Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between JM Business Investments LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company ("we" or "us"), and the company that creates a Smart Alek account ("you"). They cover the Smart Alek phone apps, the web app and the website. By creating an account or using the service you agree to them. The person who accepts must have the authority to bind the company.

1. The service

Smart Alek is software for service businesses. It covers customers, scheduling, job records, photos and video, estimates, invoices, crew hours and what your people are owed, fuel receipts, GPS and route suggestions, parts runs, a contractor network, and an assistant called Alek.

Smart Alek does not run payroll, withhold or file taxes, or move money. It is not an accountant, a lawyer, an engineer, an insurer, a licensed contractor or an inspector. What it shows you, including everything Alek writes or reads, is a tool for your own judgment and is not payroll, tax, legal, engineering or safety advice. You are responsible for checking anything before you send it, sign it, pay it or rely on it.

2. Accounts and your people

You must give accurate information and keep sign-in details private. You are responsible for what happens under your accounts, for who you invite, and for what each person you invite can see and do. Each person who uses the service must be at least 18.

The company's owner controls its account. A crew member's access can be changed or ended by the company, and the records that person created stay with the company.

3. Your data

Your data stays yours. You give us permission to store, process and display it only as needed to run the service for you, including sending it to the service providers named in our Privacy Policy. We do not sell it. We do not use it to train AI models.

You are responsible for having the right to put data into the service. That includes details about your customers and the people who live in or own the properties you work on, photos of other people's property, access codes, your crew's pay and location, and tax forms. Those people deal with you, not with us. You will give them whatever notices the law requires, and you will handle their requests about their information. If one of them reaches us, we may send them to you.

4. Plans, trial and payment

Free trial. A new company gets 14 days free, no card required. The trial covers up to 5 people and $10 of Alek use in total. It does not include a bank link, or listing or sending on the contractor network. Answering a network request is always free.

Paid plans. Plans and prices are on our pricing page. Prices are in US dollars and do not include taxes unless stated. Every paid plan has the same features. Plans differ by the number of people and the Alek allowance, and Enterprise is set up with you directly. Extra people are charged per person. Annual plans are paid in advance.

Renewal. A paid plan renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel. You authorize us and our payment processor, Stripe, to charge your payment method on each renewal. You can cancel at any time from Plan and billing on the website. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period.

Refunds. Except where the law requires otherwise, payments are not refunded, including for a partial period, and including Alek credit.

Price changes. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice before your next renewal. The first 50 paying companies keep their rate as long as their company's account exists, including if they cancel and come back before their data is removed. A company that is removed gives up that rate, and its place is not offered to anyone else.

Failed payments. If a payment fails, Stripe retries it and your company keeps working while it does. If it still fails, your subscription ends and section 5 applies.

App stores. Plans are bought on the website, not through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Section 13 covers those stores.

5. When a trial or plan ends

If a trial ends unpaid, or a subscription ends:

1. For 30 days your company is read-only. You can see and export your data.
2. After that your company is closed until day 90. You can still export your data or choose a plan.
3. From day 90 we remove your data for good. We email the owners first, 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before, and nothing is removed until the last of those warnings has gone out, so removal can come later than day 90.

Export your data before then. Removal cannot be undone. Answering contractor network requests stays open during this time. Copies in backups last until the backups cycle out.

If an owner deletes the company. An owner can delete the company from Settings. It goes read-only for 30 days, billing stops, and everyone on the team is told. Any owner can cancel during those 30 days. After that the company and everything in it are removed for good. Export your data first. The export leaves out tax forms, so also download any signed forms the law asks you to keep. We do not refund the rest of a period already paid.

An owner who signs up and does not confirm their email within 48 hours is deleted with their empty company, as long as nobody else has joined it and no work has been added.

6. Alek and AI features

Alek is an AI assistant, and he can be wrong. He misreads photos, misunderstands questions and makes mistakes. You must not treat anything he says, drafts or reads as fact until a person has checked it.

He drafts, and a person approves. He reads fuel receipts, and a person confirms them before they count. He suggests parts lists, and a person confirms those too. The app also uses AI to reword reminders and to translate job text between English and Spanish. He does not send anything, pay anything or change a record on his own, and he has no way to order parts.

Each plan includes an allowance. When it runs out he stops until the next period or until you buy more credit, and the app still works without him. Credit stays until it is used.

7. GPS, location and routes

GPS is an optional tool, off until an owner turns it on. A person's location is shared only if the company has it on, that person has agreed in the app, and they have started their day. You are responsible for deciding whether to use this tool and for using it lawfully. That includes notices and consent the law requires, tracking rules for personal phones and vehicles, wage and hour rules, and the effect close tracking may have on whether someone is an independent contractor. You will not make anyone believe sharing is off when it is on, and you will not use the service to track anyone outside their work.

