Terms of service

Every project is defined by a written quote describing the scope, the deliverables, the timeline and one fixed price. The quote is the agreement: work begins when you approve it, and anything outside its scope is quoted separately before it's built.

Unless your quote says otherwise, setup is billed 50% to begin work and 50% at launch. On larger builds you can split it into three equal payments instead — at kickoff, at an agreed midpoint, and at launch — at no extra cost; just ask before we start. If you cancel mid-project, you pay for the work completed to that point (payments made count toward it), and everything built so far is yours. If a finished site sits waiting on your go-ahead for more than 30 days, the final invoice falls due. The retainer is billed monthly, in advance, and either of us can end it with 30 days' notice — no lock-in contracts. Pay a full year of the retainer up front and we waive a month.

Your retainer begins when your first workflow goes live, not when you sign. Before any business can send automatic texts the phone companies have to approve the number, which takes about two weeks, and we don't think you should pay a monitoring fee for a month when nothing can send yet. If a launch is waiting on us, it stays free. So that this can't run on forever, the retainer starts no later than 60 days after kickoff either way — if we're held up waiting on your approvals, your paperwork or access to your accounts, billing begins at that point.

Invoices are due within 14 days of the date we send them. If one is still unpaid 30 days after that date, we may add 1.5% a month to the outstanding balance until it's settled, and pause the services we run for you until it is. We would far rather send a reminder than a late fee — if money is tight, tell us before the due date and we'll work something out.

After a retainer has run for twelve months we may raise it by up to 4%, and not more than once in any twelve-month period. The cap doesn't accrue — a year without an increase doesn't permit a larger one later. We'll tell you in writing at least 60 days before a change takes effect, and an increase applies only to retainer periods beginning after that date. Continuing the retainer past the effective date is how the new rate is accepted; if you'd rather not, end it under the 30 days' notice above and you'll never be billed at the new rate.

Founding clients — anyone who signs while that offer is open — pay a reduced one-time setup fee on automation, and half the automation part of their retainer for their first three months after go-live. Your quote states both figures and the date the full rate starts; we will never show you the introductory number on its own. Two further things hold for founding clients: the increase described above cannot apply for 24 months from go-live rather than twelve, and the reduced rates are fixed by the date you sign, so a build that goes live after the offer closes keeps them.

A year paid up front is locked at the rate you paid. When it ends, the retainer continues at our current rate for your package, with the same 60 days' notice before any later change. Adding a workflow is a different thing entirely: it's a change you ask for, quoted and agreed before anything is built, so it isn't an increase under the paragraph above and doesn't wait on 60 days' notice.

Maryland charges 3% sales and use tax on web design, development and IT services (Chapter 604 of the Acts of 2025, effective 1 July 2025). Where it applies it appears as its own line on your invoice rather than being folded into the price, so you can always see what is our fee and what is tax. If your organisation holds a Maryland sales and use tax exemption certificate, send us the number and we'll apply it.

Everything created for the project — design, code, content and every account (domain, hosting, analytics, email tooling) — is registered in your name from day one and is yours. Two honest carve-outs: our pre-existing tools, code libraries and reusable components remain ours, and your site ships with a permanent license to use them; third-party assets (fonts, stock images, open-source software) come with their own licenses, set up in your name wherever possible. If invoices go unpaid, we may pause work and the services we operate until they're settled. We retain the right to describe the project in our portfolio unless you ask us not to.

The quote includes the revision rounds described in it. We work in weekly check-ins precisely so feedback lands early, when changing direction is cheap. Substantial new direction after approval is new scope — we'll always tell you before it costs anything.

We promise work that matches the quote, built to the scope and standards written in it, delivered when we said. You promise timely feedback, accurate business facts for the copy, and the materials we agree you'll provide. Timelines shift when one of those promises does, or when something genuinely outside both our control intervenes — flagged to you in the open, never discovered on an invoice.

Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses. Our total liability is capped at the fees you've paid for the project in question. Unless your quote says otherwise, Maryland law governs.

Questions about these terms: contact@theharbortree.com. Last updated July 25, 2026.