Terms of service

These terms are the agreement between you and Craig Ormston trading as Blockout Digital (“we”, “us”) for SoloWork: the Windows application, this website, and the account that holds your licence. By creating an account or installing the app you accept them.

1. Definitions

• The app — the SoloWork desktop application for Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit.
• Your workspace — the folder on your own computer where the app writes your files and its database.
• Your licence — the permission to use the app at a particular plan, held against your account.
• A seat — one computer registered against your licence.

2. Who you are buying from

Payment is handled by Stripe as merchant of record. When you buy a subscription or a Founding licence, the payment contract for that transaction is with Stripe: Stripe takes the money, accounts for and remits any VAT or sales tax, issues the receipt, and processes refunds and chargebacks. Your receipt and card statement will show the sale as made through Onelink.

The software itself, the licence to use it, and support all come from us under these terms. In practice: write to us about anything, including billing — we would rather sort it out than have you work out which company to chase.

3. Are you a consumer or a business?

It matters legally and we would rather be straight about it than let you find out during a dispute. SoloWork is business software sold to sole traders. Somebody buying it for their trade is, in law, usually acting as a trader rather than a consumer — which means the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, including the statutory 14-day cancellation right, may not apply to them.

We do not rely on that. We give every customer the same 14-day right to change their mind, whether or not the law obliges us to, and the same standards of quality and description. The terms are written that way throughout. Where you are a consumer in law, nothing here reduces your statutory rights. See Refunds and cancellation.

4. Your account

One account belongs to one person. You must be at least 18 and able to enter a contract. Keep your password to yourself; you are responsible for what is done through your account. We offer two-step sign-in on your account page and recommend turning it on.

Tell us promptly if you think somebody else has your credentials, and we will help you close it off.

5. Plans, seats and what they include

Prices below are what you pay. Plans and their limits are as described on the pricing page, which is part of these terms.

• Free — free, one Windows computer, and capped at 3 clients, 3 projects and 3 invoices a month.
• Basic+ — £9.99 a month or £89 a year, 2 Windows computers.
• Pro — £19.99 a month or £169 a year, 2 Windows computers plus one phone once a mobile app exists.
• Founding Lifetime — £99 once, Pro permanently, limited to the first 200 sold. See section 8.

Seats are counted per platform rather than as a single total, so a phone never uses up a computer’s place. You can release a computer from your account page at any time, and a computer that has not checked in for 90 days releases its own seat automatically — which is what covers a machine that was lost, wiped or sold.

The licence is personal, non-exclusive and non-transferable. You may not resell it, rent it out, or share your credentials.

6. The free trial

New accounts get 7 days of Pro with no card required. Nothing is charged and nothing renews into a paid plan by itself — there is no card on file to charge. When the trial ends the account moves to Free and its limits apply to adding new records. Everything already created stays, opens and exports as before.

Buying a plan during the trial ends the trial immediately and starts the paid plan from that moment; you are not charged twice and the remaining trial days are not deducted from what you buy.

7. What happens when a subscription ends

This is the section worth reading, and it is deliberately generous. It is also an accurate description of what the software does rather than a promise about intent.

If you cancel, or a payment finally fails, the app keeps working at the plan you paid for — permanently. Pro stays Pro. Basic+ stays Basic+. Every feature you were paying for continues to function, on every computer already activated, for as long as you use it. What stops is new versions: the copy you have is the copy you keep.

Nothing is deleted, locked, watermarked or degraded, and no file is held back. That is possible because your work was never ours to withhold — it is in a folder on your own machine, as ordinary files and one SQLite database. Uninstalling the app does not touch it. If this business disappeared tomorrow, everything you had made would still open.

There are two exceptions, and only two. A licence obtained fraudulently, refunded, or charged back may be withdrawn, in which case the app returns to its sign-in screen. And a payment that has merely failed — an expired card — keeps everything running through the retry window while we ask you to update it; nothing is lost while that is going on.

Even then, your files remain on your disk, untouched and readable without us.

8. The Founding licence

£99 paid once grants a perpetual Pro licence: no renewal, no expiry, and continued access to new versions. It is limited to the first 200 sold and will not be offered again once they are gone. If a technical race means a small number are sold beyond that figure, those purchases are honoured rather than refunded.

A perpetual licence is not a promise that the app will be developed forever. It is a promise that what you bought will keep working and that you will receive whatever we release. If development ever stopped, your copy would continue to run.

9. Updates and support

The app checks for updates and can install them for you. We do not promise a release schedule. Support is by email to support@blockoutdigital.com, usually answered within a working day, and is included at every paid plan.

10. Your work, and backups

Your workspace is yours. We claim no ownership of anything you create with the app and we hold no copy of it.

Backing it up is your responsibility. There is no cloud copy to restore from, because there is no cloud copy at all — that is the point of the product, and it is the trade it asks you to accept. The folder is ordinary files, so a backup is a copy-and-paste or any backup tool you already use.

11. What we ask of you

• Do not circumvent licensing, or use the app without a valid licence.
• Do not decompile or reverse-engineer the software, except to the extent the law expressly allows regardless of contract.
• Do not use it for anything unlawful.
• Do not attack, overload or probe the licence server or this website.

12. Suspension and termination

You may stop at any time: cancel from your account page, or close the account by writing to us. We may suspend or withdraw a licence where payment is reversed, where these terms are seriously or repeatedly broken, or where we are required to by law. We will tell you why, in writing, and the app returns to its sign-in screen rather than deleting anything.

13. Availability

The licence server is not needed for day-to-day work. If it cannot be reached the app treats that as being offline and carries on for two weeks before mentioning it, and longer still without stopping you working. We do not offer a service level and do not need to: an outage on our side should never prevent you opening your own records.

14. Changes to these terms, plans and prices

We may change these terms, what a plan includes, or the price. Material changes and any price rise affecting an existing subscription will be sent to you by email at least 30 days before they take effect, and you can cancel before then. Continuing to use the app after a change takes effect means accepting it.

A Founding licence is not subject to price changes. It has already been paid for in full.

15. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Nothing affects the statutory rights of a customer who is a consumer.

Subject to that, and to the extent the law allows: we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of anticipated savings, or for any loss of data where you have not kept a backup; and our total liability arising out of or in connection with these terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or £99.

The app is a tool for keeping your own records. It is not accounting or tax advice, and figures it produces — including anything to do with VAT, tax set-aside or a year-end pack — are for your own use and your accountant’s. Responsibility for what you file remains yours.

16. General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Not enforcing something is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours if the business is sold, and will tell you if that happens. These terms, the pricing page and the privacy and refunds pages are the whole agreement between us. Neither of us is liable for a failure caused by something genuinely outside our control.

17. Complaints and law

Complain by email to support@blockoutdigital.com. We aim to reply within five working days and to resolve matters without anybody needing a solicitor.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the UK, you may also bring proceedings in your own courts.

18. Contact

Craig Ormston trading as Blockout Digital
Heron House, Nuneaton, CV11 4GR, United Kingdom
support@blockoutdigital.com