Understanding Vendor Contracts
Every time a vendor is hired for an event the agreement should always be in writing. Until a contract is signed and a deposit is received, there is no guarantee that a vendor will hold a date for your event. It’s extremely important to read everything in a vendor contract, review receipts, and be sure to document all communication for making arrangements for your event. While each vendor’s contract may look a little different, here are our five top takeaways of what they usually include.
Vow & Forever
- Flexibility
It’s difficult for anyone to think of weather getting in the way of their event, but to endure that the event is successful it is important that a back-up space is written into your event agreement. If not, make a request that it is included. Some simple contract requests are usually handled with ease, however more serious ones will require consideration.
- Details Forthcoming
What should you do if you’ve made some decisions but haven’t finalized details? We see this fairly often, which is why we find it so important to discuss events with our clients to provide accurate pricing and services. For example, someone may have reviewed Kahn’s Catering’s menus and found that we are in their price range and they want to contract us to cater their event, but they do not have a final menu selected. Many contracts are put in place when an event is booked and includes tings such as minimum or maximum cost for services, but add a sentence that says details will be confirmed in writing by a certain date.
- What Goes Into It
Every contract should have a basic set of information, that in many cases is similar from vendor-to-vendor with information such as dates and times of their services, names of all parties involved on the agreement, payment and deposit schedule, contingency plans and substitutions, and description of services.
- Vendor Needs
Some vendors will have specific needs for the events they attend. For example, if a client hires a band and wants the band to perform from staging or risers, the band may have a required minimum size they will need. Or another example, and one that is more often encountered, are vendors that require meals if they are working over a certain number of hours.
- Refunds
Along with basics, every contract should include a cancellation and refund policy on both ends that discuss what refunds may be received if the vendor’s services are canceled and what penalty may be enforced if canceled. Keep in mind, the closer to the event date the cancellation occurs the less cost will be refunded. Contracts are legally binding documents.
- Receipts
Generally receipts include similar information vendor-to-vendor such as the event date, the services received, the cost, and total due. There are times that you may not see all of this information listed on a receipt and that is usually when a detailed invoice is sent prior to payment.
