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What is a Master Service Agreement (MSA)?

Here at BetterLegal, our aim is to help you deal with all the legal intricacies of starting a business without needing to spend massive amounts of money on legal fees. A Master Service Agreement is only one of the many services we want to help you understand what it is.

What is an MSA?

A Master Service Agreement, or an MSA contract, is a templated agreement between a service provider and a customer. These MSAs can vary a little depending on the customer type, services provided, industry type, and a few other factors. However, one of the major benefits is that, because they are a type of template, the format of the MSA is easily understood across any industry and state.
Legally, an MSA agreement is a contract between two or more parties that signifies the terms and conditions that will govern all current and future courses of activities and responsibilities. By employing an MSA, businesses can ensure the speed of authorization of future agreements. MSAs create a quality framework for contracts that acts as a foundation for all future business activity.
A master service agreement is meant to simplify and speed up legal processes to be able to jump into the important work to be done while stilling being legally covered. It also makes future contract agreements simpler, by maintaining a standard structure. Most MSAs include the following basic terms:
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Businesses use MSAs to make contract negotiations simpler, since this templated format is easily understood and commonly used. The agreement allows each company to focus solely on the terms of the agreement, instead of painfully going through the structure while reinventing the wheel.

Benefits of an MSA

Using an MSA will save your business time and money!
Completing a contract between two businesses can be a long and expensive process. A business can end up paying out massive amounts of money on legal fees, as many lawyers charge high hourly rates. Getting a deal done faster is best for both parties! Using the MSA format, two parties can quickly agree to the main terms. A motivated company can write an MSA in only a few days, whereas many agreements can take weeks or even months of going back and forth with standard contracts!
The beauty here is that an MSA still protects both parties, even though it simplifies and speeds up getting that protection in place. When a disputes arise, the MSA quickly points out whose fault any issues are. There’s not a lot of time or money involved in going through the legal ramifications, since MSAs are kept so simple and understandable.
As we’ve mentioned, an MSA is like a template or blueprint. The added benefit here is that once a company drafts one MSA, it’s extremely easy to copy that first one, tweak a few key details, and reuse that MSA hundreds of times!

What You Should Include in an MSA

For a successful MSA, it’s all in the details. Think of your MSA as the bedrock of your ongoing, long-term business relationships. By covering all contingencies and planning for unforeseen issues, your MSA ensures your business contract’s strength and health. As such, your MSA should include the following information:
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The further in detail your MSA goes, the clearer the agreement can spell out where liability is between both parties. That is, as long as you don’t go overboard with an overly complicated contract. Some of the specific, common points of concern that MSAs cover across industries are:
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BetterLegal can help!

While writing an MSA on your own for the first time can be done using free resources, BetterLegal can save you time at every step. We have the perfect MSA template available to you in a live document editor, as straightforward and powerful business formation and state compliance services! You’ll never go back to doing any of these things yourself.
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