Get a data processing schedule that matches your real data flows

It is commonly used by software businesses, agencies, consultants, service providers and other organisations that handle personal information for clients or alongside third-party providers. In practice, the need often arises when a customer asks for a privacy addendum, a supplier contract needs extra data handling terms, or your existing agreement is too light on who does what with personal information. It can also be useful if your business has grown and your current wording no longer reflects the way information is actually collected, used, stored or shared.

A data processing schedule usually allocates responsibilities for handling personal information between the parties. That can include the purpose of processing, security expectations, subcontracting, cross-border handling, assistance with privacy-related requests, deletion or return of information, and what each side must do if something goes wrong. The document needs to line up with your actual privacy practices, including how information moves through the business, so the schedule needs to line up with your real workflows. If the document says one thing but your systems and processes do another, the risk does not disappear.

Generic templates can leave gaps where the commercial model, customer journey or risk profile is more specific than the precedent assumes. However, it usually cannot tell you whether the roles, obligations and assumptions in the document match your actual business model. For example, a standard form may assume you only process information on instructions, when in reality you also decide parts of the handling yourself or rely on several service providers. The legal drafting should follow your actual information-handling process, rather than relying on generic privacy wording. If those facts are off, the wording can create confusion rather than clarity.

No single document can do that on its own. A data processing schedule can be an important part of your privacy framework, especially where contracts need to allocate responsibilities clearly, but compliance also depends on what your business does in practice. It can reduce avoidable risk by making the key legal issues clearer, but the outcome still depends on how the documents and processes are used in practice. If your internal processes, vendor arrangements or security settings do not match the document, those operational issues may still need separate attention.

Once the schedule is finalised, it is usually attached to or incorporated into the relevant customer, supplier or services agreement. You may also need to make sure your internal team understands any commitments the document creates, such as response obligations, subcontractor controls or deletion steps at the end of a relationship. If your data flows, service providers or commercial model change later, the schedule may need updating as well. Ongoing monitoring of privacy practices or technical rollout is not included in this fixed-fee service.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Data Processing Schedule service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.