Agreed documents

Agreed documents are by juridical definition industry-specific, standard agreement, settled between buyer and seller. Typically, these are formulated by a committee,  including buyer and seller representatives from major companies or organizations of the business. By referring to this set of standard formulations in every specific contract, the agreed documents are held legally binding. Agreed documents typically consider matters such as liability, cancellation, damages on third party, delimitations on warranties, right of interpretation and actions undertaken in case of dispute. A set of agreed documents is often found in industries where contracting processes are undertaken in a quite repetitive way and where products or services sold are relatively homogenous. Standardizing and thereby rationalizing the otherwise quite extensive purchasing work as such, is of course an overall purpose, combined with the aim to minimize costs within the buyer-seller system, created by experienced uncertainty. Facility management, construction, transportation, manpower leasing and software subscriptions are examples of industries all using a well established set of standard agreements. 

Agreed documents in Forestry 
Benefits of standard agreements also apply in the business of forestry. Contractors are carrying out the major part of forestry operations (both in silviculture and logging), and structure of the forestry services market is similar to other entrepreneur-based businesses, see above. In Sweden, a set of forestry-specific agreed documents, 'Allmänna Bestämmelser för Skogsentreprenad' (in short ABSE 09) were launched in december 2009, after negotiations of a year and a half. Also, a set of templates was developed.

In June 2020, ABSE 09 was replaced by a new version called ABSE 20.

Download ABSE 20 in English (pdf)

Download ABSE 20 in Swedish (pdf)

ABSE20_Omslag_webb.jpg

 

In 2006, Skogforsk initiatated the idéa of developing agreed documents in forestry. An executive committee was formed including representatives from buyers and sellers of forestry services. Skogforsk holds the secretariat. The companies represented in the committee together count for more than half of the productive forestry land of Sweden or some 40 percent of the annual cut. The APSE scheme also includes a set of standardized templates to describe the services traded. All together the agreed document plus the template structure make a recipe for how to describe and agree upon contracted work within forestry. The name APSE, 'AvtalsPaket för Skogsentreprenad', translates into ~ a common concept for forestry agreements.

Also in Norway, a similar work was finished in late 2009. Contact Standard Norway for more information.