Master Services Agreement (MSA) Template

What is the Master Services Agreement (MSA) Template?

The Master Services Agreement (MSA) template helps craft a basic master service agreement. Master Service Agreements (MSAs) are contracts designed to lay out the basic terms that two businesses agree to abide by when working together. They don’t guarantee that the organizations will do business, but they set the ground rules for how their business relationship will work if they decide to contract with one another.

How do I use it?

The Master Services Agreement (MSA) Template provides an outline of the basic tenets of working together. It has content around the scope of services, compensation, data security and privacy requirements, liabilities, dispute resolution, intellectual property safeguards, and termination processes. You can make changes to customize this template to be suitable for your business environment as well as the engagement you are looking to pursue.

Value to the organization:

Having an MSA in place makes it simpler and easier for organizations to negotiate the details of future transactions, as the basic terms have already been agreed to. Additionally, using MSAs provides indemnification and allocates risk. Indemnification is a term that describes a method in which one organization, or a party, safeguards the other party against some of its existing or future losses. The party that agrees to reimburse any damages it or any other party has caused or may end up causing is called the indemnifying party. They provide the lawyers and take care of the legal fees associated with the act of litigation. Risk allocation refers to the practice of implementing comprehensive strategies in order to allocate risk.

What control does it satisfy?

Completing this template helps satisfy the following controls:

CUST-17

Master Services Agreement

The organization’s Master Services Agreement with its customers communicates the responsibilities of both parties relative to internal controls impacting security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality.

Please download the template from here:

• Master Services Agreement (MSA) Template (pdf)
  
• Master Services Agreement (MSA) Template (docx)

Please find related Controls here: CUST-17 Master Services Agreement (MSA)