Terms, in plain English.

What we do, and what we don't

We design, build and look after websites and apps, make brand films, and prepare monthly management reports and written Ask-an-Accountant reports from the information you give us.

• We don't prepare or file tax returns and we don't act as your tax agent. Your accountant still does that. We also don't provide audit, assurance, bookkeeping, payroll or legal services.
• Our briefings and reports are management information about your own business. They are not regulated financial advice under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, and we don't recommend financial products, investments, insurance or lenders.
• Please confirm tax decisions with your accountant before you act on them. Every Ask-an-Accountant report lists what to check.

Agreeing in writing

You buy a service by signing an Order: a Build Order, Membership Order or Brand Film Order. Each Order includes our Client Services Agreement, plus our Information Handling Terms and, for briefings and Ask-an-Accountant reports, our Engagement Letter. Together, those signed documents are our agreement, and they replace the terms on this page for the services they cover.

• An Order becomes binding when both of us have signed it. You can sign electronically, for example by typing your name or using an e-signature on the Order we email you, and we sign every Order ourselves. Electronic signatures are valid under the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.
• A written proposal describes the scope and price. Accepting a proposal by email does not by itself create a contract; the signed Order does.
• If our documents differ, the signed Order comes first, then the Engagement Letter, the Information Handling Terms and the Client Services Agreement. A proposal only describes scope.
• We work by email so that everything is on record, and through our member area once it opens. Scope, prices, approvals, changes and notices are confirmed in writing, and we don't agree changes by phone.
• You're welcome to ask for copies of every document before you sign, ask us questions in writing, and take legal advice.

Website and app builds

• Websites: 50% when the Build Order is signed, 50% at launch.
• Apps and website-plus-app bundles: 40% when the Build Order is signed, 30% at design sign-off, 30% at store launch.
• The price in your signed Build Order is fixed for the scope in the proposal it refers to. Anything outside that scope is quoted in writing and only starts once you approve it.
• You approve each stage in writing. Two rounds of revisions are included at the design stage.
• If something we built doesn't work as agreed, tell us in writing within 60 days of launch and we'll fix it at no charge.
• App store approval is decided by Apple and Google. We prepare every submission to meet their rules and handle any resubmission at no charge, but we can't guarantee their decision or timing.
• You can cancel a build before launch by written notice. You pay for the work done up to that date, which we show you in writing, and we refund anything you've paid above that.

Brand films

• 50% when the Brand Film Order is signed, 50% on delivery. You approve the script and storyboard in writing before production starts.
• Brand Film 30 includes two revision rounds and Brand Film Plus includes three. More are quoted first.
• Films are produced with generative film, image, voice and music tools. Digital actors are never presented as your real customers, staff or reviewers. We never use a real person's face, body, name or voice without their signed Likeness and Voice Release.
• Some platforms require realistic AI-generated content to be labelled. When you publish the film, you apply any label a platform requires.
• Music is licensed or generated for use with your film. Any limits on where it may be used are listed at delivery.
• We keep the project files for 90 days after delivery, then delete them unless you ask us in writing for a copy first.
• If you cancel, other than because of our serious breach: before script approval we keep 25% of the price; after script approval and before production we keep the first 50% payment; after production starts you pay for the work done, up to the full price.

Memberships

• To join, contact us through the form on our website. We confirm your plan in writing and send you a Membership Order to sign. Memberships are billed monthly in advance on your billing date, which is the date you joined. Until card and direct debit payments open, we send you an invoice each month. Once they open, you can pay by card or direct debit through our payment provider, Stripe, under the payment authority in your Membership Order.
• No minimum term. Every membership, and the App Care add-on, runs month to month from the start.
• You can stop a membership at any time by telling us in writing before your next billing date. The month you've already paid for runs to its end, and there's no exit fee. Leaving explains how.
• Moving up a plan takes effect from your next billing date, or sooner if you ask. Moving down takes effect from your next billing date, as long as you tell us in writing before it.
• A membership is optional. You can buy a build on its own, and once it's paid in full, it's yours.
• Change hours are per month and don't roll over. Extra changes are $95 an hour, quoted in writing before we start.
• Each plan includes two Ask-an-Accountant reports a month. Extra reports are $120 each. Reports arrive within three working days of a complete question.
• Your briefing arrives by the 5th of the month when we receive your bank export by the 1st. Until our member area opens, you send it by email to hello@myceo.co.nz; our privacy policy explains how we handle it.
• We may change membership prices with at least 30 days' written notice. If you don't want to continue at the new price, you can stop your membership before it applies, with nothing more to pay.

