Six free remote work agreement templates for US small business: the full individual agreement, a hybrid version, a temporary version with an end date, the request and approval form, an equipment issue and return addendum, and a one-page change form. Each records the schedule, the primary work address and state, the equipment issued, and who pays for what. Download as DOCX, no signup.
A remote work agreement is the individual document one employee signs, recording their approved arrangement: the schedule, the primary work address and state, the equipment they hold, and who pays for what. A remote work policy sets the rules for the whole company. The agreement is the half that names a person.
I have watched the same thing go wrong at three different small companies, and it is never dramatic. Someone starts working from home on Fridays, nobody writes it down, and a year later there is a genuine disagreement about whether Fridays were ever part of the deal. Or an employee moves across a state line for perfectly ordinary reasons and the first anyone hears about it is a payroll question. A signed page would have prevented both, and would have taken less time than the first argument did.
There are six templates here covering the whole arrangement: the full remote work agreement, a hybrid version, a temporary version with an end date, the request and approval form that comes before it, an equipment issue and return addendum, and a change form for when the schedule or address moves. Each downloads as an editable Word document, free and without an email.
TL;DR
A remote work agreement is the individual document one employee signs, recording their approved arrangement: schedule, work address and state, equipment, and expenses. The policy is company-wide; the agreement names a person. Download six free DOCX templates: full remote, hybrid, temporary, a request form, an equipment addendum, and a change form. This is general information, not legal advice.
What a Remote Work Agreement Is
A remote work agreement is a written, signed record of one employee's approved remote or hybrid arrangement. It names the arrangement type, the schedule and core hours, the primary work address and state, the equipment the company issued, how expenses are handled, what availability and performance are expected, and how the arrangement can be changed or ended. Both parties sign it.
Older names for the same document are telecommuting agreement and work from home agreement, and the term you use matters far less than the facts you pin down. If it helps to read it as something the employee drafts and the manager approves, call it a remote work plan; the fields are identical. The difference between telework and remote work is mostly a public-sector versus private-sector naming habit.
What the agreement is not is a promise of permanent remote work, a change to duties or pay, or a substitute for the rest of your paperwork. It sits on top of the handbook, the confidentiality agreement, and the acceptable-use rules, and it should say so in its first paragraph.
Agreement vs Policy: Which One You Need
You need a policy once more than a couple of people work remotely, and an agreement once their arrangements differ from each other. Most small businesses eventually run both: the policy answers the recurring questions once for everyone, and the agreement pins those answers to a named person with a signature and a date.
Question
Remote work policy
Remote work agreement
How many documents
One for the whole company
One per remote employee
Who signs it
Each eligible employee acknowledges it
The employee and the company both sign
What it names
The rules that apply to everyone
This person’s schedule, address, and equipment
What triggers an update
The company changes the rules
This person’s arrangement changes
Where it lives
The handbook and the shared drive
The employee’s personnel file
What it settles
What the rules are
What this employee agreed to
If you can only produce one document this month, choose by symptom. Recurring arguments about the rules, such as what counts as available or who is even eligible, point to a policy. Arguments about one person's specific deal point to an agreement. A team running a formal split week usually wants both, with the hybrid work policy setting the frame and the hybrid agreement recording each schedule.
Hybrid Is the Steady State, Not a Phase
Among remote-capable US employees, Gallup reports 52% working hybrid, 26% exclusively remote, and 22% fully on-site, with no change since the previous reading (Gallup). For a small employer that means the arrangements you are documenting are durable enough to be worth documenting properly, and that the hybrid split, not full remote, is the case most agreements need to handle.
What Every Remote Work Agreement Records
A complete remote work agreement covers four groups: the arrangement itself, time and place, equipment and money, and conduct and exit. Everything else in the document is supporting language around those four.
