The following Terms and Conditions of Service apply to all products and services provided by THE ANIMO GROUP LTD. (ANIMO). All work is carried out by Animo on the understanding that the person, firm or company that approved the commencement of  the work (CLIENT) has agreed to Animo’s Terms and Conditions.

Financials

Charging, Deposits, Quoting & Invoicing

Project acceptance

At the time of proposal, Animo will provide the client with a written estimate or quotation. The Terms and Conditions can be read on the Animo website (www.madebyanimo.com/terms) . A copy of the written estimate or quotation is to be signed and dated by the client, to indicate acceptance and should be returned to Animo. Alternatively, the client may send either an official order in reply to the estimate/quotation, or an email acknowledging acceptance of the quotation – both methods also bind the client to Animo’s Terms and Conditions. No work on a project will commence until acceptance of the quotation has been received by Animo.

Charges

Charges for services to be provided by Animo will be set out in a written estimate or quotation that is provided to the client. This quotation is an estimate of the time and resources required to complete the task. Once the job is complete, all time is reconciled and invoiced according to the actual time spent in performing the tasks required to complete the work.

By approving a quote or estimation, you are accepting that the final invoiced amount(s) may be more or less than that initially estimated. Work will be invoiced to the client for payment following final approval of the project, or in cycling periods of 30 days, starting from the client's approval of the estimate or quotation, whichever is sooner. Time spent on a project is recorded via online timesheets, and all work is invoiced according to the recorded time spent on the project up to and including that point.

Animo reserves the right to invoice for the full amount of the project if requested information from the client is not forthcoming after 30 days of the request or within the estimated finish date (as outlined in the brief).

Animo reserves the right to invoice for any disbursements for part works carried out, including third-party costs incurred on a project. Should the project be unable to be completed for any reason or has been delayed/put on hold by the client for a period of 30 days or more staged invoicing will occur.

Source Files

Charges for our work does not cover the release of copyright design files, including but not limited to; indd, ai, psd, png, fla or any other source files. If the Client requires these files, they will be subject to a separate quotation or ‘buy-out’ charge.

Usage & Intellectual Property

Charges for our work includes supply of final assets only, and for the sole purpose outlined in the initial estimate or quotation. This does not include the reuse of the supplied asset(s) for additional purposes, unless otherwise agreed in writing with Animo. Nor does the supply of assets include or imply the release of our intellectual property to the client or any third party, unless otherwise agreed in writing with Animo. 

If the client wishes to reuse the supplied assets for a different purpose, or wishes Animo to release its intellectual property to the client, this will be subject to a separate quotation or ‘buy-out’ charge.

Alterations & Amendments to Work

Unless otherwise stated, our estimates do not allow for any rounds of changes, but instead make a provision for the time resources we estimate will be required to complete the project. However, the client is able to make as many amendments and changes to the work as the estimated time will allow. Changes required over and above the estimated work will be liable to additional charges. The client also agrees that Animo holds no responsibility for any amendments made by any third-party, before or after any work is made public.

Charges for Other Services

Charges for any additional services over and above the estimated work, will become fully payable (100% of the amount) at the time that the additional work is done.

Third-Party Production Costs

For any projects or tasks where Animo is required to pay and procure third-party services on behalf of the client; 

1. 40% of the total amount estimated to be paid in advance upon approval of the cost estimate or quotation
2. 30% of the total amount estimated to be paid prior to work commencing on the project 
3. 20% to be paid upon completion of the project
4. The final 10% plus/minus any adjustments for scope creep or other additional expenses to be paid before the project assets are released to the client.
   

Payment Procedure

Process, Sign off, Default Payment

Completion of Project

Once a project, or period of work is completed, an invoice will be issued for the remaining balance for that project, or period of work. All payments should be made by bank transfer in Pounds Sterling, using the bank details supplied on the invoice. Cleared funds are to reach our account within 15 days of the invoice date.

Payment Default

An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 15 days from the date of invoice. Animo shall be considered entitled to remove Animo and/or the client’s material from any and all computer systems, until the amount due has been fully paid. This includes any and all unpaid monies due for services, including, but not limited to, hosting, domain registration, search engine submission, design and maintenance, sub-contractors, printers, photographers and libraries. Removal of such materials does not relieve the client of its obligation to pay the due amount. Clients whose accounts become default agree to compensate Animo for time spent in recovering the debt together with all reasonable legal expenses and third party collection agency fees in the enforcement of these Terms and Conditions. Please note that all invoices not settled within our payment terms will be referred to our Debt Recovery Agents, and will be subject to a surcharge of 15% plus VAT in lieu of our recovery charges.

