Guides · 6 chapters

The Commercial Contracts Guide

Last reviewed 14 August 2026

This guide is about the contracts an Australian business actually deals with: supply terms, services agreements, master agreements, subcontracts and the schedules bolted onto them. It works through what each part of a contract is doing, where the risk is concentrated, and how to negotiate the handful of clauses that decide what happens when something goes wrong.

Chapters

1. 01The anatomy of a commercial agreementWhat each part of a contract is doing — parties, recitals, operative clauses, schedules, boilerplate — and how they interact.
2. 02Scope, price and paymentDefining what is actually being supplied, pricing changes properly, and payment terms that protect cash flow.
3. 03Risk: warranties, indemnities and liabilityHow risk is allocated in Australian contracts — warranties, indemnities, liability caps, exclusions and insurance alignment.
4. 04MSAs, SOWs and framework agreementsHow master agreements and statements of work fit together, and how to avoid the inconsistencies that undo them.
5. 05Negotiating without a legal teamHow to prioritise, what to concede, how to handle a counterparty's standard form, and when to escalate.
6. 06Signing, varying and ending a contractExecution formalities, electronic signing, variations that stick, and terminating without creating a new dispute.

Related reading

• Business contracts — service page
• Indemnity vs limitation of liability
• What is a Statement of Work?