Maintenance scope template

How to use this

This template sets out what a yearly website care plan includes and, just as important, what it does not. Recurring work is where a small agency earns steady income, and it is also where unclear promises quietly eat your time. Fill in every [square bracket], delete the options you do not offer, and attach it to the proposal or send it at handoff. The client signs once, and from then on you both point to the same page when a request comes in.

Never promise "unlimited" anything. Every item has a limit, a response time or a price. That is not being stingy. It is what keeps the plan affordable for the client and sustainable for you.

This is not legal advice. A maintenance agreement is a contract. Laws on contracts, liability, consumer rights, automatic renewals and taxes vary by state and country, so have a qualified professional review your terms before you use them.

Website care plan for [Client business name]

Website: [domain.com] Provided by: [Your business name], [Address] Plan start date: [Date] Term: 12 months, renewing each year unless either side gives [30] days' written notice Price: [$amount] a year, billed [annually in advance / monthly]

[Example only: an example offer could be around $2,500 upfront plus $1,000 a year for agreed maintenance. Set your own price from your scope, location and costs.]

What is included

Area	What we do	Limit or frequency
Hosting management	Keep the site running on the hosting account [in your name / we manage]	Ongoing
Hosting costs	[Included up to [$amount] a year / billed to you directly by the host]	[ ]
Software and security updates	Update the site's software, dependencies and plugins	[Monthly]
Backups	Back up the site and test that a backup can be restored	Backups [weekly], restore test [quarterly]
Uptime monitoring	Get alerted if the site goes down and investigate	Checked [every few minutes, automated]
Fixes	Fix anything we built that stops working as it did at launch	Response within [2] business days
HTTPS and domain checks	Make sure the certificate renews and the domain does not lapse	[Monthly]
Small content changes	Text edits, photo swaps, hours, prices, team updates	Up to [number] requests a month, each under [30] minutes
Health report	A short summary of updates, uptime and anything we noticed	[Quarterly]
Advice	Answer questions about the site by email	Reasonable use, replies within [2] business days

Unused content change requests [do not / do] roll over to the next month.

What is not included

These are quoted separately before any work starts:

• New pages, sections or features
• Redesigns or rebranding
• Writing new content from scratch, photography or video
• Search engine optimization campaigns, advertising or social media management
• Work caused by changes you or a third party make to the site, hosting or DNS
• Problems with services we do not control, such as your email provider, booking tool or payment provider
• Restoring a site after a change made outside this plan, beyond [one] restore a year
• Legal content such as privacy policies or terms, which you or your adviser provide
• Urgent work outside business hours, unless agreed in writing
• Domain registration fees, paid plugins, fonts or third party subscriptions, unless listed above

Extra work

• Requests outside this plan are billed at [$rate] an hour, or quoted as a fixed price.
• We will always tell you before doing paid work and wait for your OK.
• Small extras under [15] minutes may be done without charge at our discretion. That is a courtesy, not part of the plan.

How to request help

• Email [support email] with the page address, what you see, and a screenshot if possible.
• Business hours: [days and hours, time zone].
• Normal response: within [2] business days.
• Site down: we aim to start looking within [number] business hours of being alerted.

Response time means when we start looking, not a guarantee of when the problem is fixed.

Your responsibilities

• Keep the domain registration and any accounts in your name paid and active.
• Tell us before you or anyone else changes the site, hosting or DNS.
• Provide content for changes in a usable form (text in an email or document, images as files).
• Keep your own logins safe.

Ownership and ending the plan

• You own your domain and the content you supplied. The domain stays yours whatever happens.
• The website itself (design, build, code and files) is not handed over when the plan ends. If you want to own it and take it with you, you pay a one time buyout fee of [$amount], agreed now. [Example only: around the setup fee.]
• If the plan ends without the buyout, the site comes down at the end of the paid term.
• If you pay the buyout, we hand over the site files and any access we hold within [number] business days. After that, updates, backups and monitoring stop, and the site's long term security becomes your responsibility.

Payment

• Invoiced [annually / monthly] in advance.
• Due within [number] days.
• If payment is more than [number] days late, plan services pause until it is paid. The site itself stays online [as long as the hosting account is paid].
• Prices may change at renewal with [30] days' notice.

Renewal reminder

We will remind you [30] days before the plan renews, with a short summary of the year's work.

Agreement

	Client	[Your business name]
Name	[ ]	[ ]
Signature	[ ]	[ ]
Date	[ ]	[ ]

Your internal checklist for each care client

• Renewal date in the calendar, with a reminder 45 days before
• Monitoring set up and alerts going to you
• Backup schedule running, and a restore tested this quarter
• Content requests logged with time spent, so you know if the plan is still profitable
• Health report sent on schedule
• Price reviewed once a year against the time the site actually takes