Manufacturer terms of trade that match how you sell, supply and deliver

They help put the commercial rules in one place before issues arise. For manufacturers, that often means clarifying when an order is accepted, when payment is due, who carries risk in transit, what happens if goods are delayed or rejected, and how warranty or defect claims are handled. If your business works from quotes, purchase orders and invoices alone, important points can stay unclear or inconsistent. Proper terms of trade can help you assess and reduce risk, although they Your lawyer will explain the practical position and your options in plain English. if a dispute later turns on the facts.

The document often covers how orders are placed and accepted, pricing, deposits or credit terms, invoicing, payment timing, delivery responsibilities, when title or risk passes, inspection and rejection processes, warranties, limitations of liability, default rights, and termination. Depending on the manufacturing model, it may also address custom specifications, tooling, intellectual property, confidentiality, storage, or what happens if inputs or supply conditions change. The exact drafting depends on whether you produce standard goods, made-to-order items, or goods incorporating customer materials or designs.

Important details include whether you sell direct or through distributors, whether products are custom-made, how technical specifications are approved, whether you offer credit, and how delivery is arranged. It can also matter whether your customers provide designs, whether you retain ownership in tooling or materials, and whether after-sales support is part of the deal. If personal information is handled through customer accounts, portals or service records, the way your business collects, uses and shares information may also affect the drafting. Those practical details shape the contract more than the label alone.

A template may cover basic sale terms, but manufacturing businesses often need more than a simple supplier precedent. Generic wording can miss issues such as made-to-order production, specification changes, acceptance testing, delays caused by inputs, ownership of designs, or the point at which risk transfers. If the document does not match your actual sales and fulfilment process, it may create uncertainty rather than solve it. A tailored version is usually more useful where your supply chain, product design process or customer approval steps are a meaningful part of the deal.

Timing depends on the complexity of your sales model and the material we need to review. A straightforward set of terms for standard product sales will usually move faster than terms for custom manufacturing, staged delivery, or arrangements involving customer specifications and IP. Once we have your instructions and any existing documents, a lawyer can prepare the draft or review your current terms and raise any points that need decisions from you. The service covers the legal work on the document, but not implementation into ordering software or account systems.

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 Manufacturer Terms Of Trade 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.