1. Applicability

This policy applies to the following services provided by Flax Digital:

By purchasing these services, you agree to the following terms.

2. Agreement

You are hiring Flax Digital to provide services for your website.

As Flax Digital’s customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organisation. You agree to provide Flax Digital with everything that we need to complete the project including passwords, text, images and other information as needed and in the format that we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and sign-off approval in a timely manner. Deadlines work two ways and you will also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.

We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. The services we provide are described fully on our website, including features and exclusions.

3. Timeline

You will be provided with an estimated timeline of work, including milestones for larger projects. Any once-off work will be completed within the agreed-upon time as long as you provide us with appropriate access, content and any other required items.

Ongoing work (monthly or annual plans) will continue until the subscription is cancelled. You will receive monthly reports to keep you informed of work done on your website and its current status.

4. What we need from you

We will provide you a list of what we need from you to provide the services, which may include:

  • Access to your website and other relevant systems.
  • Completion of intake questionnaire, or initial in-person or phone meeting.
  • Website content including text, images, etc.

5. Contact and meetings

Flax Digital working hours are 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, Australian Eastern Time (UTC+10 or UTC+11 during Daylight Savings), excluding state and national public holidays.  Our preferred method of contact is email (hello@flax.digital) or phone (+61 457 758 301). We are available for meetings in Ballarat or Melbourne. Other methods of contact (eg. Skype, Google Hangout), times, or meeting locations may be permitted by arrangement.

Flax Digital will return any contact within 1 business day unless we notify you ahead of time that we will be unavailable. Of course we understand that emergencies do arise, so if you need us on weekends or outside our usual hours, please know that our hours will be billed at time and a half.

When we contact you to provide information, review our work, or make decisions, you need to respond within 1 business day, unless you notify us ahead of time that you will be unavailable. If you don’t get back to us promptly, this may cause deadlines to slip.

As we value your time as well as our own, we ask that all meetings be scheduled a minimum of two business days in advance, and be accompanied by an agenda so that we can be fully prepared. Meetings must start and end on time, and you will be charged whether you attend the meeting or not.

Any decisions that are made in person or on the phone will be written down and will require your sign-off.

6. Data security

You understand that data loss and unauthorised access are occasional risks of running a website or online presence. Flax Digital will take all reasonable efforts to protect your data, including passwords, website content, and user information. If you require a higher than usual level of data security, such as for particularly sensitive personal information, you will provide tools and guidelines to ensure appropriate levels of protection, and we will follow them.

7. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services

If Flax Digital is performing search engine optimisation work for you, we will always use ethical, “white hat” techniques, in accordance with industry best practices and guidelines set by search engines. We will clearly explain what actions we are taking to improve your search engine performance, set expectations for what improvement you can expect, and provide you with reports to see how your search engine performance is improving.

You acknowledge the following:

  • Search engines set policies regarding what webpages they include and how they are ranked. These policies may change at any time, and are outside Flax Digital’s control.
  • Improved search engine ranking can take time, especially if your site is new or has previously been penalised by search engines. Flax Digital is not responsible for these delays, and cannot influence them.
  • Due to the competitiveness of some fields and frequent changes in search engine algorithms, Flax Digital cannot guarantee #1 position or first page ranking, nor that any ranking you gain will be long-lasting or permanent.
  • Some sites offer premium or expedited listings, which may improve your search engine ranking, for a fee. Unless we’ve agreed to it as part of the project, paid listings are not considered part of our SEO work. If you wish to use any paid services, you are responsible for paying the associated fees.
  • Flax Digital is not responsible for changes to your website or links gained to your website, made by you or any other person, which may negatively affect your search engine visibility or ranking. Any time required to recover from such changes will be billed at Flax Digital’s standard rate.

8. Intellectual property

You guarantee that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide to Flax Digital for inclusion in your project are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them.

At the completion of the project, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:

  • You own any text content, images, or other data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
  • You own the textual content and graphics that we create for your website or online use. We will give you a copy of all graphic files and you should store them safely as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files used in making them.
  • Flax Digital owns any reports, documents, or presentations produced as part of this project.
  • We also own any source code produced and retain the rights to re-use or license it how we choose (including as open source).

We love to show off our projects and share what we have learned while working on them, so we reserve the right to display your project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project or speak publicly about the project at conferences or other events. We will always respect your commercial confidentiality, and will not share sensitive information such as revenue, user details, or traffic figures, nor will we speak or write publicly about projects prior to public launch, without your explicit permission.

9. Payments

Up-front payments for many of our services, as well as subscriptions (see below), may be paid for using a credit card via our secure online payment facility. You will be provided with a receipt by email.

If a payment is due on completion of a project, you will be invoiced, and may pay by direct bank transfer (Australia only) or online by credit card.

If payments for your website services are in arrears by 14 days or more, your website will be taken offline. Your site will be promptly reinstated once payment is received.

10. Subscriptions

Subscription services may be paid monthly or annually, using a credit card via our secure online payment facility. Payments are automatic.

If an online payment fails, you will be notified by email so you can amend the error. If payments for your website services are in arrears by 14 days or more, your website will be taken offline. Your site will be promptly reinstated once payment is received.

You may cancel your subscription at any time with 30 days’ notice. If you cancel your subscription before the end of your subscription period, no refunds will be given for the unused portion.

11. When we finish working with you

We generally require 30 days notice to wrap up any ongoing contract. This gives us time to smoothly transition your website or digital marketing to whoever will be looking after them in future.

When we finish working with you, intellectual property will be assigned as above. We will also provide you with:

  • EPP codes to transfer your domains
  • Full, working backups of your website
  • Administrative passwords/access to any systems we have set up for you

You are responsible for revoking our access to your systems.

If we have used commercially licensed software to develop your website, you will be responsible for ongoing payments of any license fees.

12. Legal details

If there is any dispute over this agreement, it must be resolved under the jurisdiction of the state of Victoria, Australia.

If any part of this agreement is found to be invalid, it does not invalidate any other part of the agreement.