What should an MSP QBR agenda include?
A good MSP QBR agenda has six blocks: business outcomes, service performance, security and risk, projects and budget, the next 12 months of change, and decisions needed. This template adds one five-minute block, a records review, so the owner hears about system count, history depth and upcoming retirements while you already have the floor.
The records review is deliberately small. You are not auditing data and you never open a mailbox or a file share. You are asking three questions you can mostly answer from your own documentation, then noting whether a SourceX introduction is worth raising with the owner.
The 60-minute agenda, block by block
Use this as the default for a mid-market client with 50 to 500 staff. Trim the time boxes for smaller accounts.
| Block | Minutes | Who talks | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business outcomes since last QBR | 5 | Client owner or COO | Two or three goals confirmed or changed |
| Service performance | 10 | Your service delivery manager | Ticket trends, SLA misses, top repeat issues |
| Security and risk | 10 | Your security lead | Patch, backup test and MFA status, open risks |
| Projects and budget | 10 | vCIO or account lead | Spend against plan, project status |
| Records review | 5 | Account lead | System list confirmed, retirement dates noted |
| Next 12 months | 10 | vCIO | Roadmap changes, renewals, end-of-life items |
| Decisions and owners | 10 | Everyone | Written action list with dates |
If the client has a quarterly board or lender call, move "Business outcomes" to the end of the previous quarter's prep instead of spending live minutes on it.
What goes in the five-minute records review?
The review is three questions, asked in the same order every quarter so the answers become a trend line.
- How many systems hold business records today? Count email, chat, shared drives, CRM, finance or ERP, ticketing, HR, engineering tools and call platforms. Strong candidates tend to run 10 to 15 or more.
- How far back does the history go in each? Ask for the oldest year still readable, not the retention policy on paper.
- What is being retired, migrated or archived in the next 12 months? Name the system, the date and the person who approves the switch-off.
Write the answers into a one-row-per-system table that lives in your documentation, not in the slide deck.
| System | Oldest readable year | Planned change | Owner who signs off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email (tenant or on-prem) | |||
| Chat (Teams or Slack) | |||
| CRM | |||
| ERP or accounting | |||
| Ticketing or helpdesk | |||
| File shares or archive |
SlackWhen does the records review lead to a SourceX introduction?
Raise it only when the answers pass a quick screen. Use the 3-signal test on the client's row set:
- The company is a US business with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded).
- Several years of documented operations are still readable in at least a handful of systems.
- A system with long history is scheduled to be retired, merged or cleaned up soon.
If all three are true, the retirement date is your reason to speak up now. Once a system is switched off, the history in it may be gone, and licensing needs records that still exist. See who qualifies for the full baseline, and run the company fit checker if you want a second opinion before the meeting.
What do you say to the owner?
Keep it to one breath and attach it to the retirement item, not to your own agenda. The owner decides; you only point.
If the owner says yes, hand over the introduction after the meeting. If the answer is no or not now, record that in the minutes and do not raise it again for two quarters unless something changes.
How does the introduction work after the QBR?
The hand-off after the meeting is short.
- Before you send anything: write the owner's consent and the date into the QBR minutes.
- What you send: your referral link or the referral form, with basic fit details only (company name, size, industry, what is being retired).
- What SourceX does next: qualifies the company on size, history, data breadth and rights, then works with the owner's sponsor on the data inventory.
- What stays with the owner: price and terms. Nothing is binding until the company signs.
- When the reward can follow: only after a deal closes, the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee.
You never export, upload or describe the client's records. The introduction record template gives you a tidy way to log who consented to what and when.
What about rewards and your client contract?
Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 cumulative per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the company receives.
Check your managed services agreement for referral and conflict-of-interest wording, and tell the client plainly that you may be rewarded for the introduction. For how this compares to bounties and revenue share, read MSP referral fees compared, and for the wider picture see additional revenue streams for MSPs.
Common QBR mistakes when adding this block
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Making it a sales pitch in the middle of a service review | The owner hears an upsell and trusts the rest of the QBR less | Keep to five minutes and tie it to a retirement already on the roadmap |
| Asking for the retention policy instead of the oldest readable year | The policy often differs from what the system holds | Ask what a search returns for the earliest date |
| Skipping the block when the news is bad | A cancelled migration is also a record worth noting | Log the answers every quarter, even if nothing changes |
| Opening records to "check" them | Creates privacy and contract risk | Work from system names and years only |
| Raising it with a client under the size baseline | Wastes the owner's time | Run the 3-signal test first |
When not to bother
Skip the block for clients under the size baseline, for businesses whose records are mostly someone else's data (for example an outsourcer holding its clients' files without consent), or where a trustee or assignee already controls the assets. Also skip it if the owner has said they would never consider an exclusive license.
Next step
Add the records review to your next QBR deck, then register as a partner so your referral link is ready when an owner says yes. If you want to plan the longer horizon, pair this agenda with the vCIO roadmap template, and use the network opportunity finder to see which clients to prioritize.