The arrangement
Fully remote, hybrid, or occasional
Start date and review date
Who the employee reports to
Time and place
Schedule and core hours, with a time zone
Primary work address, city, and state
Approval required before working elsewhere
Equipment and money
What the company issued, itemized
Expenses, stipend, or reimbursement rule
Return terms agreed up front
Conduct and exit
Security, devices, and networks
Performance and response expectations
How the arrangement is changed or ended
Two clauses are missing from most free agreement templates and matter most for a small employer. The first is a requirement that the employee gets written approval before working from a different state, which is covered below. The second is return terms for company equipment agreed at the moment you hand the laptop over, rather than negotiated on someone's last day, when your leverage is at its lowest.
A third omission is quieter. Plenty of templates never state a review date, so the agreement describes a situation that has since moved on. Put a date in the document and it expires into a short conversation instead of aging into fiction.
Which Template Should You Use?
Most arrangements need two documents: the request form to capture the ask and the decision, and the agreement to record what was approved. Add the equipment addendum whenever you issue hardware, and reach for the temporary version whenever the arrangement genuinely has an end.
Remote Work Agreement
The default
The full individual agreement: approved arrangement, schedule and core hours, primary work address and state, equipment, expenses, workspace and safety, security, performance, and how the arrangement changes or ends. Use this for a standing remote or mostly remote employee.
Hybrid Work Agreement
Office plus home
The same document tuned for a split week. It records which days are in the office, which are remote, who sets them, how a swap gets approved, and what happens when someone misses an assigned office day. The split is what people argue about later.
Temporary Remote Work Agreement
Has an end date
For an arrangement that is meant to stop: a trial, a recovery, a family situation, an office closure, or a temporary relocation. It ends automatically on the date written in it and does not renew, which is the whole reason to use this version.
Request and Approval Form
Comes first
What the employee completes to ask, and what the manager completes to decide. Captures the arrangement, the proposed address and state, the equipment needed, and a coverage check, with a note that the form on its own approves nothing.
Equipment Issue and Return Addendum
The recoverable part
An itemized record of what you issued, with serial numbers, condition, and the return terms agreed at issue rather than at exit. Includes the return log you complete when the hardware comes back, and a prepaid-shipping commitment from the company.
Arrangement Change Form
For the next move
A one-page amendment for when the schedule, address, in-office days, equipment, or expense terms change. It keeps the original agreement intact and dates the change, so you are not reissuing a full agreement every time someone moves.
Use the Temporary Version More Than You Think
The most common drafting mistake I see at small companies is writing a permanent agreement for something that was always meant to be temporary: a trial, a recovery, a stretch of caregiving, an office lease gap. A standing agreement then has to be actively unwound, which feels like taking something away and lands badly. A temporary agreement with a date on it ends by itself and converts on purpose, and both outcomes are easier conversations. If you are not sure, start temporary. This is general information, not legal advice.
6 Free Remote Work Agreement Templates
Download all six together or take individual documents. The agreement and the request form cover the common case, the hybrid and temporary versions handle the two arrangements that need their own language, and the addendum and change form keep the record accurate after the first signature.
Download All 6 Remote Work Agreement Templates
The full remote work agreement, a hybrid version, a temporary version, a request and approval form, an equipment issue and return addendum, and a change form. All as DOCX files in one download.
Template 1: Remote Work Agreement
The full individual agreement: approved arrangement, schedule and core hours with a time zone, primary work address and state, equipment, expenses, workspace and safety, security, performance, and the terms for changing or ending the arrangement.
Remote Work Agreement
REMOTE WORK AGREEMENT
This Remote Work Agreement (the "Agreement") is made as of [date] between
[Company Name], located at [address] (the "Company"), and [Employee Name],
[job title], Employee ID [number] (the "Employee").
This Agreement records the Employee's approved remote work arrangement. It
supplements, and does not replace, the Company's Remote Work Policy, the employee
handbook, and any confidentiality, invention, or acceptable-use agreement the
Employee has signed. Where this Agreement and the Remote Work Policy conflict, the
Remote Work Policy controls unless this Agreement says otherwise in writing.
The arrangement above is approved by the Company as a business arrangement. It is
not a change to the Employee's job, title, duties, pay, or employment status, and
it is not a term of employment for any fixed period.
