Service Provider Agreement

SPA for Reimbursement or Invoice?

A Service Provider Agreement (SPA) is a contract between St. Michael’s Hospital and an external company or independent contractor that performs specific work that a normal, regular working hospital employee could not perform in his or her day-to-day tasks. Additionally, a SPA can be drafted if an external party wants to “hire” St. Michael’s Hospital to conduct research or access hospital resources.

Usually, if the service provided is a one-time obligation under $500, then a Service Provider Agreement may be forgiven; however, if the service is recurring, then a Service Provider Agreement is necessary. If you have any questions, please contact researchcontracts@smh.ca.

Some of the common services that require a Service Provider Agreement include:

Transcription services
Consulting work
Translation services
Data analysis work
Consulting work warrants a different type of SPA. For further information, please contact ProcurementServices@smh.ca

Provided are some example scenarios:

Scenario	Is a Service Provider Agreement needed?
I have just received an invoice from Company ______ which printed some posters for me. I may need to use their services again in the future.	No
Ms. _____ provided us with transcription services. We only needed her for just this one project; thus, we would not require her services anymore.	No
Company ________ is a company that provides translation services that we’ve worked with a couple of times; however, we do not have a Service Provider Agreement.	Yes
Mr. ______ sent an invoice for the consulting work that he has done in the month. This is the first time we’ve received an invoice from him and we will continue to work with him for the rest of the year.	Yes
The external contractor may be working with us once a year on several different projects.	Yes
Mrs. _____ will be assisting us once for our project, however the payment is over $500.00.	Yes

General

How do I submit an SPA?

Please click here to submit a SPA review application.

Please note when submitting a Service Provider Agreement application, an Activity Approval for SPAs Form must be submitted to the appropriate Research Finance Analyst (RFA). If you do not know who your RFA is, please click here.

Do I need an SPA or PO (Purchase Order)?

Any payment to a vendor over $24,999.99 before tax will need to go through Procurement

Questions regarding Service Provider Agreements?

For further information regarding SPA, please contact researchcontracts@smh.ca