ATM Placement Agreement: Template, Terms & Profit Split Guide (2026)

You supply the machine, the cash, and the service. They supply the floor space, the power, and the customers. This is the main contract and most of this guide is about it.

• Term and termination rights for both sides, and they should not be identical
• Compensation, the exact rate per transaction and when it gets paid
• Exclusivity, no second machine on the premises
• Who does what, service, cash, utilities, access
• Proof they can legally be there for the length of your term
• What happens if the business moves, sells, or changes its name
• Signatures with title, so you know the person signing can bind the business

When you cannot get to a machine yourself, you hire someone to load it. This is a completely different document, because now a third party is handling your cash and holding keys to your vault.

• Cash accountability, exact amounts in, counts recorded at every fill, and who eats a shortage
• Fill schedule and response time, how fast they get there when the machine reports low cash
• How they are paid, a share of the surcharge or a fixed fee per fill
• Keys and access, what they hold, and that everything comes back when the arrangement ends
• Reporting, what they send you after every single fill

Some people are good at getting doors open but do not want to run machines. You pay them for the introduction that turns into a signed, installed site.

• What triggers payment, a signed agreement, or a machine actually installed and processing
• Per-transaction cut or a flat finder’s fee, decided up front, not later
• How long the tail runs, for the life of the placement, or a fixed number of years
• What happens if the location closes early or never produces volume

My agreements run five years from the install date. I am supplying the machine, the cash, the installation and the ongoing service. That takes time to earn back. Locations almost always ask for three.

Without it: a three-year term on a machine you paid for, funded, and serviced can end just as the site matures, and you either renegotiate from a weak position or pull a machine that finally started performing.

The operator can end the agreement without cause, because a site can go bad and I should not be trapped in a location that stopped working. The location gives 180 days’ notice before the term ends, or exits only for a material breach they have told me about in writing, by certified mail, with 30 days for me to fix it. If they break the deal early, they are liable for the revenue I lose.

Without it: a location decides in month eight that they would rather have a competitor’s machine, and you have no recourse and a machine to relocate at your own cost.

State the exact rate per qualifying transaction, when it is paid, and how. I pay the commission after the 25th of each month for the previous month’s surcharge revenue, less the operating fees on my side. Define a qualifying transaction as a surcharged cash withdrawal, so nobody later claims a rebate on balance inquiries or declined transactions.

Without it: you spend every month arguing about what counts and when it is due.

I keep the right to change the surcharge amount, the denomination the machine dispenses, and the machine model itself, at my sole discretion. Processing costs move. Cash costs move. Fuel to go service the thing moves.

Without it: you are locked into numbers you set years ago while your costs climb, and eventually the only rational move is to pull the machine, which helps nobody, least of all the location.

The location cannot remove my ATM or allow any other ATM or cash-dispensing device on the premises, inside or outside, without my written approval.

Without it: a second machine appears across the room in month six and your volume is cut in half overnight. This is the single most common way operators lose money on a site they did everything else right on.

Spell it all out so there is never an argument about whose job something is: the equipment, the cash, programming, installation, processing, receipt paper, regular maintenance, technical service, customer service for the people using the machine, a monthly activity report, and the monthly commission payment.

Listing it also works in your favour. A location owner reading that list understands what they are getting for their share, which makes the rate conversation easier.

I am the liable party for harm to the ATM or theft of the machine or the cash inside it. But I am explicitly not responsible for the location’s lost profits, or any incidental, consequential or indirect damages. The location is not liable for the machine either, unless the damage or unauthorised removal happened through their negligence or with their involvement.

Without it: a store owner whose machine was down for three days tries to bill you for lost sales.

I get full access to the machine during business hours whenever I need it, for service and cash. They keep it available to their customers during their normal hours. They provide the electrical outlet; I bring my own wireless connection so the machine is not hostage to their internet going down.

The location represents that they own the premises, hold a valid lease, have an exercisable option to renew, or otherwise have lawful rights to operate there for at least as long as my term. And if a lien, bankruptcy or foreclosure is coming, they must tell me at the first opportunity, by phone, email and certified mail.

Without it: you find out your machine is inside a foreclosed building at the same time everyone else does, and now your ATM is tangled up in someone else’s bankruptcy.

If they change their name or restructure the entity, the agreement applies to the new entity with equal and full force. If they move the business, they notify me, I relocate the machine, and the agreement is automatically deemed amended to cover the new premises for the remaining term.

Without it: a location closes and reopens next month under a new LLC two doors down, and claims your contract died with the old entity.

Name the state whose law controls and the county where any dispute gets heard, normally where the operator has its principal place of business. Add that the prevailing party recovers its costs and reasonable attorney’s fees from the other side.

That last line does more work than any other sentence in the document. It ends most disputes before anyone files anything.

Full legal entity names for both parties, the signer’s printed name, their title, and the date.

Without it: you are holding a contract signed by a shift manager who had no authority to sign anything, and the owner knows it.

I email the agreement and we get it signed digitally. It is faster than driving out with paper, and everything is timestamped. Some clients need slightly different handling, but this is the default.

Out of everything in the document, the negotiation is nearly always about the split. Occasionally the term. Almost never anything else.

Locations regularly try to shorten the term. I push for five and usually get it, because I am the one funding the machine, the cash, and the service for the whole period.

I give them the time. Pressuring someone into signing gets you a resentful host who quietly works against the machine. The ones who come back have actually decided.

Once it is signed, the machine is in and processing inside a week to two weeks.