Many managed services agreements renew themselves. That sounds convenient until you look at what renewed: a per-user price set three years ago, before your tool costs rose; a scope that never mentioned the second site; an SLA schedule the client now quotes back at you; and security responsibilities nobody wrote down. The renewal is the moment to fix all of it, and it only works if the work starts months before the term ends. This free managed services agreement renewal checklist gives account managers, service managers and MSP owners a repeatable renewal process for every client. Starting around 120 days out, it confirms the notice dates, measures what the agreement actually earns, reviews service and scope, sets the price uplift, reviews the terms and routes the renewal pricing for internal approval before any proposal goes to the client. A conditional phase handles clients who have given notice or look likely to leave.
Our Contract Renewal Reminder Checklist is written for the customer side of any contract: track the dates, decide whether to renew, renegotiate or leave, and send notice in time. An MSP is on the other side of that table. Your client may be running exactly that process on you, and the questions they ask will be about value for money, service performance and whether the terms still fit. This checklist prepares your answers before they ask.
It also sits between several routines you may already run. The MSP QBR Checklist has a renewal preparation phase that flags an agreement due in the next six months. This is the full process that phase hands over to. It draws on the validated figures from the SLA Performance Review Checklist and the scores from the Monthly Client Health Check, and it ends by passing the new prices to the MSP Billing Reconciliation Checklist. When a client decides to leave, the MSP Client Offboarding Checklist takes over.
Price: last year’s, while your costs have moved.
Scope: whatever was signed, whatever you now deliver.
Terms: unchanged, including the parts that no longer fit.
Client: never asked, so never told why it is worth renewing.
Price: set from real margin and the uplift the agreement allows.
Scope: matched to the users, devices and services you support.
Terms: SLA, security, liability and exit reviewed.
Client: a proposal and a meeting, with a signed renewal on file.
Seven phases take an agreement from about 120 days before the term ends to a signed renewal and updated systems. Phase 2 appears only when the client has given notice or the account is at risk.
Open it around 120 days before the term ends, or earlier if the notice period is long. The notice deadline, not the end date, drives every other date.
Shown only when the client has given notice or the account is at risk. If the decision is to let the client go, close the renewal here and start offboarding.
Nothing goes to the client until the pricing is approved. The approver sees the margin, the uplift and the scope changes together.
The dates below are common practice for an annual or multi-year agreement with a 90-day notice period, not a rule. If your notice period is longer, move everything earlier. The aim is to have an approved proposal in front of the client before the notice deadline, while both sides still have room to negotiate.
| Days before term end | What happens | Phases |
|---|---|---|
| 120 | Open the renewal, confirm the notice deadline, check account status | 1, 2 if at risk |
| 110 to 100 | Profitability, service and scope review | 3 |
| 100 to 95 | Terms review, vendor costs, uplift and internal approval | 4, 5 |
| 95 to 90 | Proposal sent and renewal meeting held, before the notice deadline | 6 |
| 90 to 30 | Negotiation, re-approval of any changes, signature | 6 |
| 30 to 0 | PSA, billing and documentation updated for the new term | 7 |
Treat this as an illustration of the arithmetic, not a target. A client pays £3,600 a month for 30 users at £120 each. Per-seat licences, security and backup tools that you pass through cost you £1,050 a month. Over twelve months, time entries against the agreement total 300 hours.
The figure is only as honest as the time entries behind it: work logged to the wrong agreement, or not at all, makes a busy client look profitable. Check time logging before relying on the figure.
Each renewal checklist can come from a recurring schedule set well ahead of the notice deadline, with due dates working back from the term end. The account manager sees the profitability review due weeks before the notice date, not the week after it.
The proposal tasks wait until the service manager or MD answers Approved, with the margin workings attached. When a negotiation moves the price, the change goes back for approval and the record shows who agreed what.
Conditional logic adds the retention phase only when a client has given notice or looks likely to leave, so the save plan and the decision are recorded rather than improvised on a phone call.
Renewals are where the lifecycle in the MSP process management guide comes full circle. CheckFlow for MSPs runs onboarding, monthly reviews, QBRs, renewals and offboarding across every client from one place.
The health scores and service figures this checklist relies on come from the Monthly Client Health Check and the SLA Performance Review. Run them through the term and the renewal review takes an hour, not a week.
Around 120 days before the term ends is common practice for an agreement with a 90-day notice period, so that an approved proposal reaches the client before the notice deadline. Work back from that deadline rather than the end date. If the notice period is longer, or the client is large or at risk, start earlier. Clients scored red in the months before should go into the retention phase straight away.
Auto-renewal protects revenue against forgotten dates, which is why many MSPs use it. It does not replace a renewal review. An agreement that renews unchanged keeps last year’s price and scope, and a client who feels trapped by a clause they had forgotten is a poor reference. If your agreements auto-renew, run the checklist anyway and use the renewal to agree changes rather than to surprise anyone.
Whatever the agreement allows and the numbers justify. Start with the uplift clause: an index, a fixed percentage or pass-through of vendor increases. Then look at the effective hourly rate and vendor cost changes during the new term. Explain every increase in the proposal with the reason behind it. A clear explanation of rising licence and security costs is usually accepted far more readily than an unexplained percentage.
Ask what they are comparing you with, then decide on the numbers. A discount on an agreement already below your target hourly rate makes a loss-making client worse. Alternatives that cost less include a longer term at the current price, a phased increase or removing a service the client does not use. Any change that moves the price or margin goes back for internal approval before you agree it.
They can be, for both sides. The client gets price certainty and you get predictable revenue and time to recover onboarding costs. The risk is cost movement during the term, so make sure the agreement allows annual uplifts or pass-through of vendor price changes. Keep an exit route for serious service failure, because clients are far more willing to sign a long term when they know they are not trapped.
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