Terms of service

A church signs up for an address of its own and keeps its records in it: people, families, birthdays, giving, expenses and checks. Each church has a database of its own, and only accounts that church creates can sign in to it.

The church is responsible for what it puts in, for keeping its own accounts and passwords safe, and for deciding who may see money.

We hold a church's records to run the service for it. We do not sell them, do not use them for advertising, and do not look at them except to fix a fault the church has asked us about, or where the law requires it.

A church can download a full backup of its own records at any moment, under Settings, Backup. Ask us to delete a church and its database is removed, with its nightly backups ageing out within thirty days.

Where a subscription applies, it is billed monthly in advance and can be cancelled whenever the church likes. The church keeps its access to the end of the period already paid for.

If a payment fails, the church keeps working through a grace period and is told plainly on screen. After that, or once a subscription is cancelled, the books become read only: everyone can still sign in, read, print and download a backup. Nothing is deleted for non-payment.

Texting is an optional monthly extra. Where a church adds it, we register the church with the phone carriers, provide the number it sends from, and send the messages on the church's behalf.

The church must text only people who have agreed to receive its messages, and keep that record of consent honest. Anyone who replies STOP is stopped at once. We may switch texting off for a church that sends unlawful, misleading or unsolicited messages, or where a carrier requires it.

Carrier approval is outside our control and can take several weeks. The monthly charge applies while texting is switched on, whether or not messages are sent that month.

We work to keep the service running and back up every church every night, but no online service is free of interruption and we do not promise one. Keep your own backups as well: the download button is there for that.

We may suspend a church that is used unlawfully or that puts the service at risk. If we ever stop offering the service, we will give notice and time to download everything.

These terms are governed by the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Where a written agreement with a church says something different, that agreement comes first.