Contracts and Service Agreements for Virtual Assistants

Working without a written agreement is the most common early mistake in the VA profession — and one nobody repeats after their first scope dispute or unpaid invoice. A service agreement does not need to be long or intimidating. It needs to exist, in writing, agreed before work starts.

Why bother for small engagements

An agreement is not about distrust; it is about shared memory. Six weeks into an engagement, neither party accurately remembers what was said on a call. The document is the reference that prevents drift from becoming conflict. It also signals professionalism: clients take a VA with clear terms more seriously, and difficult clients tend to filter themselves out at the signing stage.

The clauses that do the work

Scope of services. What you will do, described concretely, and — just as importantly — how work outside that description is handled: quoted separately, or billed at your hourly rate with approval. Scope creep is the single most common VA-client friction, and this clause is the pressure valve.

Fees and payment terms. Your rate or retainer amount, invoicing frequency, payment deadline, and what happens when payment is late — work pauses, late fees, or both. Include whether prices are GST-inclusive if you are registered.

Confidentiality. You will see inside clients' inboxes, finances and customer lists. A confidentiality clause obliges both sides to protect sensitive information and is often the clause prospective clients most want to see.

Intellectual property. Who owns the work product once it is paid for — usually the client — and what happens to it if invoices go unpaid.

Termination. How either party ends the engagement: notice period, payment for work done, and the return or deletion of client data and access credentials.

Liability. A limitation of liability appropriate to a services business, paired in practice with professional indemnity insurance.

Retainer-specific terms

If you work on retainer, add the mechanics: how many hours the retainer covers, whether unused hours roll over and for how long, how additional hours are billed, and when the retainer amount is reviewed. Ambiguity in exactly these mechanics is what turns retainers sour.

Getting a solid agreement

Options range from association-provided templates and reputable Australian legal template services through to a solicitor-drafted agreement, which is a modest one-off cost amortised over every client you ever sign. Whatever the source, read every clause and make sure you can explain it; you will be the one discussing it with clients. For consumer-law obligations that sit alongside any contract — like the Australian Consumer Law guarantees that apply to services — the ACCC website is the authoritative reference.

Send the agreement with your proposal, get it signed before access is granted to any system, and file it where you can find it. Then, in the best case, never look at it again.

Handling changes mid-engagement

Real engagements evolve, and the agreement should have a simple variation habit to match: when scope, hours or rates change, confirm the change in writing — a short email both parties acknowledge is enough — and file it with the original agreement. This keeps the paperwork honest without re-signing documents every month. The same email discipline applies to anything material a client asks for verbally: a two-line confirmation sent after a call ("as discussed, from March I'll also manage the info@ inbox, billed within the existing retainer") costs thirty seconds and quietly builds the paper trail that makes disputes almost impossible to have.