Terms of service

1. Accounts and who can use them

• The firm’s owners decide who works in Flowtiv and with what role (owner, admin or member). The firm is responsible for what its people and the assistants acting for them do in its account.
• Clients, subcontractors and others the firm invites take part through the portal, free. They see only what the firm shares with them, and the firm is responsible for what it shares.
• Keep sign-in secure: sign-in links and passkeys are personal, and multi-factor sign-in is available to everyone and can be required by the firm. Tell us at once at [email protected] if you think an account has been misused.
• API keys act as the person who made them, with their permissions; keep them secret.

2. The firm’s data

• The firm owns the data it puts into Flowtiv. It gives us permission to host, process, copy and display that data only as needed to provide Flowtiv to it, keep it secure and back it up, and as the Privacy policy describes.
• The firm is responsible for having the right to collect and use the information it keeps about its clients, contacts and subcontractors, for telling them how it handles their information, and for any consent it needs, including for marketing.
• The firm can export all of its data at any time (Settings → Data export), in common formats.
• We don’t sell the firm’s data, use it to advertise, or use it to train AI models.

3. Using Flowtiv properly

The firm and everyone using Flowtiv through it must not:

• break the law, or use Flowtiv to harass, deceive or harm anyone;
• send email or text messages without the consent the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) requires, or without a working way to unsubscribe;
• upload malware, or content they don’t have the right to use;
• try to reach another firm’s data, get around permissions or security, or test Flowtiv’s security without our written agreement (see Reporting a security problem);
• overload Flowtiv, scrape it, or resell or copy it, except through the API as documented.

4. Fees

• What we charge. There are no seats or plans. Flowtiv charges a percentage of each payment recorded against the firm’s invoices, by any method (card, bank transfer, PayPal, cash or a payment entered by hand), including deposits on proposals. The rates step down as the firm receives more in a fee year (1 July to 30 June), and the firm’s current rates are in Settings → Subscription. Fees include GST.
• From the firm’s start date. Fees apply to payments received from the start date we agree with the firm; payments before it carry none, whether imported or not. Payments through FlexiLay instalment plans carry no Flowtiv fee.
• How it’s paid. On card payments through Stripe, the fee is taken by Stripe as the payment is made. Fees on every other payment are charged monthly in arrears to the card the firm keeps on file. Each month we issue the firm a tax invoice for its fees.
• Refunds and disputes. When a payment is refunded or successfully disputed, its fee is given back.
• Texting. A firm with a texting number from Flowtiv pays for the number each calendar month it’s active (no part months) and for each text it sends, by segment as our texting provider counts them, at the prices shown in Settings → SMS. These prices include GST and go on the same monthly statement and card charge. Texts received are free.
• What’s needed to invoice. Once its fees have started, the firm needs a Stripe account that can take payments and a valid card on file to issue invoices and to send proposals that take a deposit.
• Unpaid fees. If a monthly charge fails, the card provider retries it for about 14 days and we tell the firm’s owners. If it’s still unpaid after that, the account is paused: only owners can sign in, to update the card, pay or export. Paying lifts the pause straight away. Clients keep their portal access meanwhile.
• Other providers’ fees. Payment providers (such as Stripe and PayPal) charge their own fees under the firm’s agreements with them.
• Changes. We’ll give at least 30 days’ notice before changing the firm’s rates.

5. Services the firm connects

When the firm connects another service, such as Stripe, PayPal, Xero, MYOB, Microsoft 365, Google, an ad platform, or its own AI provider’s key, it authorises Flowtiv to exchange data with that service as the connection describes. The firm’s use of each service is under its own agreement with that provider, and we aren’t responsible for how those services work or are available. The firm can disconnect any of them at any time.

6. Signing documents

Flowtiv records electronic signatures with each signer’s consent, the document’s fingerprint, a time-stamped record of who did what, and a certificate of completion. The firm decides whether signing electronically suits each document: some documents, such as certain deeds and statutory declarations, have their own rules about how they must be signed or witnessed. Flowtiv doesn’t give legal advice.

7. Orbi, the assistant

• Orbi drafts, summarises, suggests and carries out tasks for the person using it, with that person’s permissions only. What it produces can be wrong or incomplete, so check it before relying on it.
• Anything that reaches clients or subcontractors (messages, proposals, invoices, signing) waits for a person to approve it. Orbi can’t change permissions or security, or delete things.
• Orbi runs on AI providers listed on Who processes data for Flowtiv, or on the firm’s own provider when the firm adds its own key.

8. Websites and marketing

The firm is responsible for what its website, forms, emails and text messages say, and for the domains it uses with them. Before a firm texts, one of its owners or admins accepts the texting rules shown in Settings → SMS (including the Spam Act 2003), and the firm follows them. We may pause a firm’s marketing sending or texting, or take down content, if it breaks these terms or the law, or if its complaint or bounce rates put other firms’ sending at risk; we’ll tell the firm why.

9. Keeping Flowtiv running

We work to keep Flowtiv available, secure and backed up, and to fix problems quickly. Sometimes we need to take it down briefly for maintenance; we’ll schedule that for quiet times where we can. We improve Flowtiv continually and may change or retire features; we’ll give reasonable notice before removing anything the firm relies on. Support is by email at [email protected].

10. Closing an account

• The firm’s owners can close its account at any time (Settings → Close the firm). For 30 days after that, owners can still sign in to export the firm’s data or reopen it. Then the data is deleted, and it’s gone from our backups within a further 35 days (90 days for files). Fees already earned stay payable.
• We may suspend an account straight away to stop a security risk or serious misuse, and may close it if the firm seriously breaches these terms and doesn’t fix the breach within 14 days of our notice. Unless the law or a security risk prevents it, we’ll give the firm the chance to export its data first.
• We can end these terms for everyone with 90 days’ notice.

11. Responsibility and liability

• Nothing in these terms excludes rights the firm has under the Australian Consumer Law that can’t be excluded. Where the law lets us limit our liability for failing a consumer guarantee, it’s limited to supplying the service again or paying for it to be supplied again.
• Otherwise, as far as the law allows, our total liability to the firm for any claim arising from Flowtiv is limited to the fees the firm paid us in the 12 months before the claim, and neither of us is liable to the other for loss of profit, revenue or data, or for indirect or consequential loss.
• The firm is responsible for its own work, advice and documents, including what it prepares or sends with Flowtiv, and for claims that arise from its content or from its breach of these terms or the law.

12. Flowtiv itself

Flowtiv, its software and its design belong to Flexilay. The firm may use Flowtiv for its own business while its account is open. If the firm sends us suggestions, we may use them to improve Flowtiv without owing anything for them.

13. Law, changes and contact

These terms are governed by the law of Tasmania, Australia, and the courts of Tasmania (and the courts that hear appeals from them) can decide disputes about them. Before going to court, we’ll each try in good faith to resolve a dispute by talking it through.

We may update these terms. We’ll tell the firm about significant changes at least 30 days before they take effect, with the date at the top. Continuing to use Flowtiv after that means the firm accepts them.

Flexilay Pty Ltd, 52 Wellington Street, Launceston TAS 7250, Australia. [email protected]