2. WORK SCHEDULE AND AVAILABILITY
Regular schedule: [days and hours, for example Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to
5:00 p.m. local time].
Core hours: The Employee will be reachable and responsive during [core hours, for
example 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern], regardless of the time zone in which the
Employee works.
Time zone of record: _
Non-exempt employees: The Employee is classified as [ ] non-exempt [ ] exempt. If
non-exempt, the Employee must record all hours actually worked, including short
tasks performed outside the scheduled shift, and must obtain approval before
working overtime. Unapproved overtime will still be paid, and repeated unapproved
overtime may be addressed under the Company's normal performance process.
Meetings: The Employee will attend scheduled meetings and will be on camera when
asked.
3. PRIMARY WORK LOCATION
Primary work address: ______
City: _ State: _ ZIP: _____
The Employee will perform work from the primary work address above. The Employee
must obtain written approval from [manager / HR] before working from a different
state or country for more than [number] consecutive business days, and must notify
[HR] before any permanent change of address.
The Employee understands that the state in which they work may determine which
wage, hour, leave, sick time, and expense-reimbursement rules apply to their
employment, and that an unreported move may create obligations the Company cannot
meet on time. The Company may decline a work location it is not able to support.
4. EQUIPMENT
The Company provides: [list, for example laptop, monitor, headset, software
licenses]. See the Remote Equipment Issue and Return Addendum for the itemized
list, serial numbers, and condition at issue.
The Employee provides: [list, for example a reliable internet connection at the
primary work address, and a safe workspace].
Company equipment remains Company property. It is issued for business use, must be
kept secure, must not be modified or shared with anyone outside the Company, and
must be returned in working order on request or at the end of employment. The
Employee will report loss, theft, or damage to [contact] within one business day.
5. EXPENSES AND STIPEND
The Company will [choose one: reimburse approved business expenses under the
Expense Reimbursement Policy / pay a home-office stipend of $______ per month /
reimburse ______ percent of the Employee's monthly internet cost, capped at
$______].
Expenses are submitted through [process] within [number] days. Some states require
employers to reimburse necessary business expenses incurred for remote work; the
Company will apply the rules of the state named in Section 3. This section is
reviewed whenever the primary work state changes.
6. WORKSPACE AND SAFETY
The Employee will maintain a safe, ergonomic, and reasonably distraction-limited
workspace at the primary work address, and will keep the workspace free of
recognized hazards. The Employee will report any work-related injury or illness to
[contact] immediately, and no later than [number] hours, so that it can be recorded
and handled the same way an on-site injury would be.
The Employee agrees that dependent care, household duties, and other personal
obligations are not performed in place of scheduled work time, and that remote work
is not a substitute for a care arrangement.
7. DATA SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
The Employee will protect Company and customer information to the same standard as
in a Company office. Specifically, the Employee will:
•Use Company-approved devices, accounts, and applications for Company work.
•Connect through a secured, password-protected network [and the Company VPN where
required], and will not perform sensitive work over open public Wi-Fi.
•Lock the screen when away from the workspace and store physical documents out of
view of other members of the household.
•Follow the Company's acceptable-use, data-protection, and record-retention rules.
•Report a suspected security incident to [contact] immediately.
8. PERFORMANCE AND COMMUNICATION
Performance expectations do not change because the Employee works remotely. Work
is measured against the same standards of quality, reliability, and output as
on-site work.
Response expectations: The Employee will acknowledge messages on [channel] within
[time, for example four working hours] and will keep calendar and status current.
Check-ins: The Employee and [manager] will hold a scheduled check-in [frequency].
9. PAY, BENEFITS, AND CLASSIFICATION
Pay, benefits, paid time off, and employment classification are unchanged by this
Agreement unless the Company states a change separately in writing. Nothing in this
Agreement guarantees continued employment or a fixed schedule.
10. CHANGING OR ENDING THE ARRANGEMENT
Either party may request a change to this arrangement in writing. The Company may
modify, suspend, or end the remote work arrangement based on business needs,
coverage, performance, or policy, ordinarily with [number] days of notice, and the
Employee may then be required to work from [office location or another Company
site]. A change to the schedule, primary work location, equipment, or expense terms
is recorded on a Remote Work Arrangement Change Form signed by both parties.
