The MSP contract renewal checklist every CFO should run

The nine checks

• 1. Market benchmark: when did anyone last compare your per-seat rate against comparable arrangements? If the answer is 'at signing', you are paying signing-era prices plus escalators.
• 2. Licence reconciliation: count licences billed versus staff employed. The gap is pure waste, and it grows with every departure your provider was not told about.
• 3. Margin transparency: which products are resold to you, at what markup? Retail margins on wholesale products are the quietest line item in the invoice.
• 4. Service levels, measured independently: whose numbers prove the SLA is met? Self-reported performance is marketing, not measurement.
• 5. Security verification: what independent evidence exists behind the security claims? ACSC and AICD guidance expects independent testing, not provider assurances.
• 6. Scope drift: what are you paying for that you no longer use, and what are you using that was never scoped and gets billed as extras?
• 7. Escalator audit: what compounding annual increases are baked in, and what justifies them beyond the contract saying so?
• 8. Exit terms: what would leaving actually cost and take? An unpriceable exit is not a relationship, it is a dependency.
• 9. Fit-for-size: has your headcount, footprint or risk profile outgrown what this provider can deliver? They will not raise it. Someone must.

The 90-day renewal timeline

• Day 90 (before renewal): pull the contract, confirm the notice period and auto-renewal clause. Diarise the notice deadline; missing it costs you the whole exercise
• Days 90-75: run the nine checks above; assemble invoices, licence reports and the original scope schedule
• Days 75-60: benchmark. Get market data on your three biggest cost lines, independently if the numbers are material
• Days 60-45: decide posture: renew as-is, renegotiate with the benchmark pack, or test the market. Brief the board if the spend warrants it
• Days 45-30: open the conversation with your provider, in writing, before the notice window closes. Leverage evaporates the day it does
• Days 30-0: land terms or serve notice. Never let 'we ran out of time' be the reason you signed another compounding escalator

What to do with the answers

Two or more uncomfortable answers means the renewal should not proceed unbenchmarked. Take the contract to market data before you sign, not after, because your leverage expires with the renewal date.

That is precisely what our MSP audit does: every material charge benchmarked, service levels tested, and specific renegotiation points delivered before your renewal, from a firm that earns nothing from any provider.