Terms and Conditions

Current Hourly Rates:

• If you have a monthly web care plan: $110 plus GST per hour
• Not on a web care plan: $140 plus GST per hour

Web Development and Website Builds

What do both parties agree to do?

As our customer, you have the power and ability to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organisation. You agree to provide us with everything that we’ll need to complete the project – including text, images and other information – as needed and in a digital format. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner.

We will perform the services in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavour to meet all deadlines set but we can’t be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in supplying materials or have not approved or signed off our work on time at any stage. We’ll maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.

Policy Timelines

• You have 28 days to provide all content, styling guidance, logins
• You have 10 working days to review and provide final changes

Where these timelines are not met, the project is deemed suspended by you and we will pause all work. If you would like to restart the project, it may take up to 4 weeks to re-enter our production schedule.

Works only recommence after all final content or final edits and approval to go live is provided.

Plugins, Themes, Software

If a specific plugin is required and not covered by the scope of a quote it will be purchased at additional cost and time, paid for by the customer.

Additional Changes and Out of Scope

Updates to the site or out of scope changes will be carried out at $110 plus GST per hour if you have an active web care plan (or $140 plus GST per hour if not on a web care plan).

Copyrights

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

When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:

• You own the graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project.
• We are not required to keep a copy of all website assets if you were to move your hosting away from us in future, and we are not required to provide any native source files we used to create website assets.
• You own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them. We own the markup, CSS and other code and we license it to you for use on only this project. We reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project. A tagline will be added to the base of your website such as “Website by Futurised”. There is an additional cost of $200 if you wish to remove this tagline.

Stock photos

If abiding by copyright law is important to you and you are NOT sourcing and proving all photos for your website, you MUST purchase a 1 month subscription to stock photos via https://www.shutterstock.com/, this cost is for access only, does not include searching for images, and is at the discretion of the customer with the full knowledge that copyrighted images may otherwise be used.

If you did not purchase a stock photos subscription, you agree to not take any action against Futurised for the use of possibly copyrighted images where you have not provided ALL images for your website.

If you have not purchased access to a stock photo website, Futurised will attempt to find suitable images via Google’s image search with a setting of “Labelled for reuse”.

These freely available images are typically of lower quality than those found via a paid subscription to a stock photo website.

We also do not guarantee that any photos sourced by us are in fact free to use, as image reuse rights are typically mislabelled.

Reversion (uninstall) of licences:

Licences are subject to payments; reversion of assignments and termination of licences are at the discretion of Futurised if website hosting is moved to another provider or you are not on an active care plan that covers the cost of the plugin or service. If the website is rebuilt by another provider it is outside of Futurised management and licences will be removed. If payment is withheld for a service, plugin, or theme, licences will be removed.

Payment terms

(1) Customer agrees to pay developer according to the following terms:

• 100% of the fee upon execution of the agreement; or
• Split payment over 3 months with a 5% surcharge
• Split payment over 6 months with a 10% surcharge

Customer agrees to the pay for all out of pocket expenses incurred by developer in developing the Website including, but without limitation:

• License fees
• Outsource services billed for Customer
• Shipping
• Domain name registration
• Hosting costs
• Hardware and software
• Travel

Customer agrees to pay for the developer’s fee and all expenses, as set forth above, within 14 days of invoice.

Customer agrees that estimated yearly maintenance costs are only estimates and are not included in the quoted price for the website.

Customer agrees that the website will not be submitted to nor allowed access to by Internet search engines until customer accepts all milestones in writing and all payments have been made.

Customer agrees that any changes customer makes to the specification may adversely affect the original estimate.

Extra time incurred above and beyond the original specification will be billed at $110 plus GST per hour and is not subject to the costs, estimates and caps in (1) above.

Any issue found to be the cause of the customer, third party, or outside of our direct control (e.g. registrar or third-party service) which we are asked to resolve/investigate will be chargeable.

Customer agrees that the page and component counts may vary slightly and are more likely to vary the larger the scope of the project.