Ending the remote arrangement is not, by itself, the end of employment.
11. ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND SIGNATURES
The Employee acknowledges having read the Remote Work Policy and this Agreement,
having had the opportunity to ask questions, and agreeing to follow both.
Employee signature: __ Date: _
Print name: __
Company representative: __ Date: _
Title: __
Copy provided to the Employee: [ ] Yes Filed in personnel record: [ ] Yes
DISCLAIMER: This is a sample template for general informational purposes only. It
is not legal advice and not a guarantee of compliance. Employment, wage-and-hour,
tax, leave, and expense-reimbursement rules vary by state and by the employee's
actual work location, and they change over time. Have this Agreement reviewed and
adapted by qualified US employment counsel before you use it.
Template 2: Hybrid Work Agreement
The same document tuned for a split week. It records which days are in the office and which are remote, who sets them, how a swap is approved, and what happens when an assigned office day is missed.
Hybrid Work Agreement
HYBRID WORK AGREEMENT
This Hybrid Work Agreement (the "Agreement") is made as of [date] between
[Company Name] (the "Company") and [Employee Name], [job title] (the "Employee").
Use this version when the Employee splits the week between a Company office and a
remote location. It records the specific split, which is the part that generates
For an arrangement that is meant to stop: a trial, a recovery, a family situation, an office closure, or a temporary relocation. It ends automatically on the date written into it, does not renew, and includes the review fields a trial needs.
Temporary Remote Work Agreement
TEMPORARY REMOTE WORK AGREEMENT
This Temporary Remote Work Agreement (the "Agreement") is made as of [date] between
[Company Name] (the "Company") and [Employee Name], [job title] (the "Employee").
Use this version for an arrangement with a defined end: a trial period, a recovery
from surgery, a family situation, an office closure, or a temporary relocation. The
end date is the point of the document.
1. TERM
Start date: _ End date: _
Reason: [ ] Trial period [ ] Medical or recovery [ ] Family or caregiving
This Agreement ends automatically on the end date above. It does not renew. If the
arrangement is to continue, the parties sign a new agreement or a Remote Work
Arrangement Change Form before the end date. Silence after the end date does not
extend it.
2. ARRANGEMENT DURING THE TERM
Schedule during the term: ____
Core hours: __
Temporary work address: ______
City: _ State: _ ZIP: _____
If the temporary address is in a different state from the Employee's usual work
location, the Employee will notify [HR] before the start date, because payroll,
tax, and leave obligations may follow the physical work location.
3. TRIAL ARRANGEMENTS
If this Agreement covers a trial, the parties agree in advance on what will be
reviewed at the end of the term:
Success measures: _____
Review date: _ Reviewed by: __
At the review the Company will [ ] convert to an ongoing Remote Work Agreement
[ ] extend the trial for ______ additional weeks [ ] return the Employee to the
prior arrangement.
4. WHAT DOES NOT CHANGE
Pay, benefits, classification, duties, and performance standards are unchanged.
Equipment issued for the term remains Company property and is returned at the end
of the term unless a new agreement extends its use. Company security, confidentiality,
and acceptable-use rules apply in full.
5. EARLY END
The Company may end this temporary arrangement before the end date based on
business needs, coverage, or performance, ordinarily with [number] days of notice.
The Employee may request an early end at any time.
6. SIGNATURES
Employee signature: __ Date: _
Company representative: __ Date: _
DISCLAIMER: This is a sample template for general information only and is not legal
advice. A remote arrangement connected to a medical condition or a disability may
carry additional obligations. Have it reviewed by qualified US employment counsel
before you use it.
Template 4: Remote Work Request and Approval Form
What the employee completes to ask and the manager completes to decide. Captures the arrangement, the proposed address and state, the equipment needed, and a coverage check, with an explicit note that the form on its own approves nothing.
