WordPress care plan proposal template for agencies

This template is for an agency or a freelancer who builds WordPress sites and wants to offer a client a monthly care plan. Copy it, replace each stand-in in square brackets with your own terms, and delete every line that describes work you do not intend to do.

Before you use it

Each stand-in is a decision. Make these first:

• The schedule. How often you apply updates and take backups, how long a backup is kept and where. Write the schedule you run today, not the one you plan to run.
• The allowance. How many minutes of small changes a month, and whether unused time carries over.
• The price and the billing day. One price per site, charged before the month or after it.
• The hours. When someone reads requests and how long a reply takes, counting holidays and the weeks you are away.
• The notice period. How much warning either side gives, and what you hand over.
• Who does the work. You, your team, or a company working under your name. Whoever does it, the proposal is yours and so is every promise in it.

For agencies with three or more client sites, WP Ministry does the updates, backups, monitoring and security scanning behind a care plan under the agency's own brand, and the contact page is where to ask about it.

The template

CARE PLAN PROPOSAL

Prepared for: [CLIENT NAME]
Website:      [SITE ADDRESS]
Prepared by:  [AGENCY NAME]
Date:         [DATE]

1. WHAT THIS PLAN IS FOR

[SITE ADDRESS] runs on WordPress. WordPress, its plugins and its
theme release new versions through the year, and a site needs
someone to apply them, keep copies and watch that it stays up.

Under this plan [AGENCY NAME] is responsible for that routine
work. The site is kept working, and you know who to ask when
something needs attention.

2. WHAT WE DO EACH MONTH

- Updates. We apply the updates available for WordPress, the
  plugins and the theme [UPDATE FREQUENCY], and look at the site
  after each round. If an update breaks something, we undo it.
- Backups. We take a backup of the database and the files
  [BACKUP FREQUENCY], keep each one for [BACKUP RETENTION] and
  store it at [BACKUP LOCATION], away from the site's server.
- Monitoring. A monitoring service requests the site every
  [CHECK INTERVAL] and alerts us when it does not answer.
- Security checks. [SECURITY CHECK FREQUENCY] we
  [SECURITY CHECKS], and we tell you what we find.
- Small changes. Up to [ALLOWANCE MINUTES] minutes a month of
  changes you ask for, such as [EXAMPLES OF SMALL CHANGES].
  Time not used in a month [ROLLS OVER OR DOES NOT ROLL OVER].
- A report. By [REPORT DAY] of each month we send you a report
  of what was done in the month before.

3. WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED

- Hosting, the domain name and email accounts.
- New pages, new features, redesigns and writing content.
- Work beyond the monthly allowance.
- [ANYTHING ELSE NOT INCLUDED]

We quote extra work in writing before we start, at [HOURLY RATE]
an hour or as a fixed price. Nothing extra is billed until you
have approved it.

No plan can rule out an attack or an outage. If the site is
hacked or goes down: [WHAT WE DO, AND WHETHER IT IS PART OF THE
PLAN OR QUOTED].

4. PRICE AND BILLING

[MONTHLY PRICE] a month for one website, billed [IN ADVANCE OR
AFTER THE MONTH] on the [BILLING DAY] of each month by
[PAYMENT METHOD]. We give [PRICE CHANGE NOTICE] written notice
before the price changes.

5. HOW TO ASK FOR SOMETHING

Send requests to [SUPPORT ADDRESS]. We read requests during
[HOURS OF COVER] and reply within [REPLY TIME]. If the site is
down, [HOW TO REPORT AN OUTAGE].

6. HOW EITHER OF US ENDS IT

The plan starts on [START DATE] and runs month to month. Either
of us can end it with [NOTICE PERIOD] written notice. Within
[HANDOVER PERIOD] of the end we hand over [WHAT IS HANDED OVER].

7. WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

- An administrator account on the site for [AGENCY NAME].
- Access to the hosting account, or the name of the person who
  holds it.
- One person who can make decisions about the site:
  [CLIENT CONTACT].
- The licenses for any paid plugins and themes, kept current.

To accept, reply to this proposal in writing.

[AGENCY CONTACT NAME]
[AGENCY NAME]

How to fill it in

What this plan is for. Keep it in the client's terms. They are buying two things: a site that is kept working, and one named party who is responsible for it.

What we do each month. Each line is something you do on a schedule and could show a record of. The Updates screen in WordPress lists what is waiting for WordPress itself, the plugins and the themes, so name all three. The method is in how to safely update WordPress. For backups, say both parts: WordPress's documentation is plain that a full restore needs the database and the files. Fill in the security line with the checks you carry out. The WordPress maintenance checklist lists what a monthly round holds, and the monthly maintenance report template is the report the last line promises.

Small changes. Give the allowance in minutes, with examples: a changed phone number, a swapped image, a new name on the team page. Examples settle what "small" means before anyone argues about it.

What is not included. Be specific. A client who assumes hosting or a new landing page is covered will find out either here or on an invoice. Keep the sentence about attacks and outages: it is true, and it reads better now than on the day it matters. Then say what you do on that day.

Price and billing. One price, one site, one billing day. For several sites, list each with its price.

How to ask for something. Give one address. For [HOURS OF COVER], write the hours someone is reading that address, with the days and the time zone. For [REPLY TIME], write a time you would meet in a week when two people are out. A reply is not a fix, and the sentence should not suggest it is.

How either of us ends it. State the notice period and what you hand over: the newest backup, the logins you hold, anything registered in your name on the client's behalf.

What we need from you. Ask for access and a contact before the first month starts. Without them you can neither do the work nor get a decision.

What to leave out

• A guarantee that the site will never be hacked or never go down. Nobody controls that. Promise the work, and say what you do when something goes wrong.
• Response times you cannot keep. Every figure is measured against your slowest week, not your average one.
• Promises of cover at all hours. Unless a person is reading requests at all hours, write the hours they are.
• Work with no limit. An allowance without a number becomes whatever the most demanding request says it is.
• Outcomes. Search rankings, speed scores and sales depend on things outside a care plan.
• Terms borrowed from someone else's contract. Those depend on where you and your client are, and are a lawyer's work.