Agency Agreement Checklist Before the First Shipment

Every point below is straightforward to agree while nobody has money at stake and painful to agree afterwards. That asymmetry is the entire argument for doing it before the first shipment rather than after the first problem.

This is a practical checklist, not legal advice. Agency terms differ by jurisdiction and by network, and a real agreement should be reviewed by someone qualified in the relevant country.

Money

1. Payment terms in days, written down

Thirty days from what? Invoice date, arrival, release of documents. The ambiguity here causes more disputes between agents than the number of days ever does.

2. Credit limit in both directions

Not just what you extend. What they extend to you. Both numbers should be stated, because both will be tested.

3. Currency and who carries the exchange risk

If you invoice in one currency and they pay in another, decide now which rate applies and on which date. This is the quiet margin leak in international agent business.

4. Profit split and how it is calculated

Percentage of what, exactly. Gross, net of which costs, before or after which charges. Write the formula, not the percentage alone.

5. Who invoices whom

Prepaid and collect need to be explicit per lane, along with which charges each side may add locally.

Risk

6. Claims: process, ceiling and time limit

How a claim is notified, what evidence is required and by when. If you are both in a network with a protection scheme, check whether the network's claim window is shorter than the payment terms you just agreed. Frequently it is, and that gap is where members lose money.

7. Insurance and liability basis

Which standard trading conditions apply, and whose. Two sets of trading conditions pointing at each other is not an agreement.

8. Release condition

Under what circumstances cargo is released without payment, and who authorises an exception. This single line prevents the most expensive category of agent dispute.

Behaviour

9. Customer protection and its duration

If you pass a customer to an agent, how long may they not approach that customer directly. State a period and a start date.

10. Response time expectations

An agent who answers rate requests in three days will cost you enquiries. Agree a working expectation, even informally.

11. Termination and what happens to shipments in transit

Unglamorous and necessary. Shipments in transit at the moment a relationship ends need a rule agreed while everyone is still friendly.

When to send it

Around ten days after meeting, once the conversation has shown it has legs but before anyone has booked. Early enough that it reads as professional, late enough that it does not read as paperwork for its own sake. That timing sits inside the wider sequence in our piece on what to do with forty business cards after a conference.

Keeping track of what you agreed

The checklist is worth little if the answers live in a signed PDF nobody reopens. Payment terms, credit limits and protection periods should sit on the partner record where the person quoting can see them. How that is held is covered on the features page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an agency agreement if we are in the same network?

Network membership sets a framework. It does not fix your bilateral payment terms, credit limits or profit split, and those are what disputes are about.

When should the agreement be signed?

Before the first shipment. After a problem, every clause becomes a negotiation about who is at fault.

What is the most commonly missed point?

The release condition, followed by the exact meaning of the payment term start date.

Should customer protection have an end date?

Yes. An open ended protection clause is unenforceable in practice and creates resentment. State a period.

To see partner terms held where your team can actually use them, book a demo.