Remote Work Request and Approval Form
REMOTE WORK REQUEST AND APPROVAL FORM
[Company Name]
Use this form before the agreement. The employee fills out Part 1, the manager
completes Part 2, and only an approved request moves on to a signed Remote Work
Agreement. This form on its own approves nothing.
PART 1: EMPLOYEE REQUEST
Name: ___ Employee ID: _____
Job title: ______ Manager: __
Date of request: _
Arrangement requested:
[ ] Fully remote [ ] Hybrid, ______ remote days per week [ ] Occasional
[ ] Temporary, from _ to _
Requested start date: _
Proposed work address:
City: _ State: _ ZIP: _____
Is this address in a different state from your current work location? [ ] Yes [ ] No
Proposed schedule and core hours: ___
How will the duties of your role be performed remotely? Name the two or three
tasks that change and how you propose to handle them.
_
_
What do you need in order to work effectively from this location?
Template 5: Remote Equipment Issue and Return Addendum
An itemized record of what you issued, with serial numbers and condition, plus return terms agreed at issue rather than at exit. It includes the return log you complete when hardware comes back and a prepaid-shipping commitment from the company.
Remote Equipment Issue and Return Addendum
REMOTE EQUIPMENT ISSUE AND RETURN ADDENDUM
[Company Name]
This Addendum forms part of the Remote Work Agreement signed by [Employee Name] on
[date]. It records what the Company issued, its condition, and how it comes back.
1. EQUIPMENT ISSUED
Item | Make and model | Serial or asset tag | Date issued | Condition
DISCLAIMER: This is a sample form for general information only and is not legal
advice. Wage-deduction rules for unreturned property are narrow and vary by state.
Confirm your state rule before withholding anything from pay.
Template 6: Remote Work Arrangement Change Form
A one-page amendment for when the schedule, address, in-office days, equipment, or expense terms change. It keeps the original agreement intact, dates the change, and routes a new work state through whoever handles payroll.
Remote Work Arrangement Change Form
REMOTE WORK ARRANGEMENT CHANGE FORM
[Company Name]
Use this form whenever something in a signed Remote Work Agreement changes. It
keeps the original agreement intact and creates a dated record of what moved, so
you are not rewriting and re-signing the whole document every time.
New state: _ Is this a new state for the company? [ ] Yes [ ] No
If yes, HR confirmation of registration and payroll setup: [ ] Complete
[ ] In-office days (hybrid)
From: ______ To: ______
[ ] Equipment
Issued: ______ Returned: ______
Equipment Addendum updated: [ ] Yes
[ ] Expenses or stipend
From: ______ To: ______
[ ] Review or end date
From: _ To: _
[ ] Arrangement ending. Return-to-office date: _
Notice given on: _
Equipment return scheduled: _
REASON FOR THE CHANGE
_
_
WHAT DOES NOT CHANGE
All other terms of the original Remote Work Agreement, including pay, benefits,
classification, duties, security obligations, and equipment ownership, remain in
effect as written.
APPROVALS
Employee signature: __ Date: _
Manager signature: ___ Date: _
HR (required for a work-state change): Date: _____
Filed with the original agreement in the employee record: [ ] Yes
DISCLAIMER: This is a sample form for general information only and is not legal
advice. A change of work state can create payroll, tax, leave, and insurance
obligations; confirm them before the effective date.
The Work Location Clause Most Agreements Miss
The single most valuable line in a remote work agreement is the primary work address, paired with a rule that the employee gets written approval before working from a different state. Where someone physically sits generally decides which state's wage, hour, leave, and reimbursement rules follow them, and whether you owe registration and withholding there.
Small companies almost never learn about a relocation from the employee, because from the employee's side nothing about the job changed. They learn about it from a notice, a tax question, or a benefits enrollment that will not process. By then the obligation has been running for months. One address field and one approval sentence convert that into an ordinary request you can grant or decline.
The clause also gives you a defensible way to say no. If a state would require registration you cannot justify for one person, declining a specific location is a business decision documented in advance, not an argument invented after the fact.
