Terms | Invola

Draft for solicitor review. This is a starting draft and has not been checked by a solicitor. It is not yet in force.

These terms are the agreement between your business and us for using Invola. Please read them before you sign up. We have tried to write them in plain English. If anything is unclear, ask us before you sign up.

1. Who we are

Invola is a trading name of [FILL IN: company name] Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number [FILL IN]), registered office [FILL IN]. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean that company.

VAT: [FILL IN: our VAT number, or "We are not registered for VAT"].

You can contact us from Help & support in the app, through the contact page at invola.co.uk, or by email at support@invola.co.uk.

2. Who these terms are for

Invola is software for trades businesses: sole traders, partnerships and companies. When you sign up you are the business taking out the subscription, and the person signing up confirms they are allowed to accept these terms for that business.

Invola is meant for business use. If you use it for your trade, you are not a "consumer" under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, even if you are a sole trader. If you sign up for purposes mainly outside your trade or business, you are a consumer: section 21 applies to you and gives you extra rights, and where it conflicts with the rest of these terms, section 21 wins.

Some laws protect you as an individual even when you use Invola for your business. For example, data protection law protects the personal details of sole traders and team members. Nothing in these terms takes those rights away.

3. What Invola is

Invola is an online app for running a trades business: customers, sites and appliances, jobs and the diary, quotes, invoices and payment records, gas, heating and other certificates, site reports, customer signing, job messages and email, a simple business website, team users, reports and exports. It works in a web browser and can be added to a phone's home screen. Some features work without a signal and send your changes when you are back online.

Each business gets its own app address (your-business.invola.app), its own database and its own encryption key.

4. Your account

The owner. The person who signs up is the account owner. The owner controls the account: plan and billing, bank details, team members and their permissions, exports and erasing data for good. The owner cannot be removed or demoted by anyone else in the business.
Team users. The owner can invite engineers and office staff, up to the number of users your plan allows. You are responsible for what your team members do in Invola, and for removing access when someone leaves.
Keeping it safe. Keep passwords private and use two-step sign-in. Tell us straight away if you think someone has got into your account. Invola emails you when a new device signs in, with a "This wasn't me" link.
Correct details. Keep your business name, address, phone and email up to date. We use them to contact you about your account.

5. Free trial

New businesses get a free trial of the plan they chose. The trial length is shown on the pricing page when you sign up (30 days unless the pricing page says otherwise).
Unless the sign-up page says a card is needed, you do not give card details for the trial, and nothing is charged.
We email the owner 7, 3 and 1 days before the trial ends, and the app shows the end date.
If the trial ends without a paid plan, nothing is charged and nothing is deleted. Your account becomes read-only (see section 10).
During a trial, lower email sending limits apply (see section 7).
One trial per business. We may hold or refuse a sign-up that looks like a repeat trial for the same business.

6. Plans, users, storage and fair use

There are four plans: Solo, Team, Business and Large. Each plan has a number of active users and an amount of file storage. The pricing page at invola.co.uk/pricing shows the current prices and limits, and the version shown when you subscribe or renew is the one that applies. When these terms were written, the limits were:

Solo: 1 user, 10 GB storage (uploads stop at 20 GB)
Team: up to 3 users, 25 GB storage (uploads stop at 50 GB)
Business: up to 10 users, 75 GB storage (uploads stop at 150 GB)
Large: up to 25 users, 200 GB storage (uploads stop at 400 GB)

Fair use

Your storage counts everything you keep: photos, attachments, your logo, website pictures, exports and the recycle bin. Settings, Storage shows how much you use.

Over the first figure (the soft limit), everything keeps working and we may get in touch about a bigger plan or tidying up.
At the second figure (the hard limit), new uploads stop until you make space or move plan. Everything you already have keeps working, and incoming customer email is still stored.
We may also contact you if your storage grows unusually fast (more than 5 GB in 30 days).
We never delete your files because you went over a limit.

Invola is for running your business. Please do not use it as general file storage or backup for files that have nothing to do with your work, or in a way that puts an unreasonable load on the service for other businesses.

[DECIDE: whether we can agree higher limits for a single business, and whether that costs extra.]

7. Email

Invola sends your emails (quotes, invoices, certificates, reminders, messages) through Postmark, our email provider. Customer replies come back into the right job in the app.