After completion (on either a development or live server), minor changes can be made for a period of 14 days if covered by the scope of a quote. After 14 days, all changes are billable whether inside or outside of scope unless otherwise specified.

If you delayed the execution or performance of a deliverable we reserve the right to request payments due.

Hacked websites

If your current website has been hacked, additional fees will be advised to repair the site before continuing with a new build.

Search Engine Optimisation

We create content on your website and/or Google Business Profile and will require full admin access to your website and hosting panel.

SEO accounts are invoiced monthly in advance and are required to be paid within 7 days.

SEO services are limited to the specifications of the package.

Futurised has no control over the ranking algorithms of search engines, these will change over time at the discretion of Google, such changes can impact your ranking.

The client’s website may be removed from the first page results or excluded from search engines at the discretion of Google. Futurised is not to be held accountable for any loss of ranking or top positions.

Futurised does not guarantee positions for any keyword, phrase, or search term. Due to the competitiveness of keywords and search phrases and ongoing search engine ranking changes or other factors controlled by Google.

Futurised uses ethical, legitimate techniques and accepted standards to improve your search engine ranking. Removal of non-standard SEO tricks or gimmicks implemented by previous SEO providers may cause a loss of ranking but is necessary for long term approval of your website by Google’s index which is continually improved to detect blackhat SEO practises.

Services NOT offered:

• We do not post content to external websites such as Google Business Profile unless this inclusion is specified in your SEO package.
• We do not update Google Business Profile content unless this inclusion is specified in your SEO package.
• We do not build external links pointing at your website (backlinks).
• We do not post to your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter/X, etc.). You can adapt content we create and post to social media platforms.
• We do not exchange links with other website owners.
• We do not use blackhat tactics to trick Google into favouring your website.

If the client requests work outside of the scope of the SEO package, OR it is deemed necessary to work on additional features typically outside the scope of SEO, such as design, layout, mobile usability and user experience, Futurised reserves the right to quote for and charge additional fees as required.

Futurised will have full permission to make any content changes to the website without first requesting approval from the client and without approval from the staff of the client.

The client is expected to provide feedback so that we can create accurate and factual content, and to answer any questions promptly that will help us continue the SEO campaign.

Web Care

Web Care Plan accounts are invoiced monthly in advance and are required to be paid within 7 days.

Web Care Plan services are limited to the specifications of the package.

Upon commencement: Your website will be checked over and all plugins and themes will be updated to their current version where possible. Initial setup time of 30 minutes is included for all Care Plans (in addition to any development time included) to get your website up to date. If your website is very out of date, issues may come up due to code incompatibilities and extra time may be needed. Extra time will be subtracted from your allotted monthly allowance, or will be billable as extra time if there is no time allotted with the plan.

As time moves on, code that may have been in use on your website can cause issues when WordPress is updated or other plugins are updated, or your plugins currently in use may have been removed from the WordPress repository. On initial setup of your care plan we will advise of any of these issues and make recommendations for finding alternative plugins or advise you of the security risk of running outdated plugins where an alternative can’t be found. Over time, advancements in programming are made and functions used in your website plugins may become obsolete and deprecated. If these issues arise we will leave the plugin on the old version where an alternative solution can’t be found, or will add in workarounds to prevent issues on your website. In such cases where a workaround is required, this may take extra time which will be advised and billable.

Exclusions: Please note if you aren’t hosted on a Futurised server we don’t provide cloud backups or staging websites as we aren’t in full control of backup and storage on your server and can only provide limited hosting assistance in such cases.

Google Search Console and XML Sitemaps: these are provided with some plans if you already have these configured on your website. If you currently do not have a Google Business account, Google Analytics or Google Search account, these will need to be setup at additional cost if you would like them managed. These services are not integral to our web care plans as they are more in line with SEO related services.

Themes: If you don’t have a license for your website theme, it will remain on the version that is currently installed, and not updated. If you have a license, the version of the theme will be updated assuming it won’t cause issues with other plugins running on the website.