Copyright

Ownership & Licensing

By supplying text, images and other data to Animo for inclusion in any work conducted for the client, the client declares that it holds the appropriate copyright and/or trademark permissions. The ownership of such materials will remain with the client, or rightful copyright or trademark owner.

Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by Animo on behalf of the client, will remain the property of Animo and/or its suppliers. The client may request, in writing, from Animo the necessary permission to use materials (for which Animo holds the copyright) in forms other than for which it was originally supplied, and Animo may, at its discretion, grant this. Such permission must be obtained in writing before it will allow any of the aforesaid artwork, images, text, or other data to be used.

By supplying images, text, or any other data to Animo, the client grants Animo permission to use this material freely in the pursuit of delivering the work. Should Animo, or the client supply an image, text, audio clip or any other file for use in a website, multimedia presentation, print item, exhibition, advertisement or any other medium believing it to be copyright and royalty-free, which subsequently emerges to have such copyright or royalty usage limitations, the client will agree to allow Animo to remove and/or replace the file on the site. The client agrees to fully indemnify and hold Animo free from harm in any and all claims resulting from the client in not having obtained all the required copyright, and/or any other necessary permissions.

Copyright is retained by Animo on all work including words, pictures, ideas, visuals and illustrations unless specifically released in writing and after all costs have been settled. If a choice of design is presented, only one solution is deemed to be given by Animo as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of Animo, unless agreed in writing that this arrangement has been changed.

Any design, copy, drawing, idea or code created for the client by Animo, or any of its contractors, is licensed for use by the client on a one-time only basis and may not be modified, re-used, or redistributed in any way or form without the express written consent of Animo and any of its relevant sub-contractors.

All work – where there is a risk that another party may make a claim, should be registered by the client with the appropriate authorities prior to publishing or first use or searches and legal advice sought as to its use. Animo will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from such claims. Animo is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss, non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. The client agrees not to hold Animo responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Animo shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the client.

Design Process

Timescales, Completion & Cancellation

Any indication of a project’s duration, as determined by Animo, is to be considered by the client to be an estimation. Animo cannot be held responsible for any project overrunning, whatever the cause.

Estimated project duration should be deemed to be from the date that written approval for commencing work is received by Animo from the client. 

Animo reserves the right to invoice for the full amount of the project if requested information from the client is not forthcoming after 30 days of request or within the estimated finish date outlined in the brief.

Animo considers the project complete upon receipt of the client’s signed Approval form or email sign off. Other services such as printing, display panel production, film work, website uploading, publishing etc, contracted on the clients behalf, constitute a separate project and can be treated as a separate charge.

Cancellation of orders may be made initially by telephone contact, or e-mail, however, following this, Animo will need formal notification in writing to the company’s postal address, or the email address of the Animo signatory on your Service Agreement Contract. The client will then be invoiced for all work completed over and above the non-refundable deposit that will have been made at the time of first ordering. The balance of monies due must be paid within 30 days. Please note: any cancellation which is not formally confirmed in writing and received by Animo within 14 days of such instruction being issued, will be liable for the full quoted cost of the project.

Website Social Media & Email

Design, Build, Hosting, Set up & Support

Website Development

Animo requires that a website design is approved by the client before coding or construction of a site commences. Once the design for the website is approved by the client, coding and/or construction will commence. Any changes to navigation items, colours, structure or content that require changes to the design will incur an additional charge. Once the design is complete, Animo will provide the client with the opportunity to review the resulting work on a test site. Animo will make one set of minor changes at no extra cost within 14 days of the start of the review period. Minor changes include minor text changes and small adjustments to placement of items on the page. It does not include changes to images, colour schemes or any navigation features. Any minor changes can be requested from Animo verbally or by e-mail and confirmed in writing. Animo will consider that the client has accepted the original draft, if no notification of changes is received in writing from the client, within 14 days of the start of the review period.