Sending limits. To keep email working for every business, each business has daily and hourly sending limits based on its plan, with lower limits during a trial. Genuine work to your own customers is allowed well beyond the normal allowance. If you reach a limit, the email is queued and sent later. It is not lost. Contact us if you need a higher limit. [DECIDE: whether to publish the exact numbers. At the moment the app never shows them to the business.]
Pausing sending. If a business's emails get spam complaints or bounce a lot, we may pause its sending until we have looked into it. While sending is paused, emails are kept and not lost.
Your own domain. Your emails can come from your own domain once you have added the DNS records shown in Settings, Email. Until then they come from an Invola address with your business name and your own reply address.
What you send. You must only email people you have a lawful reason to contact, such as your customers about their work. Do not use Invola for bulk marketing, spam or emails you are not allowed to send under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

8. Security features that may delay things

Invoice fraud is common in the trades. Invola has protections that may sometimes slow you down. We think that is worth it, but you should know about them:

48-hour bank detail wait. Your first bank details apply straight away when the owner adds them. Any later change only takes effect 48 hours after the owner approves it, with an email at every step. Nobody can shorten this, not even us. Changes are also blocked for 48 hours after a password, two-step sign-in or email address change.
Fraud guard. Outgoing emails, and the files attached to them, are checked before they go. An email that looks like it changes payment details (for example new bank details, or a payment link) is held until the owner checks it. It is not sent until then.
New devices. For 24 hours after someone signs in on a device they have not used before, some actions wait for the owner's approval.
"This wasn't me". Security emails include a link that signs everyone out, undoes the change and freezes bank and customer-facing changes for 48 hours.

These features reduce the risk of fraud. They cannot remove it. You are still responsible for checking what your business sends, and for telling your customers how to check bank details with you. We are not responsible for losses caused by an email being held or delayed by these features, as long as they worked as described here.

9. Paying

Price. The price is on the pricing page, monthly or yearly. The pricing page says whether prices include VAT. [DECIDE: once the VAT position is known, state "prices exclude VAT" or "prices include VAT" here.]
By card. Card payments are taken by Stripe on Stripe's own secure pages. Your card details go to Stripe, never to us. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each monthly or yearly period until you cancel.
By bank transfer. Where we offer it, Plan & Billing shows our bank details and your reference. We email your invoice 14 days before each period starts, and payment is due on the first day of that period. Reminders go 7 days and 1 day before.
Invoices. Your invoices, receipts and credit notes are in Settings, Plan & Billing.
Price changes. If we change the price of your plan, you keep your current price until we tell you otherwise. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a new price applies to you. If you do not want to pay the new price, you can cancel before it starts.
Refunds. If you cancel, you keep using Invola until the end of the period you have paid for, and there is no refund for the rest of that period. If we end your account because you broke these terms (for example spam, fraud or not paying), there is no refund. If we end a service without any fault on your part, we refund the time you paid for in advance and will not get. A move down to a smaller plan takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. None of this takes away a right the law gives you.

10. Late payment and read-only

If a card payment fails, Stripe tries again and emails you, and the app shows a notice. If a payment is still unpaid 14 days after it was due (card or bank transfer), your account becomes read-only. It also becomes read-only when a free trial ends without a plan, and when a cancelled plan reaches the end of its paid period.

While your account is read-only:

you can still sign in, look things up, search, open PDFs and download all your data with Export My Data;
you cannot create, change or send anything (changes made on a phone wait and are sent once the account is open again);
your customers' links to quotes and certificates keep working, and incoming email is still filed;
only sign-in and security emails are sent;
nothing is deleted.

Paying opens everything again straight away. If an account stays read-only for 90 days, we will contact the owner before anything else happens. [DECIDE: what happens next, for example "If we do not hear from you within a further 60 days, we may close the account and delete its data after giving you at least 30 days' notice by email". The app does not delete anything by itself at the moment.]

11. Changing plan

You can change plan in Settings, Plan & Billing, or ask us to.
Moving up takes effect straight away. If you pay by card, Stripe charges the difference for the rest of the period.
Moving down takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. If the smaller plan allows fewer users, the owner chooses who stays active first. The others keep all their records but cannot sign in until there is room again. If you have more storage than the smaller plan allows, nothing is removed, but new uploads stop at the hard limit.
A plan change never deletes anything.