Founding client offer

• Open to our first ten clients, counted in the order Build Orders are signed. When all ten places are taken, the offer ends.
• 20% off the build fee for a website, app or website-plus-app bundle, and 20% off your first three months of any membership. After those three months, your membership continues month to month at the plan's normal price. You can stop at any time before your next billing date, including during the three discounted months, with nothing to repay. Brand films keep their own pricing.
• In return, you agree in writing that we can publish a case study about your project, and we ask you to write an honest review within 60 days after launch. We send you the case study before publishing it, and we never publish your business figures without your written approval. There is no penalty if you don't write a review.
• We never ask for a positive review, and your discount doesn't depend on what you write. We publish every founding client review in your own words, whatever its rating, labelled Founding client review: received 20% off the build and 20% off the first three months of membership in return for a case study and an honest review.
• Because you received a discount, please don't post your review, or any other review of MyCEO, on Google or other review sites that don't allow incentivised reviews. We won't ask you to.
• You can withdraw your consent to the case study or review at any time in writing, and we'll remove them from our website and social media within 14 days. Your price doesn't change.

Paying

• All prices are in New Zealand dollars. MyCEO is not registered for GST, so no GST is added, and the price shown is the full price you pay. If your business is registered for GST, there is no GST in our fees for you to claim.
• Every charge comes with an invoice. Because we're not registered for GST, our invoices are titled "Invoice", not "tax invoice".
• If we register for GST in future, we'll tell you in writing at least 30 days before we add GST to your price. We won't add it to a Build Order or Brand Film Order you've already signed. For memberships, adding GST is a price change, and you can stop your membership before it applies.
• Build and film invoices are due within seven days.
• If an invoice is more than 14 days overdue after a written reminder, we may pause work until it's paid. We never take a live website or app offline, or withhold your data, for an unpaid invoice without giving you 14 days' written notice first.
• If you dispute part of an invoice in good faith, tell us in writing within seven days and pay the rest. We won't pause work over an amount you're disputing in good faith.

Ownership

• Your domain, app store listings, hosting, analytics and business accounts are registered in your business's name from the start. For .nz domains, your business is always the registrant.
• Your own content, logos, data and accounts are always yours.
• Copyright in what we create. Under section 21(3) of the Copyright Act 1994, whoever commissions and pays for certain kinds of work, such as software, designs and films, would normally own the copyright from the start. Our Orders contract out of that rule: MyCEO owns the copyright in what we create for you first, and when the fees for it are paid in full, we assign it to you in writing. That includes the design, code and content we created for you, and any rights we hold as the person who made the arrangements for creating a computer-generated work or a film. Until then, you have a licence to use it for the purpose of your Order.
• You don't need a membership to own what we build. Once a build is paid in full, it's yours, with or without a membership.
• The person who creates your work signs your Build Order or Brand Film Order personally, consenting to you changing and using it without naming them.
• We keep ownership of our own tools, templates, code libraries and know-how that aren't specific to you, and give you a permanent, free licence to use them as part of your website, app or film, including letting a future provider maintain them.
• Copyright protection for material made with generative tools is still developing. We transfer whatever rights exist, but can't promise every element of a film is protected everywhere.
• Fonts, stock images, plugins and similar items from other companies are licensed to you under their own terms, which we tell you about.
• We may list your business name and a screenshot or still in our portfolio once your project is public, unless you ask us not to. Anything more, such as a case study, needs your written agreement.

Your part

• Give us accurate and complete information, and the content, access and decisions we need, when we need them. Delays on your side may move our dates.
• Make sure you have the right to use any content you give us, such as photos, text and logos.
• You're responsible for the claims your business makes on its website, in its app and in its advertising. We'll flag anything that looks misleading, but you confirm the facts.
• Your bank exports contain other people's information. We process it on your behalf, and your business remains responsible for it under the Privacy Act 2020. Until our member area opens, send your bank export by email to hello@myceo.co.nz. Send only the export file, and never passwords, online banking logins, PINs or card numbers. Our privacy policy explains how we handle and delete it.
• Keep your own business records. Our reports don't replace the records the Tax Administration Act 1994 requires you to keep.

