Contract Types & Templates

Introduction

This article explains the different contract types. Contracts are written agreements that are legally binding. Agreements refer to contract types.

OfficeR&D has four default types of agreements:

• Membership Agreement
• License Agreement
• Lease Agreement
• Quote

To enable or disable any of those types or create a Custom Contract Type in your OfficeRnD organization, go to Settings > Platform Modules > Contracts.

Although the contract types share most of the basic contract properties, there is a major difference that separates them significantly - whether the contract specifies the details of the resource that will be licensed or sub-leased to the member. However, all those properties are modifiable.

In This Article

• Membership Agreement
• License Agreement
• Lease Agreement 
• Quote 
• Custom Contract Type
• Templates

Membership Agreement

The Membership Agreement is more popular in the Coworking World and is a way to put a framework and structure around the relationship between you and your members. Usually, the membership agreement specifies the following details about the relationship:

• Start of the contract.
• The number of members/seats/memberships.
• Type of memberships.
• Applied discounts.
• General T&Cs, including Termination & Break clauses, and so on.

The Membership Agreement should never specify the exact office or space that is given. We recommend that you specify a language and terms that allow you to move the members around the space without having to sign a new contract. This enables more flexibility around upgrading, changing, and downgrading memberships without breaking the contract terms and conditions. 

License Agreement

On the other hand, the License Agreement is more structured around the exact office that is provided to the customer. Originating from the Serviced Office industry in the United Kingdom, the License Agreement has more strict rules about its structure and data that it holds. The most important bit is that it explicitly states to the office that it is licensing. This means that if the member requires to upgrade and change offices, you will have to terminate the contract and issue a new one for the new office. It is important to note that the licensee is considered a Member of the Space.

Usually, the license agreement specifies the following details:

• Period and length of the contract.
• The name, location, and the number of offices.
• Additional services.
• Applied discounts.
• General T&Cs, including Termination & Break clauses, and so on.

Lease Agreement 

While the first two types of contracts are placing the member on the customer side of the contract, the Lease Agreement, also known as a Tenancy or Rental agreement, is usually signed between a Tenant and a Landlord. Broadly put, a lease agreement is a contract between two parties, the lessor, and the lessee.

It is important to note that the Lease agreement usually has more legal consequences. 

IMPORTANT: Please consult with a lawyer to make sure the type and details of the contract as well as the terms and conditions reflected in the contract meet the law requirements in your country or region.

Quote

Quote is a type of contract designed to work with one-off fees. As such, this type lacks things like "End Date" and "Notice Period", since it's supposed to be for a singular service/payment. For example, event space booking/rent.

Custom Contract Type

To create a custom contract type, navigate to Settings/Platform Modules/Contracts and find Add Contract Type.

When adding a custom contract, you can fill in the following fields:

• Name - Enter the name of the contract type.
• Type - A unique ID for the contract type that the system will use to handle contracts of that type. The field is automatically populated with the name you input in the previous field. The type can be changed manually if needed.
• Description - Enter a short summary of the contract type and what it is used for.
• End Date Required - Choose whether the contract must have an end date, or if it is optional.
• Notice Period - Choose the default Notice Period of that type of contract.
• Primary Items - Select the types of resources or plans that must be added to a contract before it can be signed. At least one item of the Primary items list must be selected when creating a contract, or it cannot be created.
• Secondary Items - Select the types of resources that can be added to a contract of that type. These types of resources or plans are optional for the contract.
  - - End Date Required, Notice Period and Secondary Items are initially hidden. They appear if something more than One-off plans is selected as Primary Item.
• Documents - Contracts of this type will have the selected documents appended to them by default. This can be adjusted for individual contracts when raising contracts of this type when creating or editing them.
• Template - Select the default Contract Template for this contract type. This can be adjusted during contract creation as well.

Templates

OfficeR&D comes with a standard template for every major type of Agreement. Following are some important notes about the templates:

• Customize - you can fully customize the default templates or contact us at support@officernd.com to help you customize them according to your design; (Note it is a paid service or is included in Ultimate support packages)
• Add New Template - you can easily add more templates, in case:
  • You need a template in different languages.
  • You have different templates for the different types of Services you provide.