12. Cancelling

You can cancel at any time, and it is as easy as signing up. The owner, or someone with billing rights, goes to Settings, Plan & Billing, taps Manage billing and cancels on Stripe's page. If you pay by bank transfer, message us from Help & support and we will confirm by email.

After you cancel, your account stays fully working until the end of the period you have paid for, and then becomes read-only (section 10). You will not be charged again. Nothing is deleted when you cancel. If you also want your data deleted, see section 13.

13. Closing your account and deleting your data

To close your account and have your data deleted, message us from Help & support (choose Billing or Account access) and say so. We confirm with the owner before we do anything.
Download your records first with Export My Data (the owner can do this at any time, even when the account is read-only). It gives you spreadsheets, a PDF of every document and certificate, and your photos, in one password-protected zip file. The download stays available for 7 days.
When the closure is confirmed, we cancel any card payments straight away and the account closes. Its data is deleted 30 days later. Until then, you can change your mind by contacting us.
When an account is deleted, we delete its database (every customer, job, document, certificate and setting, and its audit log) and all its stored files (photos, PDFs, uploads and exports), remove its sending domains and free its web addresses.
Copies stay in our encrypted database backups for up to 200 days and are then deleted. Stored files deleted from Invola are removed from our encrypted copy of stored files 30 days later. Nobody can change or use these copies except to restore the service after a fault.
We keep our own records of what you paid us for as long as tax law requires. Our privacy notice explains this.
Your web address (for example your-business.invola.app) is never given to another business after deletion.

Before you close your account, remember that you may have your own legal duties to keep records, for example gas safety records, certificates and accounts for HMRC. Export your data and keep it safe.

14. Your data

Your business's data belongs to you. We only use it to provide Invola to you, as described in our privacy notice and our data processing agreement.

Your customers' data. For the information you keep about your own customers (names, addresses, appliances, photos, signatures, certificates and payments), your business is the controller and we are your processor. Our data processing agreement forms part of these terms and applies automatically when you accept them.
Your account data. For information about you and your team as our customers (for example names, emails and billing), we are the controller. Our privacy notice explains what we do with it.
The Recycle bin. Something you delete goes to the Recycle bin for 30 days, then it is deleted for good. Each item shows the date it will be deleted, and you can restore it until then. Sent invoices, receipts and credit notes and issued certificates that must stay on record are never deleted this way. The owner can also delete an item for good sooner.
Your audit log. The audit log (what was deleted, restored and changed, by whom and when, including each automatic deletion from the Recycle bin) is part of your business's records. It is kept for the life of your account: no time limit deletes it. It is deleted with the rest of your data when your account is deleted.
Our staff do not look at your customers, jobs or documents in the normal course of running the service. Our admin tools do not show them. We only access them where you ask us to (for example in a support request), to restore your data after a fault, or where the law requires it.

15. What you are responsible for

Your work and your documents. Invola is a tool. You are responsible for the work you do and for what your quotes, invoices, certificates, reports and emails say. Check documents before you send them.
Certificates. Invola gives you forms for gas, heating, plumbing and other certificates and checks some things (for example that a registration has not expired). It does not check your work, and it does not replace your training, the manufacturer's instructions, the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 or industry procedures. You must hold the right registrations and qualifications for the work you certify.
Gas Safe. Gas Safe certificates only become available after we have checked your Gas Safe registration number against the public register. That check is only of the number and name you give us. It is not an approval of your business or your work. Tell us straight away if your registration changes or ends.
Your customers. You must have a lawful reason to keep your customers' details in Invola and to contact them, and you must give them the privacy information the law requires. If a customer asks you to erase their data, the owner can do it from the audit log (money figures stay, because you must keep them for HMRC).
Your website. You are responsible for what is on your business website: words, photos, prices, reviews and claims. Only use photos and content you have the right to use, and only show real reviews with permission. If you switch on Google Analytics, it only loads after a visitor accepts the cookie banner, and you are responsible for your cookie and privacy information and for your relationship with Google.
Bank feed. If you connect a Starling business account, you choose to do so in your agreement with Starling. Starling sends payments into your account to Invola so they can be matched to your invoices. You can switch it off at any time.
Support messages and feedback. Only include customers' personal details or screenshots showing them when we need them to help you.