Hosting Websites

Animo offers hosting services through an out-sourced virtual server. Animo does not guarantee continuous service and will accept no liability for loss of service, whatever the cause. Animo may request that clients change the type of hosting account used if that account is deemed by Animo to be unacceptable because of poor service, lack of bandwidth or in any other way insufficient to support the website. Animo are not responsible for the speed or reliability of any site hosted on a third-party hosting package. Fees for hosting on Animo’s virtual server are due at the commencement of any period of service and are non-refundable. Fees due to third-party hosting organisations are the responsibility of the client and Animo are not liable for their payment, nor for the renewal of domain names, which are the sole responsibility of the client / domain owner. The annual hosting charge is non-refundable

Failure to pay for annual hosting within our 15-day terms will result in the websites and emails being suspended and taken off the server. Please let Animo know if you wish to move to another hosting provider in writing. If you wish to take a copy of your site please request at time of move, or we will delete all files from our server in line with current Data Protection laws. There will be an administration fee for this service – quotes on request.

Domain Registration

Animo cannot guarantee the availability of any domain name. Where Animo is to register a domain name on behalf of a client, it will endeavour to do so, but the client should not assume a successful registration.

Search Engine Optimisation

Due to the infinite number of considerations that search engines use when determining a site’s ranking, Animo cannot guarantee any particular placement. Acceptance by any search engine cannot be guaranteed and when a site is accepted, the time it takes to appear in search results varies from one search engine to another. Ranking will also vary as new sites are added. Animo recommends that clients use a professional SEO company and are happy to provide details of such companies, but accept no responsibility for their services.

Design Credits

The client agrees to allow Animo to place a small credit on printed material, exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to Animo's own website on the client’s website. This will usually be in the form of a small logo or line of text placed towards the bottom of the page. The client also agrees to allow Animo to place websites and other designs, along with a link to the client’s site on Animo's own website for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios.

E-commerce Websites

Unless otherwise stated, Animo does not manage or set up the e-commerce intricacies such as tax, postage, or stock levels. Any loss of money is not the responsibility of Animo. Where applicable, Animo will set up the payment gateway but maintenance and testing of such is the responsibility of the client.

Third-Party APIs

Certain website functions offered by Animo, such as social media feeds, photo galleries, audio & video pages may require specific additional third-party software (called ‘plugins’). You may have such software already installed onto your website. Some software companies or developers also offer versions of their plugins that require payment, and the client may choose to licence paid-for software from a third-party. Any such purchase will not be paid for by Animo, neither do we guarantee the compatibility and functionality of such a plugin. Any paid plugins hosted by Animo must be accompanied with a verifiable licence and installed by an Animo project manager. Although Animo uses third-party plugins in order to provide the best possible web service, we do not guarantee that the third-party plugins will be updated by the third-party companies, nor do we have the right to change, alter or customise third-party software. Animo is not responsible for the maintenance of the third-party plugins unless otherwise stated. Should the third-party API stop working, a cost will be incurred to replace or fix this issue.

Maintenance

Unless the client has opted for a website maintenance package with Animo, Animo will not be liable for any later failing of the website. This includes, but is not limited to; WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Duda updates; incompatibility with APIs; loss of data or files; restoration or backing up of files; loss of functionality due to degradation etc. Please ask about our support packages for further options.

Hosting on a Third-Party Server

Should you decide to host your website with another provider, Animo will not be held responsible for any downtime, speed concerns, incompatibility or other issues. Should you require full admin rights to the website giving you access to add third-party plugins, amend code or change the fundamental structure of the website, Animo will not be held responsible should the website fail.

Passwords

The client will also be provided with passwords for web editing, social media, analytics and email etc. Due to data security, we do not hold onto the passwords. Retrieval by Animo will incur a charge for password reset.

Supported Technologies

Animo aims to develop products that are fully functional on commonly used browsers, operating systems and hardware. Our products are designed to take advantage of the latest technologies in order to give the end user the best possible experience. Users with access to the latest technologies will always receive the best possible experience, whilst users on older, supported technologies, may receive a simplified, but usable experience that degrades gracefully from the full experience, based on the capabilities of their device and software. Animo aims to build their products in such a way as to be useable on legacy software and hardware that is no longer officially supported by the developer or manufacturer, however, Animo cannot guarantee the compatibility of their products with legacy technologies, unless the requirement to support the platform in question has been outlined as part of the system’s requirements. Whilst Animo endeavours to make all of their products future-proof, it is not always possible to foresee requirements of future technologies. The implementation and functions of a third-party integration such as a social media feed are also subject to change. Animo can take no responsibility for changes to a third-party application. Websites are designed and built with responsiveness in mind, unless otherwise stated. Websites will collapse in size, from full desktop resolution, down to the resolution of a common smartphone. Whilst Animo aims for their websites to be accessible at all common screen resolutions, websites may display differently on some devices. The features and design of a website are subject to change at different screen resolutions, depending on available screen space and device capabilities. An up-to-date list of supported hardware, operating systems and browsers can be provided upon request at the start of a project. At this stage, any legacy support that is required should be communicated, so as to be considered throughout the product’s development.

