Terms of service

1. Who we are
2. What Ledger is
3. Your account
4. Your books belong to you
5. What you are responsible for
6. Filing with HMRC
7. Plans, trial and payment
8. Changes to the service
9. Availability and backups
10. Leaving, and what happens to your data
11. What we are liable for
12. Law and disputes

1. Who we are

Ledger is operated by [Company name] Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, company number [00000000], registered office [address]. In these terms, "we", "us" and "Ledger" mean that company; "you" means the business or person opening an account, and anyone they give access to.

You can reach us at [email].

2. What Ledger is

Ledger is double-entry accounting software for businesses in the United Kingdom. It records invoices, bills, bank transactions and journals; produces reports from those records; and, where you connect it, submits VAT returns to HM Revenue & Customs under Making Tax Digital.

Ledger is software, not advice. It applies the rules of double-entry bookkeeping and UK VAT as you configure them. It does not know your circumstances, and it does not replace an accountant. Whether a particular treatment is right for your business is your judgement, or your accountant's.

3. Your account

• You must be at least 18, and if you open an account for a business, you confirm you have the authority to bind it to these terms.
• You are responsible for keeping your sign-in details secure and for everything done under your account. Tell us straight away if you think it has been used without your permission.
• Where you invite other people to a set of books, you are responsible for choosing what they can see and do, and for removing their access when they should no longer have it.
• We may require two-factor authentication. [Decide: required for all users, for owners only, or optional.]

4. Your books belong to you

The financial records you enter or import — your contacts, invoices, bills, bank transactions, journals, and the reports produced from them — are yours. We hold them to provide the service and for no other purpose.

• We do not sell your data, and we do not show advertising. Not to anyone, not ever, and not on any plan.
• You can export your books at any time, in full, as spreadsheets, from within the software. You do not need to ask us and there is no charge.
• We do not use your books to train any model, to build any product, or to inform any other customer's experience.
• We may look at your books only to provide support you have asked for, to investigate a fault, or where the law requires it. Anyone at Ledger who does so is bound by confidentiality.

5. What you are responsible for

• The accuracy of what you enter. Ledger ties the two sides of every entry and refuses what breaks its rules, but it cannot tell whether a figure is true. Reconciling your bank, reviewing your reports, and checking a VAT return before filing are your responsibility.
• Keeping records. UK law requires businesses to keep accounting records — generally for six years. Ledger helps you keep them, but the legal obligation is yours. Export and keep a copy if you close your account.
• Using it lawfully. Not for anything unlawful, not to hold records that are not yours to hold, and not to attempt to gain access to other customers' books or to the service itself beyond your account.
• Other people's data. The names, addresses and contact details of your customers and suppliers are personal data for which you are the controller. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to hold them; we process them on your behalf under the terms of our privacy notice.

6. Filing with HMRC

• When you connect Ledger to HMRC, you authorise Ledger to submit VAT returns on your behalf through HMRC's Making Tax Digital service. HMRC's own terms apply to that connection.
• You are the taxpayer. Before every submission Ledger shows you the figures and requires you to confirm that the information is correct and complete. That declaration is yours, and so is the return once filed. A filed return cannot be recalled by Ledger.
• Ledger stores HMRC's receipt for each filing and locks the period so the figures cannot change afterwards.
• If HMRC's service is unavailable, a filing may be delayed. Deadlines are HMRC's; allow time.

7. Plans, trial and payment

• New accounts have a 30-day free trial with no card required. When it ends you choose a plan or your books become read-only; they are not deleted.
• Plans are charged monthly in advance, in pounds sterling, at the price shown when you subscribe. Introductory pricing lasts for the period stated and then moves to the standard price, which we will show you before it applies.
• Plans limit what the software does, not how much you can enter. Moving between plans takes effect immediately and nothing in your books changes.
• You can cancel at any time from Settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid month; we do not refund part-months [or: we refund the unused part — decide].
• If a payment fails we will tell you and try again. After [14] days without payment the books become read-only until it is settled.
• Prices may change. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email before a change affects you.
• Payment is taken by [Stripe]. We do not see or store your card number.

8. Changes to the service

Ledger is improved continually. We may add, change or remove features. Where a change removes something you rely on, we will give notice and a way to export what it affected. We will not change the meaning of figures already posted to your ledger.

9. Availability and backups

• We aim for the service to be available at all times but do not guarantee it. Planned maintenance will be announced in advance where practical.
• Your data is stored in the United Kingdom (Amazon Web Services, London region) and backed up [daily, with 7 days of point-in-time recovery].
• Backups are for restoring the service, not for retrieving individual entries you have deleted. Ledger's design means posted entries cannot be deleted in any case — a correction is a further entry.

10. Leaving, and what happens to your data

• You can close your account at any time. Export your books first — we will remind you.
• After closure your data is kept, read-only, for [90] days in case you change your mind, then deleted. Backups containing it are overwritten in the normal cycle within a further [35] days.
• We may keep the minimum needed to meet our own legal obligations — for example, records of what we invoiced you — for as long as the law requires.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, is used unlawfully, or is unpaid beyond the period above. Where we can, we will warn you first and give you time to export.
• If Ledger were ever to cease operating, we would give at least 90 days' notice and keep export working until the end.

11. What we are liable for

We will provide the service with reasonable care and skill. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.

Subject to that: we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, or indirect loss; and our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is limited to the amount you paid us in that period, or £[100] if you paid nothing.

In particular, we are not liable for the consequences of figures you entered incorrectly, of a return you confirmed and filed, or of a decision made on the basis of a report — those rest on the accuracy of what you put in and your own review of what came out. If you are unsure, take advice from an accountant.

12. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you keep any rights the law gives you that cannot be excluded.

If something goes wrong, tell us first — most things are sorted out by email within a few days.

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified by email at least 30 days before they take effect; continuing to use Ledger after that date is acceptance. The current version is always at this address.