The page Citation wrote about its own contracts

Most companies bury the contract. Citation wrote a page about it.

It sits on citation.co.uk under the title Contracts and Onboarding FAQs. It opens with an admission most sales directors would have struck out. Contracts and renewals are "the areas clients ask us about most, particularly around notice periods, auto renewal, early exit and what happens in the first few weeks." What follows is the clearest account I have seen of how a national compliance provider thinks about the small businesses it sells to. It is worth reading slowly because every sentence was chosen by Citation.

Start with the length.

What Citation says

Citation contracts are typically three years or longer, auto renew by default for service continuity, and allow you to give notice up to six months before your term ends.

Three years is the floor. Over on the pricing page, the illustrated figures are described as "based on our Workplace Expert package over a seven year term. Three to five year terms are available." Seven years is longer than most small businesses have existed.

Asked why in its own question and answer format Citation is candid. The early work of site visits and documents and training is "an extremely resource heavy process." In many cases it says "we will not have recovered these costs if a contract ends much earlier than planned." A long contract lets the client spread that cost. It also lets Citation "plan our own staffing and support for you over the full period of your contract." If you would prefer something shorter then "in many cases that is possible, but the monthly price is usually higher because the costs are spread over a shorter time."

Read that again from the other side of the table. The term exists because the term suits Citation. That is not a scandal. It is a business model, stated plainly by the business. But it is the answer to a question every small business owner should ask before they sign anything: who is this contract for?

Then there is the renewal. The page describes it as something clients choose.

What Citation says

Many clients choose auto renewal because they want continuous protection and support without needing to go back through internal sign off and budget approval every time the contract ends.

There is a benefit attached: you can "lock in a renewal at the same price as your original contract," excluding RPI increases and provided your headcount stays within what the page calls a generous growth allowance. And then the line that matters: "Most of our clients choose to keep auto renewal in place because of these benefits."

Perhaps they do. The page also explains how to stop it. You can give notice "at any time from the start of your contract up until six months before the end of your fixed term." Email or letter will do. Give notice inside that window and the contract runs to the end of the agreed term. It then comes to what Citation calls a manual renewal where you may renew or change or leave. Give notice outside it and in the page's words "your service will renew for a further term as set out in your agreement."

So the arithmetic for a business that signs three years is this. Somewhere around month thirty a date passes. Before it you can leave at the end of year three. After it you are in until the end of year six. Citation to its credit tells you to contact it "well before the last six months of your term." It does not say it will remind you.

On price the pricing page is a page about pricing with no prices on it. Each package shows a pound sign and a blank per employee per month. Under it is a button that says get price. The page states that "pricing is dependent on your number of employees and industry." Increases are indexed to RPI and the FAQ page refers to that twice. The combined package is marketed as saving 27 per cent against buying the two disciplines separately.

On leaving early the site says less than it does about anything else. There is the line about unrecovered costs. There is the answer to the cooling off question. "Consumer style cooling off periods (for example 14 days to change your mind) don't usually apply to B2B contracts like ours." The law treats businesses differently from individuals. And there is advice. "If you are unsure about any part of your agreement before you sign, we strongly recommend you ask questions." What a client actually pays to leave in year two is not published anywhere I could find. I have asked Citation to say.

Everything above is Citation describing Citation. Here is what I think it means, and I will start with the part that is not technical.

What I think it means

A contract that is hard to leave changes how you feel about the people you are paying. I have spent nineteen years in this trade on every side of the table and I have watched it happen. In year one a client is grateful. In year two they are content. Somewhere in year three the price has gone up with the index and the date to give notice has quietly passed. They are still paying and still receiving the service. And they feel trapped. That feeling does not go away when the contract ends. It leaves a bitter taste that lasts longer than the term. It attaches to the company and not to the salesperson who has long since moved on. Citation's advice may be excellent. A client who feels caught will not remember the advice. They will remember the clause.

Take a business with ten people. A café or a small agency or a workshop. What it needs from a company like this is a site visit once a year. A set of policies and risk assessments written once and reviewed now and then. A phone number for the two or three employment questions a year that are hard. Somewhere to keep the paperwork. That is a modest recurring need. Citation's answer to it is a commitment of at least three years priced on the phone. It rises with inflation and renews by itself. There is no cooling off and no published exit price. The service the business receives may be good. The FAQ page says fairly that Citation sits "somewhere between a software subscription and a traditional consultancy or insurance style protection." That is why the terms are what they are. The trouble is that the ten person business is being asked to carry a large company's contract at a small company's headcount.

I should be clear about what this article is not. It is not a claim that Citation's advice is poor. Its consultants are qualified and its software is widely praised. It publishes an advice guarantee. On its health and safety page it says more than 16,000 businesses use it and the numbers elsewhere on the site run higher. People are not signing seven year terms for nothing. Nor is it a claim that anything on the page is hidden. The opposite. Citation has been unusually straight about its terms. This article exists because that straightness makes the terms easy to read.

It is a claim about fit. Nothing in workplace compliance law requires a contract term. A fire risk assessment is done once and reviewed. An alarm is serviced twice a year. A risk assessment is a document, and the regulator says a small business can write it. The reason to sign three years with Citation is that Citation needs three years to recover what it spends on you. That is Citation's reason. It is not yours.

If you are looking at a Citation proposal then do four things before you sign. Ask for a one year term in writing. The FAQ says shorter terms are possible in many cases. Ask for the renewal to be switched off from the first day. The FAQ says you can. Ask for the price per employee per month and the RPI clause and the early exit charge on one page. The pricing page will not show you. And put the notice date in your calendar before you put the contract in the drawer.

Two out of five for small business fit. The two are for what happens after you have signed. The missing three are for what you signed.