An Employee’s Home Is Not Their Worksite for FMLA
Under Department of Labor guidance, when an employee works from home, their worksite for FMLA eligibility purposes is the office to which they report or from which their assignments are made, not their residence, and employees who telework are counted toward the 50-employees-within-75-miles threshold at that reporting office (Field Assistance Bulletin 2023-1). A small employer with a clustered office and scattered remote staff can therefore cross the threshold without noticing. This is general information, not legal advice.
Equipment, Expenses, and Getting Hardware Back
Equipment comes down to one decision made per item: does the company buy it, or does the employee? Company-purchased hardware stays company property and is recoverable. A cash stipend buys equipment the employee owns, which you cannot ask for later. Write the model into the agreement item by item, because a mixed setup is the normal case.
Model
Who owns the hardware
Recoverable at exit
Best used for
Company-issued equipment
The company
Yes, if it is itemized at issue
Laptops, monitors, phones
Cash stipend
The employee
No, the money is already spent
Desks, chairs, one-time setup
Employee’s own device
The employee
Not applicable; revoke access instead
Phones under a BYOD policy
Reimbursed purchase
Whoever the agreement names
Only if the agreement says so
Items above a set threshold
Whatever you issue, log it. One line per item covering the make, the serial number, the date issued, the condition, and a signature turns a vague memory into a record, and the same sheet becomes the return log later. If people use personal phones or laptops for work, that belongs in a BYOD policy rather than buried in an equipment clause.
Write the return rule before you need it. Name a deadline, say who pays for shipping, and commit to sending a prepaid label and a box rather than leaving logistics to a departing employee. Recovering hardware is a process problem, and the IT offboarding checklist is where it meets account shutdown. Do not plan to solve it through a payroll deduction: wage-deduction rules for unreturned property are narrow, vary by state, and usually require separate written authorization.
Some States Require Reimbursement of Remote Work Costs
There is no broad federal mandate to reimburse most remote work costs, but several states impose one. California Labor Code section 2802(a) requires an employer to indemnify an employee for "all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties" (California Legislative Information). Because the duty follows where the employee actually works, hiring one remote person in a mandate state can create it. Confirm the rule for the state in your agreement. This is general information, not legal advice.
Hours, Availability, and the Home Workspace
The hours clause matters most for non-exempt employees, because remote work makes it easy to work in small unrecorded pieces. Under the same Department of Labor telework bulletin cited above, if the employer knows or has reason to believe work is being performed, that time counts as hours worked, wherever it happens. A five-minute reply at 9 p.m. is compensable time.
Clause
Non-exempt employee
Exempt employee
Recording hours
Every hour worked, including short off-shift tasks
Not required for pay purposes
Overtime
Approved in advance; still paid when it was not
Not applicable
Core hours
Set them for coverage; work outside them still counts
Set them for coverage only
Off-hours messages
Answering is compensable time
No pay consequence
What to write in
A rule that unapproved overtime is still paid
A response-time expectation instead of a clock
The practical wording is a single sentence: unapproved overtime will still be paid, and repeated unapproved overtime is handled as a performance conversation rather than a pay dispute. That keeps you on the right side of the rule and still gives the manager a way to address it.
The workspace clause is shorter than people expect. Ask for a safe workspace, ask for prompt reporting of any work-related injury, and stop there. A home injury during work can still be a workers' compensation matter, so the reporting line is the part that earns its place. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
OSHA Does Not Inspect Home Offices
OSHA's home-based worksites directive states that the agency will not conduct inspections of employees' home offices, will not hold employers liable for employees' home offices, and does not expect employers to inspect them (OSHA Directive CPL 02-00-125). Two limits matter: employers remain responsible for hazards from equipment or work processes they provide or require, and work-related injuries at a home worksite are still recordable. So skip the home inspection clause, and keep the reporting clause.
Remote Agreements Without an HR Team
A large company has an HR team that drafts the agreement, tracks the work state, and notices when the record has drifted from reality. A small business has a founder who said yes in a hallway and a spreadsheet nobody has opened since. The rules are identical at both sizes. What differs is that nothing catches the gap until it becomes expensive.