Hosting and care

• We use reputable hosting with daily backups and security monitoring. For a website or app we look after under a membership, and for any build during its 60-day fix period after launch, we aim to fix urgent problems, such as the site being down or a security issue, on the same working day you report them in writing, where the problem is within our control. Fixing a fault in our own work is free; other urgent work for members uses the plan's monthly change hours. Outside a membership or the fix period, urgent work is quoted in writing first.
• No online service can promise 100% uptime. We aren't responsible for outages, price changes or policy decisions at the platforms we rely on, such as Cloudflare, Apple, Google, Shopify or Stripe, but we'll work to limit any disruption and tell you what we know.

Our member area

• Our member area isn't open yet. Until it opens, we work by email: you send your bank export and questions to hello@myceo.co.nz, and we email your briefing and reports to you. We'll tell you in writing before it opens, and from then on it replaces email for sending bank exports.
• Once it opens, you'll sign in with a link sent to your email address, so please keep that email account secure. Anyone who can read your email could sign in to your member area.
• Tell us straight away at hello@myceo.co.nz if you think someone else has signed in or read your email, and we'll end every session on your account.

Leaving, and ending the agreement

• Stopping a membership. There's no minimum term. You can stop at any time by telling us in writing before your next billing date, by email to hello@myceo.co.nz (or, once it opens, through the member area). We confirm it in writing, and we don't charge you again.
• Your last month. The month you've already paid for runs to its end, and your plan continues until then. There's no exit fee and nothing more to pay. If you tell us after a month's payment has been taken, that payment stands, and your membership ends when that month ends.
• Ending straight away. You can also end a membership straight away, and we refund the part of the month you've paid for but won't receive, if:
  • we seriously breach the agreement and don't fix it within 14 days of your written request;
  • you object on reasonable grounds to a new provider that will hold your data, and we can't find an alternative;
  • our principal is unable to work, and we can't provide the services for more than 20 working days; or
  • we transfer the MyCEO business to another company, and you end within 30 days of our notice.
• When MyCEO can end a membership. Only by giving you at least 60 days' written notice, and only if we stop offering that plan to all clients, or can't continue for professional or legal reasons. You then pay nothing for the period after it ends, and we help you move to a new provider.
• Either of us can end an Order straight away by written notice if the other seriously breaches it and doesn't fix the breach within 14 days of being asked in writing, or becomes insolvent or stops trading.
• When an Order ends, you pay for the services provided up to the end date, and we refund anything you've paid in advance for services we won't provide.
• Within 14 days, we hand over the work you've paid for, including source files and code, transfer any account not already in your name, export your content, remove our access to your accounts and confirm that in writing. We give your new provider reasonable help with the move: the first two hours are free, and more is $95 an hour, quoted first. Your briefings and reports are emailed to you as they're delivered, and for 30 days after you leave we'll resend any copy you ask for. After that, we delete your data on the schedule in our privacy policy.

Liability

• We take care over everything we produce. Our reports depend on the information you give us, and we're not responsible for errors caused by information that is incomplete or incorrect, unless we should reasonably have noticed the problem.
• Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of profit, revenue, data or goodwill. This doesn't exclude the reasonable cost of restoring your data from our backups.
• Each party's total liability to the other is limited to the total fees paid or payable by you to us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
• These limits don't apply to fees you properly owe, to fraud or wilful misconduct, to a breach of confidentiality or of our Information Handling Terms caused by a deliberate or reckless act, or to liability that can't be limited by law.
• You're buying our services for business purposes, so we agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 doesn't apply, as section 43 of that Act allows between businesses. The Fair Trading Act 1986 still applies.
• Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under New Zealand law that can't be excluded by agreement.

If we disagree

Tell us in writing and we'll reply within five working days. If we can't settle it between us within 20 working days, either of us can refer it to mediation with a mediator we agree on, or one appointed by the Resolution Institute, sharing the cost equally. Nothing stops either of us going to the Disputes Tribunal or the courts, or seeking urgent relief.

Changes to these terms

We may update the Client Services Agreement for all clients by giving at least 30 days' written notice, with the changes clearly shown. If you tell us in writing before a change takes effect that you don't accept it, you can end the affected Order before it takes effect, with no exit fee. Any other change to your agreement needs both of us to agree in writing. We may update this summary page at any time; the documents you signed are what apply to you.

Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have jurisdiction. Questions: hello@myceo.co.nz.