [30] days written notice. If Customer cancels after receiving services in the current term, Provider may invoice the difference between the fees paid to date and the standard non-member price of the services already performed.

8. LATE PAYMENT
Payments more than [15] days late may incur a late fee of $[AMOUNT] or the maximum permitted by law, whichever is less. If the account is more than [30] days past due, Provider may pause scheduled visits and membership benefits until the account is brought current.

9. WORKMANSHIP AND LIABILITY
Provider will perform all services in a professional and workmanlike manner and maintains general liability insurance of at least $[AMOUNT]. Provider is not responsible for pre-existing conditions, failures that occur between visits, or indirect or consequential damages. Nothing in this Agreement limits any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law. [HAVE A LOCAL ATTORNEY REVIEW THIS SECTION.]

10. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
This document is the entire agreement between the parties and replaces all earlier discussions and proposals. Any change must be in writing and signed by both parties.

SIGNATURES

Provider signature: ______________________  Name: [NAME]  Title: [TITLE]  Date: __________

Customer signature: ______________________  Name: [NAME]  Date: __________

[NOTE: This is a general template for field service businesses, not legal advice. Have a local attorney review it before use, especially Sections 3, 7, 8, and 9.]

Clause-by-clause: why each section exists

Every clause in this template earns its place by preventing a specific, predictable dispute. Here is what each one is doing.

Parties (Section 1)

Use legal names and list the service address separately from any billing address. The person who signs should be the property owner or someone authorized to commit to the contract — a tenant signing for a landlord is a dispute waiting to happen.

Services and visit schedule (Section 2)

This is the scope-creep killer. Listing exactly what each visit includes is what lets you say, politely and in writing, that the extra request is billable work. Seasonal windows (March–May) instead of exact dates give your schedule room to breathe while still committing you to deliver.

Term and renewal (Section 3)

Surprise renewals are how maintenance plans end up in one-star reviews. The renewal notice requirement protects the customer from being charged unexpectedly and protects you from the chargeback that follows. Auto-renewal of consumer contracts is regulated in some states — this is one of the clauses your attorney must look at.

Pricing and billing (Section 4)

State the total for the term and the billing schedule separately, so there is no confusion about whether $19 a month means the plan costs $19. The last sentence — extra work is estimated in writing and billed separately — is the partner clause to the exclusions list below.

Not included (Section 5)

Most agreement disputes are some version of "I thought that was included." The exclusions list settles those arguments before they start. Write it for your trade: refrigerant for HVAC, chemicals for pools, termites for pest control. If customers keep assuming something is covered, add it to this list explicitly.

Scheduling and access (Section 6)

This clause handles the customer who skips visits all year and then demands a refund because "you never came out." You offered the visits within the stated windows; they did not provide access. One free reschedule keeps it fair, and the no-rollover line keeps unused visits from piling up into a liability.

Cancellation (Section 7)

The clawback sentence matters most. Without it, a customer can take the discounted spring tune-up in month two, cancel in month three, and walk away having paid a fraction of what the visit was worth. With it, early cancellation simply re-prices the work already done at your standard rate.

Late payment and liability (Sections 8 and 9)

Pausing benefits is usually a better lever than late fees — members value priority service, and losing it gets invoices paid. The liability section sets the workmanlike standard and makes clear you are not insuring the equipment between visits. Late fee caps and liability limits vary by state, so this pair is the other must-review item for your attorney.

Adjusting the template for your trade

The skeleton stays the same in every trade. What changes is Section 2 (what a visit includes), Section 5 (what is excluded), and sometimes Section 6 (access). Here is what to adjust:

Pricing and billing the agreement

Price the term first: add up the real cost of delivering every included visit, add margin, then price the membership perks as value rather than discounting your way to a number. Our recurring revenue guide covers that math in detail. What belongs here is the part the template makes possible: the billing schedule does not have to match the visit schedule.

Notice that in the sample agreement, the visits are seasonal — two per year — but the billing is monthly. That is deliberate, and it is why Sections 2 and 4 are separate clauses. An HVAC plan billed $228 once a year is a purchase the customer has to think about every renewal. The same plan at $19 a month is a small line on a card statement, and it smooths your revenue across the slow months instead of landing in two lumps.

The same logic works in reverse for high-frequency trades. A lawn care company visiting weekly in season can bill one flat monthly amount year-round, so the customer budget stays level and your winter cash flow does not fall off a cliff. Whatever combination you choose, write both schedules into the agreement explicitly: how often you show up in Section 2, how often you charge in Section 4.

Putting the agreement to work

The signed document is the easy half. Every active agreement now carries promises you have to keep: visits that must land inside their seasonal windows, invoices that must go out on the billing cycle, and renewal notices that must be sent on time. With five agreements you can track that on a whiteboard. With fifty, something will get missed, and a missed included visit is the fastest way to lose a member.

This is where software earns its keep. Pillar service agreements hold both schedules from your contract: the visit cadence generates recurring jobs on the calendar automatically, while the billing cycle invoices the customer on its own schedule — monthly, quarterly, or annually — with auto-renewal tracked per agreement. The two-visits-per-year, billed-monthly structure in the sample above maps onto it directly.

Copy the template, have your attorney tailor it to your state, and start offering it at the end of your best jobs. And if you want to see what running fifty of these looks like without a whiteboard, request a demo and we will walk you through it.