Maintenance Contract
A maintenance contract is a standing agreement to do planned work for a client at a set interval. Examples are an annual service or a monthly check. It is separate from a retainer and from a recurring invoice.
What it means
A maintenance contract names the work and when it happens. For example: this system serviced every spring, this equipment checked every quarter. A retainer is a different promise. It gives a client priority access to your time, with no named piece of planned work.
A maintenance contract is usually billed with a recurring invoice. The agreement says what work happens and when. The recurring invoice only bills for it. A contract booked in the quiet months puts a date on the calendar in an empty week.
A client agrees to a spring and autumn service visit every year for $220 a visit. That agreement is the maintenance contract. The two invoices that go out around each visit are recurring invoices that bill against it.
Calling a maintenance contract a “retainer”. A retainer buys priority access to your time with no fixed work named. A maintenance contract commits you to specific planned work at a set interval.
See also
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