The arrangement was agreed in a hallway, so nobody can prove what it was
Almost every remote arrangement at a small company starts as a conversation. Someone asks to work from home on Fridays, the founder says yes, and that is the entire record. It works until it does not: a new manager arrives and expects five days on site, a second employee asks for the same deal and gets a different answer, or the person leaves and there is a dispute about what was promised. A signed one-page agreement removes all of that for less effort than the first argument costs. The point is not formality. The point is that six months later two people remember the same thing, because they both signed it.
Nobody knows where people actually work, so the compliance surface is invisible
This is the failure that costs real money at small companies, and it is almost always accidental. An employee moves in with a partner across a state line, or spends a winter with family, and never thinks to mention it because their work has not changed. Meanwhile the company may owe registration, withholding, sick leave, or expense reimbursement in a state it has never filed in, and it finds out from a notice rather than from the employee. Writing the primary work address into the agreement, plus one sentence requiring written approval before working from another state, turns an invisible risk into a routine request. It also gives you a defensible reason to say no to a location you genuinely cannot support.
There is no HR person to notice when the agreement has gone stale
A remote work agreement describes a situation, and situations move. Schedules change, someone shifts from hybrid to fully remote, a laptop gets replaced, a stipend gets raised. At a company with an HR team, someone owns keeping the record current. At a company without one, the agreement quietly becomes a description of how things used to be. Two habits fix it: put a review date on the agreement itself so it expires into a conversation, and use a one-page change form instead of rewriting the whole document. This is the part FirstHR is built for, capturing signatures with built-in e-signature, storing the agreement and every change against the employee record, and reminding the manager when a review date arrives. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a law firm or a payroll provider, so pair it with counsel and your payroll system. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
If you take one habit from this page, make it the pairing of a written work address and a review date. Those two fields do more work than every other clause combined, because they are the two facts that quietly change while the document stays still. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Sign, Store, and Re-Sign
A remote work agreement earns its keep when it is signed before the arrangement starts, stored where you can find it, and updated when the facts move. These templates work on their own. The strain shows up in the sequence: an arrangement that started three months before anyone printed anything, a signed page in someone's inbox, and no record of the laptop.
Take the request in writing
Have the employee complete the request form with the arrangement, the proposed address and state, and the equipment needed, and have the manager record the decision.
Sign before the start date
Fill in the schedule, address, equipment, and expense terms, get both signatures, and give the employee a copy before the arrangement begins rather than weeks after.
File it with the equipment record
Keep the signed agreement, the equipment addendum, and any change forms together in the employee record, so the current arrangement is one document away.
Review on the date you set
Check the agreement against reality at the review date, record any change on the change form, and re-sign when the schedule, address, or equipment has moved.
To run that without paper, FirstHR captures both signatures with built-in e-signature and keeps the agreement, the equipment addendum, and every change form together in document management, with the current arrangement and work state on the employee record.
Employees then find their own signed agreement through self-service rather than asking, task workflows route a new request or a state change to the right approver, and the whole set stays attached to the personnel file. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a law firm or a payroll provider, so pair it with US employment counsel and your payroll system for the calls that belong to them.
Key Takeaways
A remote work agreement is the individual signed record of one employee’s arrangement; the remote work policy is the company-wide rulebook, and most small teams eventually use both.
Four groups belong in every agreement: the arrangement type and dates, time and place, equipment and money, and conduct and exit terms.
Write the primary work address into the agreement and require written approval before the employee works from another state, because location drives wage, leave, and payroll obligations.
Agree equipment return terms at issue, itemized with serial numbers, rather than negotiating them on someone’s last day.
For non-exempt employees, state that unapproved overtime is still paid, since work performed off-shift counts as hours worked wherever it happens.
Put a review date in the agreement and record later changes on a one-page change form instead of rewriting the whole document. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a remote work agreement?
