Does the Applicant use written contracts or agreements with its customers for the provision of services or products?
Without a written contract, every protective term you would have relied on simply does not exist.
What the carrier is actually asking
The carrier is asking whether services and products are supplied under written agreements. It sets up the questions that follow about liability caps, warranties, and acceptance, all of which require a contract to live in.
Why it is underwritten
Liability limitation, consequential damages exclusion, warranty scope, and acceptance criteria only bind if they were agreed in writing. Where work proceeds on a purchase order or an email, the terms default to whatever the law and the client's expectations supply, which is invariably worse for you.
Where the answer lives in Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Azure
This is a contract estate question, and coverage across the estate is what matters rather than the quality of the template.
| Platform | Where the setting lives | What has to be true |
|---|---|---|
| Contract estate | Proportion of revenue under signed written agreements | Coverage across clients, including small and legacy ones. Attested |
| Templates | Standard terms and what they contain | Liability cap, damages exclusion, warranty scope, and acceptance provisions |
| Process | Whether work can begin without a signed agreement | A control preventing unsigned engagements, since urgency is how they happen |
| Whose paper | Which side's terms usually govern | Client paper frequently strips your protections, so knowing the split matters |
| Renewals | Long-running relationships operating on expired terms | Current agreements rather than ones that lapsed years ago |
The riskiest engagements are often the oldest ones: a client from years ago whose original agreement expired, where work continues on purchase orders. The relationship is excellent and the contractual position is nothing.
What a defensible yes requires
- Substantially all revenue is under signed written agreements.
- Standard terms carry liability limitation and damages exclusion.
- Work cannot begin without a signed agreement or a documented exception.
- The split between your paper and client paper is known.
- Long-running relationships are on current agreements.
How this answer goes wrong
The answer is yes based on the standard process, while a review finds several long-standing clients operating on expired agreements or none at all. Those relationships carry the terms of no agreement, which is the worst position available.
Frequently asked
What if clients insist on their paper?
Common with larger clients. Negotiate the key protections, and know which ones you conceded so the residual exposure is deliberate.
Do purchase orders count?
Only if they incorporate terms by reference. A bare purchase order supplies price and quantity and no protection.
What are the essential terms?
Liability cap, consequential damages exclusion, warranty scope, acceptance criteria, and clear scope. The following questions ask about each.
Does clickwrap work?
For standard products generally yes, when properly implemented with evidence of acceptance. For bespoke services a signed agreement is stronger.
Related questions
Stop answering this from memory
Connect Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Azure read-only. Insurance Posture reads the live configuration behind each application answer and shows you which ones you can prove before you sign.
Assess your posture