Any service listed as part of a web care plan that isn't completed each month, or can't technically be completed, for any reason, will not be cause for a reduction of the cost of a monthly web care plan. If you have particular requirements that must be met, you must make us aware of the requirements.

Futurised will change the admin user of your site for all notifications to be received by Futurised, such as notices from WordFence regarding outdated plugins or security issues. Administrator access should be provided to Futurised without limitation.

If the client requests work outside of the scope of the package, OR technical issues arise (such as WordPress core updates causing plugin code deprecation), such additional work, Futurised reserves the right to charge additional fees to resolve these issues.

Notification of extra works required: we typically do not notify clients of changes that are expected to take less than 2 hours in a given month as the conversation regarding necessary changes that arise, especially due to technical reasons, can take half an hour or more. If you would like to be advised of all additional changes and charges that may be occurred, discussions regarding the changes will be deducted from any monthly time allowance as a consultancy fee, or billed in addition to the monthly plan cost, if there is no allotted time included in the chosen plan.

Domain name registration

Having us manage your domain name is optional, but will often make technical changes easier to carry out without requiring your assistance.

Registrant name for new registrations will be set to the client's business name and ABN.

The registrant email address will be set to an email address managed by Futurised for handling of all renewals and domain notices to effectively manage domain renewals without delay.

Upon transfer to external parties or back to the client, these details are easily editable and can be changed to the client's personal details if Futurised is no longer involved in the management of the domain or DNS.

Setting the registrant email address as an agency email address is common practice when managing domain names for clients. If you prefer direct oversight you can request the registrant email address be set to your own email address.

Futurised will not be responsible for domain issues if the registrant email address is set to your own.

Billable time

Work will be carried out at a minimum charge of 1 hour.

We respond typically within 48 hours for non-urgent requests.

If you request work to be carried out ASAP, this will incur an additional 20% ASAP fee.

Payment Terms

Invoices are due 7 days from the date of generation unless otherwise noted.

Reminders are sent 1 day prior to the due date. Extensions can be requested.

Cancellation/refunds

You can request a cancellation of services via phone or email.

Large project (web builds) must be cancelled within 7 days of agreeing to start the project, and we will calculate time spent and deduct the time at the hourly rate from the agreed total value of the project.

For other services, refunds will be provided for the unused duration up to a maximum of 3 months for year long services. Quarterly services are non-refundable.

Futurised may suspend/cancel/terminate your service due to non-payment of any invoice under your account.

Time will be billable if you change your mind and we bring services back online after a cancellation (restart fee).

If Futurised is required to assist with migration of services or to change administrator account access over to your details there will be a minimum charge of 1 hour to cover time.

Websites: cPanel and domain passwords will be provided to allow you to migrate a website away from our servers without further support. If you request Futurised to assist you further with a migration or to provide assistance to third parties (ie. a web developer you have brought on), there will be a minimum charge of 1 hour to cover time.

If you are moving your website away from Futurised, we allow 7 days for you to complete that process.

We don't keep any backup of your website or emails after you have moved away or cancelled a service.

Custom Source Code

Source code delivery. This relates to software development: Works created under a contract for service is considered commissioned work, where the contractor owns the work. The original cost was based on compensation for use of the output of the intellectual property, and not for rights to that intellectual property. If you would like the source code moved to your server with full access and full rights to make any changes to the source code, a handover fee (to be determined) of the source code will be charged. Paying this fee will give you non-exclusive rights to use and modify the source code, but not to share, sell, or distribute it. Futurised retains exclusive copyright of the source code.

Suspension of services

Your service will be suspended if any invoice becomes 14 days overdue. Restart fee of 0.5 hours apply in most cases.

As we provide a fast turnaround for all issues/tasks we appreciate prompt payment of invoices and take action on non-paid accounts, to allow us to spend more time assisting paying customers.

Price matching

If you decide to use a provider that more closely suits your budget you can cancel any agreement with Futurised before work has begun and you will receive a prorate refund, see Cancellations.