Terms of Business Clear terms for BBB services and EEAI.

Application and business clients

Beyond Basic Business ("BBB", "we", "us" or "our") provides business automation, Enquiry Engine AI (EEAI), Business Tools, Business Support and related digital services. BBB is based in Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom.

These terms are intended for clients acting for purposes connected with their trade, business, craft or profession. They are not intended to remove any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

A binding agreement is formed when the client accepts a BBB quote, proposal or order confirmation, agrees in writing or electronically, or instructs BBB to begin work after receiving the applicable terms.

Quotes, scope and changes

The agreed quote, proposal or order confirmation describes the service, deliverables, assumptions, price and any important timescales. Estimates are based on the information available when they are prepared.

• Work outside the agreed scope may be quoted separately.
• Changes requested after work starts may affect price or delivery time.
• BBB may recommend a different approach if the original request would create avoidable complexity or risk.
• Where a third-party service, API, platform or licence is needed, any separate third-party charge will be identified where reasonably possible.

BBB will not intentionally add chargeable work without the client's agreement.

Fees, invoices and payment

Fees are those shown in the accepted quote, proposal, order confirmation or current applicable pricing. BBB is not currently VAT registered, so VAT is not added to current fees. If BBB becomes VAT registered in future, any VAT payable will be shown clearly on quotes and invoices from the applicable date.

• Setup fees: normally payable before configuration or build work begins.
• Subscriptions: normally billed monthly in advance unless another billing cycle is agreed.
• Project work: may be invoiced in advance, by milestone or on completion as stated in the quote.
• Business Support: may be billed by task, agreed block or recurring arrangement as stated in the quote.

Unless a different payment date is stated on the invoice, payment is due within 7 days. BBB may charge statutory interest and applicable recovery costs on overdue business debts where permitted by law.

A setup fee is not normally refundable once setup or build work has started. This does not affect any refund or remedy that is legally required, or any refund BBB agrees where it is unable to deliver the agreed scope.

Automation, Business Tools and Business Support

Automation and Business Tools

Bespoke automations and tools are built against the agreed workflow and available systems. The client should test deliverables promptly and report any material issue that means the agreed scope has not been met.

Fixing a genuine defect within the agreed scope is different from adding a new feature, changing the workflow or adapting the tool because a third-party system has changed. New requirements may be quoted separately.

Business Support

Business Support covers the tasks and availability agreed with the client. Where support is bought as a block or recurring arrangement, the quote will state how time is measured, whether unused time carries over and any agreed response expectations.

Client responsibilities

The client is responsible for:

• providing accurate information, access and instructions reasonably needed to deliver the service;
• checking that business information supplied to EEAI is accurate and kept up to date;
• having the necessary rights and lawful basis to provide BBB with any data, documents, images or account access;
• keeping its own passwords, devices and account credentials secure;
• reviewing outputs where human judgement is required;
• maintaining appropriate backups of business-critical information unless backup is expressly included in the service;
• using BBB services lawfully and not instructing BBB to build or operate a workflow that infringes another person's rights or applicable law.

BBB is not responsible for delay caused by missing information, delayed approvals, unavailable client systems or third-party access that the client is responsible for providing.

AI and automated outputs

EEAI and some BBB workflows may use artificial intelligence to understand messages, classify enquiries, prepare information or generate responses. AI can be useful but it is not infallible.

• BBB will configure the workflow to reduce unnecessary guessing and use approved business information where appropriate.
• The client remains responsible for deciding what information EEAI is allowed to provide to customers.
• Where an answer requires professional judgement, approval, a firm quotation or another human decision, the workflow should hand over or be reviewed.
• AI output should not be treated as a guaranteed statement of fact where independent verification is reasonably required.

BBB does not provide legal, medical, financial or other regulated professional advice through EEAI.

Intellectual property and client materials

The client keeps ownership of its own business data, branding, documents, images and other materials supplied to BBB.

BBB retains ownership of its pre-existing intellectual property, methods, templates, reusable code, workflow components, know-how, EEAI platform components and general tools developed independently of a client's confidential information.

Unless the quote expressly transfers ownership, bespoke deliverables are supplied with a licence for the client to use them for its own business purposes. A quote may set out different ownership or licence terms for a particular project.

Confidentiality

Each party will take reasonable care of confidential information received from the other and will use it only as needed for the agreed work, legal compliance or professional advice.

Confidential information does not include information that is already public through no breach of confidence, was lawfully known already, or is independently developed without using the other party's confidential information.

Data protection

Each party is responsible for complying with the data protection law that applies to its own role. BBB's public handling of personal information is described in the Privacy & Data Protection Policy.