A remote work agreement is a written document, signed by one employee and the company, that records that person’s approved remote or hybrid arrangement. It names the arrangement type, the schedule and core hours, the primary work address and state, the equipment the company issued, how expenses or a stipend are handled, the availability and performance expected, and how the arrangement can be changed or ended. Telecommuting agreement and work from home agreement are older names for the same document. Its job is narrow and useful: it converts an arrangement that was agreed in conversation into a dated record both sides signed, so that six months later nobody is reconstructing what was promised from memory. It sits alongside the company-wide remote work policy rather than replacing it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do I need both a remote work policy and a remote work agreement?
Not necessarily, and the honest answer depends on which problem you have. A remote work policy is one company-wide document setting the rules everyone follows, and it is the right first move once more than a couple of people work remotely. A remote work agreement is the individual signed record of one person’s arrangement, and it is the right move when the specifics differ from employee to employee: different schedules, different states, different equipment, different expense treatment. Most small businesses end up with both, because the policy answers questions once for everyone and the agreement pins the answers to a person. If you can only produce one right now, choose by symptom. Recurring arguments about the rules point to a policy. Arguments about one person’s specific deal point to an agreement. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a remote work agreement include?
A complete remote work agreement covers four things: the arrangement, time and place, equipment and money, and conduct and exit. In practice that means the arrangement type and its start and review dates, the schedule and core hours with a stated time zone, the primary work address including the state, the itemized equipment the company issued and who owns it, the expense or stipend rule, the workspace and safety expectations, security and device requirements, performance and response expectations, and the terms for changing or ending the arrangement. Two clauses are missing from most free templates and matter most for a small employer: a requirement that the employee gets written approval before working from a different state, and return terms for company equipment agreed at issue rather than negotiated at exit. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is a remote work agreement legally binding?
A signed agreement is a contract between the parties and generally binds both to what it says, but it does not turn at-will employment into guaranteed employment unless it explicitly promises that, which these templates deliberately do not. The practical value is evidentiary rather than dramatic. A dated document both parties signed settles what the schedule was, where the employee agreed to work, what hardware they hold, and what the company agreed to pay for. Two drafting points protect you. State plainly that the arrangement is a business arrangement the company may modify or end with notice, and state that pay, benefits, duties, and classification are unchanged by the agreement. Whether particular language is enforceable depends on your state and your facts, so have US employment counsel review the version you actually use. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can an employer end a remote work arrangement?
Generally yes, when the agreement says so and you apply it consistently. Most remote work agreements state that the arrangement is a business decision rather than a permanent entitlement, and that the company may modify, suspend, or end it based on business needs, coverage, or performance, ordinarily with a stated notice period. Writing that in and having the employee sign it is what makes a later change feel like the rule rather than a surprise. Three cautions apply. Apply the change consistently rather than to one person, because inconsistency is where fairness complaints start. Give real notice, especially where someone has arranged their life around the schedule. And treat a remote arrangement connected to a disability, a medical condition, or a protected leave differently, since it may carry additional obligations. Confirm those with counsel. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does a remote work agreement need to state the employee’s work address?
Yes, and it is the most useful line in the document. The state where an employee physically performs work is what generally determines which wage, hour, overtime, paid sick leave, and expense-reimbursement rules apply to them, and it can create payroll registration and withholding obligations for the employer in that state. Small companies rarely discover a quiet relocation from the employee; they discover it from a notice or a payroll question months later. Writing the primary work address into the agreement, and adding one sentence requiring written approval before working from another state for more than a short trip, turns an invisible exposure into an ordinary request you can approve or decline. It also gives you a documented reason to decline a location the company genuinely cannot support. This is general information, not legal advice.
How often should a remote work agreement be updated?
Update it whenever one of the recorded facts changes, and review it on a set date even when nothing appears to have changed. The triggering changes are the ones written into the document: the arrangement type, the schedule or core hours, the primary work address, the in-office days for a hybrid employee, the equipment issued or returned, and the expense or stipend terms. Rather than rewriting and re-signing the whole agreement each time, use a one-page change form that records what moved, keeps the original intact, and gets both signatures. Then put a review date in the agreement itself, typically annually, so it expires into a short conversation instead of quietly becoming a description of how things used to be. A change of work state should always route through whoever handles payroll. This is general information, not legal advice.