The app suggests routes and never reorders a day on its own. A person says yes first. Drive times are estimates, and any road, weather or traffic decision belongs to the driver. Nobody should use the app while driving in a way that takes their attention from the road.

8. Parts runs and stores

Alek can help find stores for a parts list, but nothing in the service tells you whether an item is in stock unless a result names a source and a time. Every store otherwise reads "Call to confirm." Store hours, addresses and details come from outside sources and may be wrong.

9. Pay figures, fuel and tax forms

Payday shows a straight count of what each person is owed, from the hours, days and rates you enter. It does not include overtime premiums, withholding or filings, which belong to the payroll system or accountant you already use. Fuel totals depend on what people confirm. You are responsible for your classification of workers, and for paying people correctly and on time.

The app lets people fill in and sign W-9, W-4 and I-9 forms. You are responsible for requesting the right forms, for reviewing them, for inspecting documents in person where the I-9 requires it, and for keeping them for as long as the law requires.

10. Your customer documents

Estimates, invoices, reports and emails go out under your company's name and are your documents. Default wording, including the estimate notice and protective terms, is a starting point and not legal advice. Reports state what you found. The service does not certify any building, deck, structure or system as safe. Your contracts with your customers are between you and them, and we are not a party to them.

11. Connected services

You may connect your own QuickBooks, Stripe or Square account, or a bank through Plaid. Those services are yours, under their own terms. Your customers' payments go to you through them, not through us, and any fees they charge are yours. A bank connection is read-only and we cannot move your money.

If you connect a payment system, we read your customer contact cards so we can offer to bring them in, and we keep reading them for changes if you confirm an import. Your customers are not added to your list until you confirm.

Route and store features use Google Maps Platform. Your use of those features is also subject to the Google Maps Terms of Service and Google's Privacy Policy.

12. The contractor network

The contractor network is optional and has its own terms, shown when you opt in and stored with your acceptance. Companies on the network contract with each other. We introduce companies. We are not a party to any job, we do not vet or guarantee anyone's work, insurance, payment or paperwork, and we take no fee today. A listing is suspended when an insurance certificate lapses, but a current listing is not proof of coverage. You are responsible for checking a company before you hire it.

13. Apple and Google

If you download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, these terms are between you and us, not Apple or Google. You may use the app on devices you own or control, as their store rules allow. Apple and Google are not responsible for the app, its content, support, maintenance, warranties, or any claim about it, including product liability, legal compliance or intellectual property claims. We are responsible for those to the extent these terms say so. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You confirm you are not in a country under a US embargo and are not on a US list of restricted parties.

14. Acceptable use

Do not use the service to break the law; to send spam; to harass or stalk anyone; to upload malware; to get into another company's data; to test our security without written permission; to scrape it or copy it to build a competing product; or to resell it.

15. Our property

We own the service, the software, the design, the Smart Alek name and the Alek character. We give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service while your account is in good standing. If you send us ideas, we may use them with no obligation to you.

16. Service providers and availability

We rely on outside providers to run the service. We aim to keep it available, but it may be interrupted, and we do not promise any particular uptime unless a signed Enterprise agreement says otherwise.

17. Ending your account

You may stop using the service at any time. An owner can delete the company, and anyone else can delete their own account, from Settings in the app or on the web. Work, pay and tax records a company must keep stay with it under that person's name until the company is removed. An owner cannot delete their own account while they own a company. Our account deletion page has the details, and a way to reach us if you cannot sign in. We may suspend or end access if you break these terms or do not pay, with notice where reasonable. Section 5 applies to your data.

18. Warranty disclaimer

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT PROMISE THAT THE SERVICE, ANYTHING ALEK PRODUCES, ANY DRIVE TIME OR ANY STORE RESULT WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE OR UNINTERRUPTED.

19. Limit of liability

TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA, AND OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS IS LIMITED TO WHAT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM.

20. Indemnity

You will defend and hold us harmless from claims arising from your data, your work, your dealings with your customers, crew and subcontractors, your use of location data, and your breach of these terms.

21. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms and will give notice of material changes. Continuing to use the service after they take effect means you accept them.

22. General terms

These terms are the whole agreement between us about the service, unless a signed Enterprise agreement says otherwise. If part of them cannot be enforced, the rest stays in force. You may not transfer them without our consent. We may transfer them with our business. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by things outside reasonable control.

23. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to conflict of law rules. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in Wyoming, and we both agree to their jurisdiction.

24. Contact

JM Business Investments LLC, 30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, [SUPPORT EMAIL]