Where BBB processes personal data on the client's behalf as a processor, Part B of these terms applies and forms part of the contract between BBB and the client.

Suspension and termination

BBB may suspend some or all of a service where reasonably necessary because of overdue payment, a security risk, unlawful use, misuse of a third-party platform or a serious breach of the agreement. Where practical, BBB will give the client an opportunity to correct the issue first.

Either party may terminate an agreement immediately if the other commits a serious breach that cannot be corrected, or fails to correct a remediable serious breach within a reasonable period after written notice.

Ending the agreement does not remove fees already due. Any treatment of personal data after termination is governed by Part B where applicable.

Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where the law does not allow that liability to be excluded or limited, including liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or death or personal injury caused by negligence where applicable.

Subject to that, BBB will not be liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business opportunity or anticipated savings, to the extent such loss can lawfully be excluded in a business-to-business contract.

BBB's total aggregate liability arising from an affected service will not exceed the total fees paid or payable by the client for that service during the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim, unless a different liability cap is stated in the quote or agreement.

BBB is not responsible for failure or interruption caused by a third-party service, communications provider, hosting provider, software platform or API outside BBB's reasonable control, although BBB will take reasonable steps to restore or adapt the service where practical.

General terms

Force majeure

Neither party is responsible for delay or failure caused by events outside its reasonable control, provided it takes reasonable steps to reduce the effect of the event.

Notices

Routine notices may be sent by email to the normal business contact used between the parties. Cancellation notices should clearly state that the service is being cancelled.

Entire agreement

The accepted quote, proposal or order confirmation, these terms and any documents expressly incorporated into them form the agreement for the relevant service.

Governing law

The agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction, unless the parties agree another lawful dispute process in writing.

Changes to these terms

BBB may update these standard terms from time to time. Changes do not rewrite an existing fixed-scope agreement unless agreed, but updated terms may apply to a renewal, new project or continuing recurring service after reasonable notice.

Documented instructions

BBB will process personal data only on the client's documented instructions, including the agreed service configuration, written change requests and other instructions capable of being retained as a record, unless UK law requires BBB to process the data in another way.

If BBB considers that an instruction infringes applicable data protection law, BBB will inform the client unless prohibited from doing so by law.

Confidentiality and security

BBB will ensure that people authorised to process client personal data are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

BBB will use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk. Depending on the service these may include access controls, restricted credentials, secure hosting, encrypted connections, logging, backups and limiting access to systems that genuinely need the data.

Sub-processors

The client gives BBB general written authorisation to use sub-processors that are reasonably necessary to provide the agreed service. BBB remains responsible for putting appropriate data protection terms in place with its sub-processors.

Material sub-processors for a client's setup may include hosting, messaging, automation, integration, email and AI processing providers. The current material providers used for a particular setup can be supplied in the service documentation or on request.

Where reasonably possible, BBB will notify the client of a material change to the sub-processors used for ongoing processing so the client can raise a reasonable data protection objection before the change takes effect.

International transfers

BBB will not knowingly make a restricted international transfer of client personal data except on the client's instructions or where the transfer is covered by a lawful UK transfer route, such as applicable UK adequacy regulations, appropriate safeguards or another permitted mechanism.

Data subject requests and compliance assistance

Taking into account the nature of the processing, BBB will provide reasonable assistance to help the client respond to requests from individuals exercising their data protection rights.

BBB will also provide reasonable assistance, taking into account the information available to BBB, with the client's obligations relating to security, personal data breaches, data protection impact assessments and consultations with the ICO where applicable.

Personal data incidents

BBB will notify the client without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting personal data processed by BBB on the client's behalf and will provide information reasonably available to help the client assess and respond to the incident.

Deletion or return at the end of the service

At the end of the processing service, BBB will delete or return client personal data as agreed with the client, and will delete remaining copies where reasonably within BBB's control, unless the law requires continued storage.

Data held in routine backups may remain until the backup is overwritten in the normal cycle, provided it is protected and not restored for ordinary use after the service has ended.

Information, audits and inspections

BBB will make available information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with its processor obligations and will allow for reasonable audits or inspections by the client or an auditor appointed by the client.

Audits should normally be arranged on reasonable notice, during normal business hours and in a way that avoids unnecessary disruption, except where an urgent security or regulatory issue reasonably requires a different approach. The parties will protect the confidentiality and security of other clients and systems during any audit.

Client obligations as controller

The client remains responsible for determining the purposes and lawful basis of its processing, providing required privacy information to individuals, giving BBB lawful instructions and ensuring the personal data supplied to the service is appropriate for the intended purpose.

The client should not instruct BBB to collect special category information unless that collection has been specifically assessed and there is an appropriate legal basis and genuine need for it.

Processing details