Why are there so many different contracts for your alarm - security
business? Can't there just be one contract that covers everything you do?
Unfortunately the answer is no. There are many different services you
provide and each requires specific contract requirements. Initially you
must recognize that your relationship with your subscriber is created and
defined by your contract. Failing to reduce that understanding and
agreement to writing is the worst business decision you can make.

If you sell and install, you need a sales contract that covers the
installation. If you provide monitoring, then you need a monitoring
contract [and you need your own monitoring contract even if - especially if
- you subcontract out the monitoring to one of the wholesale monitoring
companies]. If you provide service, apart from warranty work which is
covered by the sales contract, you need a service contract.
If you have residential subscribers their contracts must be different than
the commercial subscribers.
While all alarm - security contracts do have common provisions which
provide protection against liability, each contract is unique because it
deals with the particular relationship; i.e. the service you are providing.
For example, you can't use a sales contract and turn it into a lease, and
you would have a difficult time turning a monitoring contract into a
service contract.
It's important to remember that consumer contracts must comply with many
laws, and that even the commercial contracts have to have printed font that
is readable. Using small type to fit it all in one contract runs the real
risk of having the contract tossed in court when you need it most.

So the alternative is to have a multi page contract covering all types of
services that you may not be offering to that particular subscriber [and
you would have to learn how to use that multi part contract], or several
contracts that deal with essentially one type of service at a time and
confines its fill in the blanks on the face of the contract.
The standard form contracts I offer at www.alarmcontracts.com are generic
in the sense that most are for "security equipment". The sales, service and
monitoring contracts can be used for any type of security installation,
including alarm, access control, fire, etc.
Of course more specific contracts are also available, such as the Fire
Inspection contract.

This article focused on the contracts you need with your subscribers. There
are many other contracts you need in your business, such as employment,
subcontractor agreement, stockholder/partnership, central station, etc. You
enter into contracts all the time perhaps without realizing most of them
[telephone, cell phone, lease to premises, business equipment, cars, etc].
You shouldn't be surprised that your business needs require you to have and
use many different contracts.
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Here is follow up comment from Florida alarm dealer -

Ken,
We also keep separate contracts for both internal and outside insurance
audits, as an alarm installation and monitoring are classified at a higher
rate of cost of insurance. Keeping access, CCTV and other "non-alarm"
classified in total sales categories by contract allows you to easily
classify and pay only the amount you should. Auditors look at the bankers
boxes you have all lined up on the table when they walk in and look at the
Excel print out by contract number and date, pull out a few contracts at
random to compare the Excel sheet entry and then take your word for the
rest of it and leave in about 11.26 minutes.
Sales tax laws also vary from State to State, where an alarm is a real
estate improvement in my State, and we pay tax only on our cost of parts,
yet the telephone system phones that plug into a jack are taxable at retail
as an appliance.

Again, as another point to Ken's point, contracts of different types are
also used to keep the book keeper straight on classifications that keep you
briskly out of trouble and paying the lowest legal amounts of taxes and
insurance.
JR