16. Things you must not do

Break the law, or help anyone else to, including sending fraudulent invoices or payment requests.
Send spam or emails people have not agreed to receive.
Pretend to be another business or person, or use a business name that copies someone else's.
Upload malware, try to get into another business's data, test our security without our written permission, or overload the service.
Copy, resell or rebuild Invola, or get round its limits or security features.
Put content on your website that is unlawful, misleading or infringes someone else's rights.

17. Keeping the service running

We aim to keep Invola available at all times and to fix problems quickly, but we cannot promise it will never be interrupted. We tell you about planned maintenance and known problems in the app, and by email where it matters. [DECIDE: whether to promise a level of availability or support response time. Support replies currently say "usually within a working day".]
We back up every database every night to a separate provider, encrypted, and we test that backups can be restored.
We improve Invola over time. We may change or remove features. If a change takes away something important you pay for, we will tell you in advance and you can cancel. If you cancel because of it, we refund the time you paid for in advance and will not use.

18. Suspending or ending your account

We may suspend your account (the app, your website and your scheduled jobs stop, but nothing is deleted) or end these terms if:

you seriously break these terms, or keep breaking them after we have asked you to stop;
we reasonably believe the account is being used for fraud, spam or other unlawful activity, or someone has got into it without permission;
the law, a court or a regulator requires it.

We will tell you why, and where it is safe and lawful we will warn you first and give you a chance to put things right. While an account is suspended, email sent to it is kept for 30 days and filed if the account reopens. After that it is deleted. If we end these terms and you have done nothing wrong, we will give you at least [DECIDE: 60] days' notice, time to export your data, and a refund for any period you have paid for but will not get.

Not paying is dealt with under section 10 (read-only), not by suspension.

19. Intellectual property

We own Invola, its software, design, certificate layouts and help content. We give you a right to use it for your business while you have an account. You keep everything that belongs to you: your data, your logo, your photos and your words. You give us permission to store, copy and show them only as far as we need to provide Invola to you, for example to put your logo on your PDFs and your photos on your website.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them to improve Invola without paying you. We will only quote you on our website if you tick the box that allows it, and you can withdraw that in My messages at any time.

20. Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
We are responsible for providing Invola with reasonable care and skill.
We are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business or goodwill, or for any indirect loss, whether or not we could have foreseen it.
We are not liable for your work, the content of your documents and certificates, decisions you make using Invola, or problems caused by your own devices, internet connection, email provider or other services you choose to connect.
Apart from the above, our total liability to you in any 12 months is limited to [DECIDE: the greater of the fees you paid us in the previous 12 months and £[amount]].
Each side's liability for breaking data protection law is set out in the data processing agreement.

[DECIDE with solicitor: these limits must be reasonable under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 for business customers.]

21. If you are a consumer

This section only applies if you use Invola mainly for purposes outside your trade or business.

You have the rights the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you. The service must be provided with reasonable care and skill and match its description. Nothing in these terms affects those rights.
You can cancel within 14 days of first subscribing, and you will get a refund of anything you have paid, less a fair amount for any paid service you used in that time. A free trial costs nothing.
When the subscription rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 apply, we will also give you the reminders and cooling-off rights they require, including reminders before a free trial ends and before renewals, and a way to cancel in one simple step. [DECIDE with solicitor: check whether the subscription rules are in force at launch, and whether any consumer users are expected at all. If not, consider refusing consumer sign-ups instead.]
Section 20's cap on liability does not limit what the law says we owe you as a consumer.

22. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when the law changes or we add features. Each version has a version number at the foot of this page, and we record which version you accepted. For a change that affects you significantly, we will email the owner at least 30 days before it applies. If you do not agree with the change, you can cancel before it starts, and nothing else changes for you until then. Small changes that do not make things worse for you (for example correcting a typing error) can apply straight away.

23. Other legal points

These terms, the privacy notice and the data processing agreement are the whole agreement between us about Invola.
If a court decides that part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
If we do not enforce something straight away, we can still enforce it later.
You may not transfer these terms to someone else without our agreement (for example if you sell your business, contact us and we will help). We may transfer them to a company that takes over Invola, and we will tell you if that happens.
We are not responsible for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as a major outage at a hosting provider, but we will do what we reasonably can to limit the effect.
Only you and we have rights under these terms.

24. Complaints, law and courts

If you are unhappy, message us from Help & support or email support@invola.co.uk. We will try to put it right quickly. [DECIDE: a target time for responding to complaints.]

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.