June has a way of making business owners suddenly very aware of everything they have been meaning to get to.

Your accountant is sending reminders. Your inbox is full of EOFY promotions. And somewhere in the back of your mind, there is a quiet voice asking whether your legal foundations are actually as solid as you have been assuming.

That voice is worth listening to.

June is not just the end of the financial year. It is the best natural checkpoint you will get all year to make sure your business is protected, before you carry any legal gaps into FY27.

Here is what to review before 30 June.

Are your service agreements up to date with what you actually offer?

Your business has probably evolved since you last updated your contracts. New offers, changed pricing, different delivery methods, a scope that looks nothing like it did twelve months ago.

The problem is that your contracts reflect the version of your business that existed when you wrote them, not the one you are running today.

Before 30 June, read your service agreement with fresh eyes. Ask yourself: does this actually describe the work I do and the terms I operate on right now? If the answer is no, or even maybe, it needs updating. 

This is particularly important if you have added a new service type this year, a course, a retainer, a VIP day, a group program. Each of these has different legal considerations around scope, cancellation, IP and liability. A catch-all service agreement often does not cover them well. 

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Does your website have a Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions and a Disclaimer?

If your website collects names, email addresses or payment details, and most do, you have legal obligations under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 around how you handle that information. 

A Privacy Policy is not optional for most Australian online businesses. It is a legal requirement. 

And no, copying one from another website does not count. That Privacy Policy was written for their business, their tools and their data practices. It does not cover yours.

Your website also needs Terms and Conditions (which set the rules for purchasing from you and using your site) and a Disclaimer (which limits your liability for the information and advice you publish). 

All three work together. Without them, you have limited protection if something goes wrong, a client disputes a purchase, a follower acts on your content, or someone makes a complaint to the OAIC.

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If you have pivoted your offers this year, do your contracts reflect that? 

Pivots are common in online business. You start as a VA and add OBM services. You launch a course alongside your done-for-you packages. You move from one-off projects to retainers.

Each pivot changes the nature of your client relationship, and your contracts need to keep up.

The most common issue we see is business owners using an old general service agreement to cover a new, more complex offer. The contract might technically apply, but it was not written with that offer in mind. That creates gaps, unclear scope, missing cancellation terms, no mention of IP ownership for new deliverables.

If you have made any meaningful changes to your offers this year, check that your contracts reflect them before you take on another client.

Have you brought on any contractors this year without a written agreement in place?

Verbal arrangements and informal understandings feel fine until something goes wrong. A deliverable arrives late. The quality is not what you expected. The contractor uses materials you thought were covered by their work for you.

A written contractor agreement protects both parties. It sets out the scope of work, payment terms, IP ownership, critical, because who owns what the contractor creates for you matters enormously, confidentiality obligations and what happens if things do not go to plan.

If you have paid contractor invoices this year without a written agreement in place, June is the time to formalise those arrangements, especially if those relationships are continuing into FY27.

VIEW OUR CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT TEMPLATE

Have you actually read your own contracts lately, or just assumed they are fine?

This one is uncomfortable, but worth asking.

Most business owners set up their contracts once and then stop reading them. They assume the document they bought or downloaded two years ago is still doing the job.

But templates, including ours, get updated when the law changes. Practices change. The way you describe your services changes. What felt like a comprehensive agreement in 2023 may have gaps in 2026.

Set aside 20 minutes before 30 June to read your most-used contract from start to finish. Check that the payment terms reflect what you actually charge, the scope reflects what you actually deliver, and the cancellation and refund policy is one you would be comfortable enforcing.

If you bought a Foundd Legal template more than 12 months ago, check whether an updated version is available.

The EOFY timing matters, and not just for tax

Legal templates are a legitimate business expense. Purchased before 30 June, they are deductible in FY26.

But more importantly, sorting your legal foundations now means you start FY27 with clarity, not with the same gaps you have been carrying for another year. 

We are running our EOFY sale right now. It is the best time of year to invest in the documents your business actually needs.

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Not sure where to start?

If you want to work through your legal foundations systematically before 30 June, we have put together the EOFY Legal Checklist for Online Business Owners, a plain-English checklist covering client contracts, contractor agreements, website legals, IP and trade marks, offer and promo terms, business structure and legal admin. It takes less than 20 minutes and gives you a clear picture of what needs attention before 30 June and what can wait until Q1. 

DOWNLOAD THE EOFY LEGAL CHECKLIST

And if you want a set of eyes on your existing Foundd Legal contracts before you carry them into FY27, our Template Customisation Service is available for Foundd Legal templates.