Terms of Service

Key Scheduling Principle: Your project is not scheduled and work does not begin until the signed Project Agreement & Scope of Work and required deposit are received.

1. Scope of Services & Project Agreements

Context & Muse provides custom digital systems, consulting, and development services, including:

• Website Design & Development: Custom high-performance business websites, launch sites, and responsive web platforms.
• Conversion Systems: Lead capture architecture, conversion audits, funnel sprints, and quote-generation interfaces.
• Workflow & Operational Systems: Custom workflow automation, multi-step pipeline tools, and internal process infrastructure.
• Intake & Routing Systems: Structured customer intake forms, client triage engines, and automated notification routing.
• Dashboards & Internal Tools: Operational management interfaces, database management views, and administrative control panels.
• Consulting & Analysis: Information architecture consulting, process diagnostics, and forensic systems analysis.
• Custom Digital Products: Specialized software utilities, calculators, decision engines, and standalone web applications.
• Hospitality & Restaurant Systems: POS data diagnostics, menu and check-discrepancy review tools, and specialized hospitality operational workflows where applicable.

All custom web builds, operational tooling, and bespoke software projects are governed by an approved, written Project Agreement & Scope of Work. The Project Agreement defines:

• Project Scope: Precise functional requirements, page counts, database structures, integrations, and deliverables.
• Out of Scope: Explicit exclusions to prevent ambiguity and technical divergence.
• Pricing & Schedule: Total project fee, deposit amount, and milestone payment trigger points.
• Client Responsibilities: Required assets, credentials, copy, domain access, and feedback intervals.
• Delivery & Launch: Staging review, deployment requirements, and post-launch support window.

2. Deposit & Scheduling

A deposit is required to reserve production capacity and schedule work. Once work begins, the deposit becomes non-refundable and is applied toward the project total. No development, design, setup, data modeling, migration, or deployment work will begin until both the signed Project Agreement & Scope of Work and required deposit have been received.

3. Payment Milestones & Billing Schedules

Context & Muse uses structured milestone billing to protect both parties and ensure clear execution:

• Launch Sites ($1,500+) & Conversion Sites ($2,750+):
  • 50% Deposit: Due upon signing to reserve timeline and commence build.
  • 50% Final Payment: Due upon staging approval, prior to final production deployment and file handoff.
• Custom Business Systems ($4,500+):
  • 40% Deposit: Due upon signing to reserve development queue and begin data/architecture modeling.
  • 30% Core Milestone: Due upon client approval of core UI and functional logic.
  • 30% Final Payment: Due upon completed staging testing, prior to live environment deployment.
• Custom Software & Client Portals (Quoted):
  • 30% Upfront Deposit: Initial sprint & architecture spec.
  • 30% Functional Prototype: Major system milestone & database schema approval.
  • 30% Feature Completion: Final end-to-end integration and staging sign-off.
  • 10% Release: Due immediately prior to production launch and final credentials transfer.

4. Final Payment & Launch Conditions

All final testing and client review occur in a secured staging environment. Live domain cutover, DNS pointings, repository transfers, and production administrative credentials will not be released with an outstanding balance.

5. Changes Outside Scope (Scope Creep)

Requests that materially change the approved scope, functionality, page count, integrations, workflows, or deliverables will be treated as additional work. Context & Muse will provide written pricing and timeline adjustments for the requested change before proceeding with implementation.

6. Revision Limits

Two (2) reasonable revision rounds are included for design and content adjustments within the approved scope during the staging phase. New features, new pages, altered operational workflows, or substantial structural redesigns are not revisions and will be quoted separately as scope expansions.

7. Client Delays & Inactivity

Timely delivery requires active collaboration. If required content, copy, credentials, third-party API keys, approvals, or feedback are not provided within ten (10) business days of a request, the project delivery timeline may be adjusted. Projects that remain inactive for thirty (30) consecutive days due to client delay may require rescheduling and a restart fee to re-enter the production queue.

8. Ownership & Deliverables Transfer

Upon full payment, ownership of the completed project-specific deliverables transfers to the client, subject to any third-party licenses and excluding Context & Muse pre-existing tools, frameworks, reusable components, development methods, and systems.

9. Third-Party Costs & Subscriptions

Third-party services, external tools, and ongoing subscriptions are never included in Context & Muse project fees unless specifically itemized in the approved Scope of Work. Clients remain directly responsible for all third-party costs, including but not limited to domain registrations and renewals, DNS services, web hosting and cloud infrastructure, payment gateway processing fees (e.g., Stripe, Square), external API charges, CRM/PMS subscriptions, transactional email/SMS services (e.g., Twilio, Resend, SendGrid), commercial font or media licenses, and third-party SaaS integrations.

10. Conversion Audit Crediting

If you purchase a Conversion Audit ($195 flat rate), the full $195 fee is 100% credited toward any qualifying website or custom system build booked within thirty (30) days of audit delivery.

11. Ongoing Care Plans & Support

Post-launch maintenance is available via quarterly care plans (billed quarterly, not as a website rental fee). Care plans cover security monitoring, performance audits, backups, and scheduled minor updates. Subscriptions may be canceled with thirty (30) days' notice prior to the start of the next quarterly billing cycle.

12. Advisory Decision Support (Signal Diagnostics)

Signal reports, margin analysis, and workflow diagnostics provide decision-support intelligence. Context & Muse does not provide formal CPA audits, tax advice, legal counsel, or guaranteed margin recovery figures. Findings must be validated by business management prior to operational implementation.

13. Limitation of Liability & Governing Law

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Context & Muse and Jayme Volstad shall not be liable for any indirect, consequential, or lost-profit damages arising out of system usage, third-party hosting outages, or API deprecations. These terms shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the State of Texas.

14. Contact Information

For questions regarding these terms, project agreements, or scoping policies, please contact:
Email: jayme@contextmuse.com