Email Set up & Hosting

Hosting can include up to 10 email addresses with up to 500mb (further mailboxes and mailbox sizes are available at an additional cost). We will provide the information to use email accounts for webmail access and general information for email clients and devices. Animo does not offer set up of email accounts on any device as standard. Please inquire as to the additional cost of this service. The annual hosting charge is non-refundable.

Email support & Loss of Data

Animo does not offer email support as standard. As many issues with email are due to the email client (Outlook, Windows Mail, Mac Mail etc), we cannot be held responsible for such email issues. We will always refer to the Webmail access to ensure the issue is not a server problem. Email support is a chargeable cost should it be requested.

Supply of files – Google Drive

All completed high res files are usually collated and sent via Google Drive unless an alternative is requested. The files are kept on Google Drive for two weeks for the client to download and save to their own system (unless otherwise agreed). If files have not been downloaded within that timeframe and the Google Drive link has expired, file retrieval by Animo will incur a charge.

Charges for design work do not cover the release of copyright design files including indd, psd, ai or any other source files. If the Client requires these files, they will be subject to a separate quotation or ‘buy-out’ charge.

Animo is not responsible for any issues that may occur as the result of the addition of files and/or data that are provided by a client or a third-party. The client takes full responsibility for all files and data that are not produced by Animo, or any files or data that are modified by anyone other than Animo. This is inclusive of both changes implemented by a third-party, and any addition of third-party files or data that has been implemented by Animo at the request of the client.

Server Security – FTP, Passwords

The Web Site Owner and Third-Party Technicians agree to the following terms:-

• Not to share the FTP details with any parties other than those governed by these Terms and Conditions.
• To keep the details and passwords of any information provided secure.
• To keep the details and passwords of any information provided confidential.
• That, by accessing the website by FTP and modifying any parts of the website, the warranty on the parts being modified or any parts linked to them will be voided.
• That if any parts of the website are broken or should assistance be required in repairing, troubleshooting or modifying these elements subsequent to you using FTP, that we reserve the right to charge the web site owner our hourly rate for the time taken in doing this. Should we need to do this we shall confirm this with the web site owner in advance.
• Not to copy, duplicate, sell, distribute, or reverse engineer any code and respect all Intellectual Property Rights of the Provider, it’s developers, suppliers, and any other third parties who have provided components that run the web site. The web site owner agrees to indemnify the Provider against any expenses, losses or damages arising as a result of any claim that any Intellectual Property Rights have been breached.
• That the computer(s) that will be accessing the website are free of viruses and have up to date anti-virus protection installed.
• To not upload any viruses, Trojans, malware, spyware or any other kind of malicious software to the website via FTP or any other means.
  

General

Acceptance of terms

These Terms and Conditions supersede any previous Terms and Conditions distributed in any form. Animo reserves the right to change any rates and any of the Terms and Conditions at any time and without prior notice.

The placement of an order for work and/or any other services offered by Animo verbally, in writing (email or letter) is deemed to be acceptance of these Terms and Conditions, which are freely available at www.madebyanimo.com/terms. 

Disclaimer

Animo makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. Animo will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. Animo is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss of data, or non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause, including changes of API’s (application programming interface), plug-ins and integrated feeds from third-parties. While we take reasonable steps to investigate the materials we recommend, we accept no responsibility for the performance or quality of materials or any consequential loss arising from their failure. The client agrees not to hold Animo responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Animo shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the client  for the singular project that the claim relates to. Animo reserves the right to use the services of sub-contractors, agents and suppliers and any work, content, services and usage is bound by their Terms and Conditions. Animo will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these and the client also agrees to be so bound. Animo and its clients agree to comply with Printers Terms and Conditions which include disclaimers for non-completion on time and the flexibility to supply quantities within 10% of the total ordered. Animo recommends that if an exact quantity is required, then 10% extra is added to the quantity and extra time made available should the job be delayed.

THE ANIMO GROUP LTD. is a company incorporated in England and Wales. You can contact THE ANIMO GROUP LTD. by email on hello@madebyanimo.com 

Last updated

APR 2022