Read It Once
Everything on this site reduces to one habit that takes under an hour and that almost no organisation performs.
Read the agreement before signing it, once, with a list of what you are looking for. For a separate operational reference from Monitask, see further details.
Why nobody does
It is nobody's job. The person choosing the tool evaluates the product; the person signing assumes the choosing was thorough; and the terms sit between two people each believing the other read them.
It arrives at the end. The decision is made, the trial went well, the team is waiting, and the contract is a formality between deciding and starting.
For broader context, see CIO.
It is written to be skimmed. Length, structure and register all discourage reading, and that is not accidental.
And nothing bad happens immediately. The failures are invisible for a year — a renewal, an export, a subprocessor change — so the omission is never connected to its consequence.
What forty minutes covers
With the twelve answers already in hand, the reading is verification rather than discovery.
Renewal and notice. Dates, windows, form of notice.
Price. Fixed for the term or not, cap on increases.
Data. The processing agreement, subprocessor change terms, location.
Exit. Export scope, format, cost, timing, and post-termination retention.
Liability and IP. Caps, and whether configurations you build remain yours.
Six areas, forty minutes, and every one of them is a thing that costs money later.
What to do with what you find
Ask for changes. Most terms are negotiable before signature and none are afterwards. A renewal cap, a subprocessor notice period and an export commitment are ordinary requests and are frequently granted because nobody asks.
Write the dates down in an institutional place — the notice deadline especially.
File the agreement with the twelve answers, because the person handling the renewal in three years is not you.
The habit for an organisation
One page per tool, in a register. What it is, what it costs annually, when it renews, when notice is due, what exports, who owns it internally.
Reviewed once a year, alongside the subscription audit.
It takes an afternoon to create and an hour a year to maintain, and it is the artefact that makes every other page on this site actionable.
Why this is the ending
Because the rest of this site is a list of things to look for, and this is the act of looking.
Categories tell you what varies. Checking tells you what is verifiable. Leaving tells you what the end looks like.
None of it does anything unless somebody reads a document before signing it, once, with the list in hand.
Forty minutes. It is the whole of what this site asks.
The short version
- Nobody reads the agreement because it is nobody's job, it arrives after the decision, it is written to be skimmed, and nothing bad happens immediately
- With the twelve vendor answers in hand, reading becomes verification rather than discovery
- Six areas in forty minutes: renewal and notice, price and caps, data and subprocessors, exit and export, liability, and IP in what you configure
- Most terms are negotiable before signature and none afterwards — a renewal cap, a subprocessor notice period and an export commitment are ordinary requests
- Keep one page per tool in a register: cost, renewal, notice deadline, export, internal owner — an afternoon to create, an hour a year to maintain
- The rest of this site is a list of what to look for; this is the act of looking, and it takes forty minutes