Hosting and Support Services Memorandum

This memorandum sets expectations between a hosting provider and the site owner by defining which services are billable and which are outside the scope of a hosting package or development project. Once signed on the effective date, the parties agree that investigations of customer-reported issues, spikes in traffic, end-user problems, upgrades, patches, security fixes, training, backups, restorations, and forensic work are services provided only on a paid, hourly basis. The provider may assist and deliver work, but it does not maintain customer systems, guarantee system availability, or take responsibility for criminal acts of third parties.

The document clarifies that the customer must manage appropriate use and comply with applicable laws and regulations. The customer should establish procedures to manage authentication, permission settings, delete or add user accounts, and keep systems secure. Backups are the customer's duty; any restoration or recovery is billable and not guaranteed to meet a particular delivery timeline. Because public users can introduce unpredictable factors, troubleshooting those impacts is also billable.

For effective communication, the business should designate a valid technical contact person to provide additional information, address billing inquiries, and coordinate with internal IT department resources or outside vendors. The provider can provide regular updates only if separately contracted; otherwise, customers remain responsible for maintaining and updating their own systems. Rate changes, the process for payment, and how services are managed should be coordinated in advance to resolve issues quickly.

Items such as payment terms, renewal or automatically renewed provisions, early termination or termination rights, transfer ownership of a domain or other intellectual property, lost profits disclaimers, non-payment remedies, and a detailed description of services offered are typically handled in a negotiated Service Level Agreement in accordance with law. This memorandum is intended to set boundaries; the SLA with the other party can define how to notify, accept, and manage changes and how to ensure compliance.

Use cases include a SaaS business launching a portal, a marketing agency managing multiple client sites, or a nonprofit operating a public data app. In each case, a clear memorandum helps determine responsibilities under varying circumstances.

Proposal Kit can help you assemble documents like this and a related SLA, deliver automated line-item quoting, and use its AI Writer to build supporting documents. Its extensive template library and ease of use help you produce clear descriptions, maintenance language, communication sections, and payment terms that remain consistent across projects.

Additionally, businesses benefit from defining governance details that make the relationship work day to day. Set acceptable response times, escalation paths, and change-control steps so both sides can act when incidents occur. Spell out what constitutes a failure versus a degraded condition, how you will measure it, and what happens if systems fail outside business hours.

Clarify who is liable for specific risks, including data protection, restoration efforts, and third-party impacts, in the companion SLA. If customers fail to maintain backups or fail to provide timely access and information, recovery work will take longer and cost more. Use negotiation to align on thresholds, maintenance windows, and the handoff between the provider and your IT team so the process stays predictable.

For finance and operations, tie billing inquiries to clear contacts and procedures. Document when billable work starts, how approvals are captured, and what constitutes an acceptable work request. Address what occurs upon failure to pay, such as a pause in non-essential services, per the SLA. This helps prevent confusion and supports a professional communication cadence with vendors and the other party.

Proposal Kit can help teams prepare drafts for negotiation more by organizing scope language, acceptable use provisions, and failure definitions, while its document assembly, automated line-item quoting, AI Writer, and template library make it faster to produce consistent contracts and supporting materials without reinventing the structure for each engagement.

Consider building an operational playbook around this memorandum so your team can act quickly when work becomes billable. Define intake triage (incident vs service request vs change), pre-approval thresholds, and budget caps for hourly work. Create a simple RACI so the site owner, technical contact, and billing contact know who must notify whom, who can accept deliverables, and who can authorize spend. Maintain registrar, DNS, and domain access under customer control; do not assume the provider will manage changes or transfer ownership unless separately contracted.

Because increased traffic is your risk, plan capacity in advance. Map peak periods, load-test before campaigns, and document fallback steps. Schedule periodic restore drills to validate that backups are usable; record timings and gaps so leaders can determine whether additional information or tooling is needed. Keep an asset inventory and configuration baseline so you can quickly address authentication, permission, and acceptable use issues without waiting on the provider.

For vendors and the other party supporting your stack, align escalation paths and communication cadences so handoffs remain smooth across departments. Capture approvals in writing before work starts, track delivery windows, and request timesheets to keep payment predictable. Establish an annual review to revisit rate changes and scope; use structured negotiation to refresh procedures after major platform updates or business changes.

Proposal Kit can streamline this governance work by helping you assemble companion documents such as change requests, incident reports, maintenance plans, and acceptance criteria, then quote line items in advance. Its AI Writer and template library make it easier to produce consistent, professional materials that support clear roles, effective processes, and faster execution.

How to write my Hosting and Support Services Memorandum document - The Narrative

How to Build a Legal Contract with Proposal Kit

This video illustrates how to create a legal contract using the Proposal Pack Wizard software. It also shows how to create a proposal with an invoice and contract at the same time.